Jira (PDB-3311) Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Ryan Senior (JIRA)

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Feb 27, 2017, 3:37:15 PM2/27/17

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Ryan Senior created an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Issue Type:	Task
Assignee:	Unassigned
Created:	2017/02/27 12:36 PM
Labels:	maintenance
Priority:	Normal
Reporter:	Ryan Senior

The error the user current sees in below:

Retrying after attempt 1 for <node>, due to: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: index row size 3368 exceeds maximum 2712 for index "catalog_resources_type_title_idx"

A common issue is using a fact value as the title of a resource, but missing the brackets:

notify { "some text here: $facts['my_fact']": }

The Puppet docs talk about what will happen here. It assumes that the variable ends at the first character not allowed to be in a variable. So in this case it will take the entire set of facts and have them be the value of the title, followed by the ['my_fact'] part. This string is too long for postgres to index it's normal way and will fail. In this example, all the user needs to do wrap the expression in curly braces:

notify { "some text here: ${facts['my_fact']}": }

There are a couple of changes we should make to make diagnosing these issues easier. Today we retry this command over and over even though it will never successfully store. When we catch this exception we should give up on processing it so we don't clutter the long and waste resources. We should also include more information for this specific exception. Useful bits of information are:

File name of the offending resource
Line number of the offending resource
certname
A snippet of the "too long" title (i.e. 250 chars or something) to help users see what the content is

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Ryan Senior (JIRA)

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Mar 8, 2017, 11:56:02 AM3/8/17

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Ryan Senior updated an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Change By:	Ryan Senior
Sprint:	SE 2017-03-22

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Ryan Senior (JIRA)

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Mar 22, 2017, 7:22:02 PM3/22/17

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Ryan Senior updated an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Change By:	Ryan Senior
Sprint:	Hopper

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Ryan Senior (JIRA)

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Mar 22, 2017, 7:22:02 PM3/22/17

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Ryan Senior updated an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Change By:	Ryan Senior
Story Points:	1 2

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Adam Bottchen (JIRA)

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Apr 12, 2017, 6:36:02 PM4/12/17

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Adam Bottchen commented on

PDB-3311

Re: Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Saw this on https://puppetlabs.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/25148. Having the certname, file, and line number would have been easier for the customer to self-diagnose.

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Ryan Senior (JIRA)

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Apr 13, 2017, 9:43:02 AM4/13/17

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Ryan Senior commented on

PDB-3311

Re: Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Adam Bottchen Tim Purkerson You should add votes/watchers for this ticket, I think it'd be useful too.

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Russell Mull (JIRA)

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Jul 24, 2017, 12:31:03 PM7/24/17

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Russell Mull updated an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Change By:	Russell Mull
Sprint:	Hopper

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Owen Rodabaugh (JIRA)

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Nov 16, 2017, 7:31:03 PM11/16/17

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Owen Rodabaugh updated an issue

PuppetDB /

PDB-3311

Improve error message on "index row size" exceptions

Change By:	Owen Rodabaugh
CS Priority:	Normal
CS Impact:	This error is not at all helpful in understanding the underlying cause(puppet code that isn't quite right). Troubleshooting it can be extremely difficult. It can result in performance issues if enough nodes are sending in catalogs with this resource issue. It can also cause exporting of resources to fail for any nodes which have this issue as the catalog never gets into PDB.
CS Severity:	3 - Serious
CS Business Value:	3 - $$$$
CS Frequency:	2 - 5-25% of Customers