vitessio/vitess · error

validateWorkflowName.VReplicationExec: <dynamic validation.m

Error message

validateWorkflowName.VReplicationExec: <dynamic validation.msg from workflow validation query>

What it means

During workflow-name validation, wrangler ran a validation query against the primary tablet via VReplicationExec and either the query failed or it returned rows, meaning the workflow name/state fails validation. The recorded message wraps either the query error or the dynamic validation.msg describing the problem found. It indicates a workflow in the keyspace does not satisfy the expected invariants (e.g. unexpected state or stale streams).

Source

Thrown at go/vt/wrangler/keyspace.go:85

			validations := []struct {
				query string
				msg   string
			}{{
				fmt.Sprintf("select 1 from _vt.vreplication where db_name=%s and workflow=%s", encodeString(primary.DbName()), encodeString(workflow)),
				fmt.Sprintf("workflow %s already exists in keyspace %s on tablet %d", workflow, keyspace, primary.Alias.Uid),
			}, {
				fmt.Sprintf("select 1 from _vt.vreplication where db_name=%s and message='FROZEN' and workflow_sub_type != %d", encodeString(primary.DbName()), binlogdatapb.VReplicationWorkflowSubType_Partial),
				fmt.Sprintf("found previous frozen workflow on tablet %d, please review and delete it first before creating a new workflow",
					primary.Alias.Uid),
			}}
			for _, validation := range validations {
				p3qr, err := wr.tmc.VReplicationExec(ctx, primary.Tablet, validation.query)
				if err != nil {
					allErrors.RecordError(vterrors.Wrap(err, "validateWorkflowName.VReplicationExec"))
					return
				}
				if p3qr != nil && len(p3qr.Rows) != 0 {
					allErrors.RecordError(vterrors.Wrap(errors.New(validation.msg), "validateWorkflowName.VReplicationExec"))
					return
				}
			}
		}(si)
	}
	wg.Wait()
	return allErrors.AggrError(vterrors.Aggregate)
}

// refreshPrimaryTablets will just RPC-ping all the primary tablets with RefreshState
func (wr *Wrangler) refreshPrimaryTablets(ctx context.Context, shards []*topo.ShardInfo) error {
	wg := sync.WaitGroup{}
	rec := concurrency.AllErrorRecorder{}
	for _, si := range shards {
		wg.Add(1)
		go func(si *topo.ShardInfo) {
			defer wg.Done()
			wr.Logger().Infof("RefreshState primary %v", topoproto.TabletAliasString(si.PrimaryAlias))

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Read the inner validation.msg in the wrapped error to see exactly which query/condition failed
2. Inspect _vt.vreplication rows on the primary tablet (mysql -e 'select * from _vt.vreplication') and remove stale entries
3. Fix the underlying VReplicationExec failure (tablet connectivity, permissions) if the error is a query error
4. Re-run the validation command after cleanup

Example fix

-- inspect and clean stale streams
SELECT workflow, id FROM _vt.vreplication WHERE db_name='vt_ks';
DELETE FROM _vt.vreplication WHERE workflow='<bad>' AND workflow_state='Cancelled';

-- pre-check the primary's vreplication state yourself
SELECT workflow, workflow_state FROM _vt.vreplication WHERE db_name='vt_<ks>';

if err := wr.validateWorkflowName(ctx, keyspace); err != nil {
	var allErr error
	// unwrap to find inner validation.msg or VReplicationExec failure
	log.Printf("workflow validation failed: %v", err)
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling keyspace validation (e.g. vtctldclient ValidateWorkflowName / Keyspace validation paths in wrangler) while a validation.query on the primary tablet returns rows signaling an invalid workflow name condition.

Common situations: Stale or manually created rows in _vt.vreplication conflicting with the workflow name; validation run before/after a partially completed MoveTables; version mismatches where the tablet's schema for _vt tables differs.

Related errors

• either source or target shards are missing
• some streams already exist in the target shards, please clea
• invalid value for on-ddl: %v
• invalid action for Migrate: %s
• VReplication streams must have named workflows for migration

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9a5341925d6fccc2. Report an issue: GitHub.