# Cluster resource messages Messages on this page mean that a Weaviate node asked the operating system for a resource and was refused. The data is intact, but the node cannot open the files it needs until the limit is raised or the load is reduced. If your message is not here, the [message index](errors.md) lists the other groups. ## Not enough memory mappings | | | | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Ids | `core-mem001` | | Raised by | Weaviate Database | | Severity | error | | Impact | A shard refused to open, so its collection or tenant is unavailable for reads and writes. Nothing is corrupted. | | Fix | Raise vm.max\_map\_count on the host and restart the node. | ### What you see In the node's logs, an error ending in `not enough memory mappings`: ```text memory pressure: cannot init shard: not enough memory mappings ``` In the response your client gets when the failure happened inside a request you made (REST shown; gRPC and GraphQL carry the same suffix): ```json {"error":[{"message":"updating db: TYPE_UPDATE_TENANT: memory pressure: cannot init shard: not enough memory mappings (see https://docs.weaviate.io/e/core-mem001)"}]} ``` Which log entry carries it depends on the operation that hit the limit. `` and `` stand for the tenant name and the appended error text: | Log message | `action` field | Level | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------- | | `failed to load shard, loading the rest anyway: ` | `load_shard` | error | | `loading shard "" failed: ` | `tenant_activation_lazy_load_shard` | error | | `failed to reload local index` | (none) | error | | `error updating tenants` | `update_tenants` | error | | `error updating tenants: ` | `update_tenants_process` | error | | `apply command` | (none) | error | | `failure while loading shard: ` (while a replica is moved or copied) | `replication_engine` | error | | `drop-vector: load lazy shard: ` (while a vector index is dropped) | (none) | warning | The exact line varies by operation and version, so search the logs for `not enough memory mappings`: it appears in the message or in a sibling `error` field, depending on the entry. On versions that include this feature, every entry carrying the phrase also carries a `docs_url` field pointing at this page. The failure often shows up next to replication errors such as `broadcast: cannot reach enough replicas`, because the shard those requests needed is the one that did not load. ### Why it happens Every shard memory-maps several files, and the Linux kernel caps how many mappings one process may hold: `vm.max_map_count`. Weaviate reads that cap at startup, budgets 70% of it to leave room for other processes, and refuses to open a shard that would take it past the budget. Refusing early is deliberate: exhausting the kernel limit outright fails unpredictably somewhere else in the process. The usual trigger is scale, not a bug. Distribution defaults were chosen for ordinary workloads, and a node holding thousands of active tenants or collections passes them. ### How to fix it The limit belongs to the host kernel, so where you set it depends on how you run Weaviate. ::::tabs{sync="platform"} :::tab{title="Linux host"} 1. Read the current limit on the node that logged the error. Most distributions ship `65530`: ```bash sysctl vm.max_map_count ``` 2. Raise it. The value is a count, not an amount of memory, so a high value costs nothing on its own. `262144` is the floor other memory-mapped databases ask for; a node holding thousands of active tenants needs a value in the millions, and `4194304` leaves room to grow: ```bash sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=4194304 ``` 3. Make it survive a reboot: ```bash echo "vm.max_map_count=4194304" >> /etc/sysctl.conf ``` 4. Restart the affected node so Weaviate reads the new limit. ::: :::tab{title="Docker"} On Linux, containers share the host kernel, so the limit is the host's to raise: follow the Linux host steps on the machine that runs Docker, then restart the container. Setting it per container does not work — `docker run --sysctl vm.max_map_count=...` is refused, because Docker permits only namespaced sysctls and this one belongs to the whole host. Docker Desktop on Mac and Windows runs containers inside a Linux VM, so the Linux steps on your own machine change the wrong kernel. Set the limit inside the VM instead. On Windows, with the WSL 2 backend: ```bash wsl -d docker-desktop -u root sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=4194304 ``` To make it survive a restart, add this to `%USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig`: ```ini [wsl2] kernelCommandLine = "sysctl.vm.max_map_count=4194304" ``` On macOS, apply it from a privileged container. The setting lasts until Docker Desktop restarts: ```bash docker run --rm --privileged --pid=host alpine nsenter -t 1 -m -u -n -i sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=4194304 ``` Then restart the Weaviate container so Weaviate reads the new limit. ::: :::tab{title="Kubernetes"} The setting belongs to the host kernel, not to the container, so setting it inside an unprivileged pod has no effect. Apply it on every node that can schedule a Weaviate pod, through one of: - the official Helm chart, which already ships a privileged init container, enabled by default, that runs `sysctl -w vm.max_map_count` on the pod's node before Weaviate starts. Its default of `524288` (`initContainers.sysctlVmMaxMapCount`) is well below the value this page recommends, so set `initContainers.sysctlVmMaxMapCount: 4194304` in your values rather than adding infrastructure - your node configuration or image, with `vm.max_map_count=4194304` in `/etc/sysctl.conf` - a `DaemonSet` whose privileged container runs `sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=4194304` on each node - a privileged init container on the Weaviate pod that sets it before Weaviate starts Then restart the affected pod so Weaviate reads the new limit. ::: :::tab{title="Weaviate Cloud"} The host configuration is not yours to change. Open a [support ticket](../support/overview.md) with the message text and your cluster URL. ::: :::: If the limit is already high and the error keeps coming back, the node holds more shards than it was sized for: deactivate or offload tenants that are not in use, or add nodes and rebalance. ### Learn more ::::card-grid :::card{title="Known issue: shard init failure" href="/guides/releases-known-issues#memory-pressure-shard-init-failure" icon="triangle-alert"} ::: :::card{title="Resource planning" href="/guides/concepts-resources" icon="gauge"} ::: :::card{title="Tenant states and offloading" href="/guides/how-to-manage-collections-tenant-states" icon="layers"} ::: :::card{title="Deployment troubleshooting" href="/guides/deploy-faqs-troubleshooting" icon="wrench"} ::: :::card{title="Improve your cluster" href="/guides/errors-improve-your-cluster" icon="list-checks"} ::: :::: ## Questions and feedback Have a question or feedback? Here's how to reach us. ::::card-grid :::card{title="Community Forum" href="https://forum.weaviate.io/c/support" icon="messages-square"} Ask questions and connect with other developers on our **Community forum**. ::: :::card{title="Support" href="/guides/support-overview" icon="life-buoy"} Weaviate Cloud user or customer? Find the right channel on the **Support page**. ::: :::: ## Related pages - [Agents](./agents-index.md) - [AI-assisted Weaviate code generation](./ai-assisted-vibe-coding-index.md) - [APIs](./apis-index.md) - [Authorization and authentication](./authorization-and-authentication-index.md) - [Benchmarks](./benchmarks-index.md) - [Best practices](./best-practices-index.md) - [Client libraries](./clients-index.md) - [Client Libraries / SDKs](./client-libraries-index.md) - [Cloud](./cloud-index.md) - [Cloud account management](./cloud-account-management-index.md) # Agent Instructions This portal answers questions programmatically. To receive a synthesized, source-cited answer instead of crawling page by page, append the `?ask=` query parameter to any page URL on this site: /guides/quickstart?ask=how+do+I+authenticate Optional parameters: - `&goal=` steers the answer toward your objective (e.g. `&goal=write+a+python+client`). - `&version=