# Getting a null\_pointer\_exception when executing a distributed multi-term vector query
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [March 6, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606 "2016-03-06T20:26:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crjackso](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/crjackso)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/1 "2016-03-06T20:26:18Z")
I'm running the following query on a 3-node ES cluster running ES 2.2.0 on Microsoft Azure. When _dfs_ is set to _true_, I get a null\_pointer\_description (demonstrated below). However, if I set _dfs_ to _false_, I get term vectors. I'd really like to set _dfs_ to _true_ because I'd like to get term statistics for the entire index.
My next step is to try to make sense of the logs on the Azure boxes, but I figured I'd post this question in the meantime in case anything obvious stands out to anybody.
Thanks for your help!
POST [http://url/my\_index/my\_type/\_mtermvectors](http://url/my_index/my_type/_mtermvectors)
BODY:
```javascript
{
"ids" : ["AVM0c1e8FqhBZ7YfiHM8"],
"parameters": {
"fields": ["LongDescription"],
"term_statistics": true,
"field_statistics": true,
"dfs": true
}
}
```
The response I'm getting is:
```javascript
{
"docs": [
{
"_index": "my_index",
"_type": "my_type",
"_id": "AVM0c1e8FqhBZ7YfiHM8",
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "exception",
"reason": "failed to execute term vector request"
}
],
"type": "exception",
"reason": "failed to execute term vector request",
"caused_by": {
"type": "null_pointer_exception",
"reason": null
}
}
}
]
}
```
---
### Author:  [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2016, 10:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/2 "2016-03-08T10:21:46Z")
Do you happen to have a stack trace in the logs?
---
### Author:  [@crjackso](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/crjackso)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/3 "2016-03-08T16:21:46Z")
Here's what I was able to pull from the logs:
nested: TooManyClauses[maxClauseCount is set to 1024];
at org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService.parseSource(SearchService.java:853)
at org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService.createContext(SearchService.java:652)
at org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService.createAndPutContext(SearchService.java:618)
at org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService.executeDfsPhase(SearchService.java:263)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.dfs.TransportDfsOnlyAction.shardOperation(TransportDfsOnlyAction.java:131)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.dfs.TransportDfsOnlyAction.shardOperation(TransportDfsOnlyAction.java:54)
at org.elasticsearch.action.support.broadcast.TransportBroadcastAction$ShardTransportHandler.messageReceived(TransportBroadcastAction.java:268)
at org.elasticsearch.action.support.broadcast.TransportBroadcastAction$ShardTransportHandler.messageReceived(TransportBroadcastAction.java:264)
at org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService$4.doRun(TransportService.java:350)
at org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.AbstractRunnable.run(AbstractRunnable.java:37)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanQuery$TooManyClauses: maxClauseCount is set to 1024
at org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanQuery$Builder.add(BooleanQuery.java:136)
at org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanQuery$Builder.add(BooleanQuery.java:124)
at org.elasticsearch.index.query.BoolQueryParser.parse(BoolQueryParser.java:167)
at org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryParseContext.parseInnerQuery(QueryParseContext.java:256)
at org.elasticsearch.index.query.IndexQueryParserService.innerParse(IndexQueryParserService.java:303)
at org.elasticsearch.index.query.IndexQueryParserService.parse(IndexQueryParserService.java:206)
at org.elasticsearch.index.query.IndexQueryParserService.parse(IndexQueryParserService.java:201)
at org.elasticsearch.search.query.QueryParseElement.parse(QueryParseElement.java:33)
at org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService.parseSource(SearchService.java:836)
... 12 more
[2016-03-08 16:16:37,846][DEBUG][action.termvectors] [qwerty-es-kc-c1] [my\_data\_set][0] failed to execute multi term vectors for [document]/[AVM0c1e8FqhBZ7YfiHM8]
ElasticsearchException[failed to execute term vector request]; nested: NullPointerException;
at org.elasticsearch.index.termvectors.ShardTermVectorsService.getTermVectors(ShardTermVectorsService.java:152)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.TransportShardMultiTermsVectorAction.shardOperation(TransportShardMultiTermsVectorAction.java:84)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.TransportShardMultiTermsVectorAction.shardOperation(TransportShardMultiTermsVectorAction.java:40)
at org.elasticsearch.action.support.single.shard.TransportSingleShardAction$ShardTransportHandler.messageReceived(TransportSingleShardAction.java:282)
at org.elasticsearch.action.support.single.shard.TransportSingleShardAction$ShardTransportHandler.messageReceived(TransportSingleShardAction.java:275)
at org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService$4.doRun(TransportService.java:350)
at org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.AbstractRunnable.run(AbstractRunnable.java:37)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.TermVectorsWriter.writeFieldStatistics(TermVectorsWriter.java:265)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.TermVectorsWriter.setFields(TermVectorsWriter.java:86)
at org.elasticsearch.action.termvectors.TermVectorsResponse.setFields(TermVectorsResponse.java:364)
at org.elasticsearch.index.termvectors.ShardTermVectorsService.getTermVectors(ShardTermVectorsService.java:149)
---
### Author:  [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/4 "2016-03-08T17:22:14Z")
This looks like a bug. Could you open a bug at [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch) that links to this discussion? Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@crjackso](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/crjackso)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/5 "2016-03-08T17:39:30Z")
Absolutely. Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@crjackso](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/crjackso)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/6 "2016-03-08T17:45:50Z")
I created a GitHub issue. You can find it [here](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/17014). Thanks again for the help!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-a-null-pointer-exception-when-executing-a-distributed-multi-term-vector-query/43606/7 "2017-07-05T23:10:16Z")