# Logstash keeps crashing using the JDBC Plugin

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-keeps-crashing-using-the-jdbc-plugin/106146>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [November 2, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-keeps-crashing-using-the-jdbc-plugin/106146 "2017-11-02T08:56:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bilpor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bilpor/32/24043_2.png) [@bilpor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bilpor)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-keeps-crashing-using-the-jdbc-plugin/106146/1 "2017-11-02T08:56:18Z")

</div>

Hi All,

I have created the following index:

```
put newsindex
{
  "settings" : {
    "number_of_shards":3,
    "number_of_replicas":2
  },
  "mappings" : {
    "news": {
      "properties": {
        "data": {
          "type": "text"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

In my logstash.conf file I have declared:

```
input {
  jdbc {
    jdbc_driver_library => "C:\Program Files\Microsoft JDBC DRIVER 6.2 for SQL Server\sqljdbc_6.2\enu\mssql-jdbc-6.2.1.jre8"
    jdbc_driver_class => "com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver"
    jdbc_connection_string => "jdbc:sqlserver://TST-DBS-20;user=Elasticsearch;password=elastic123;"
    jdbc_user => "Elasticsearch"
    statement => "SELECT NewsID, HeadLine, BodyText, DateSubmitted, Approved, UserName, Type, Caption, Author, Contact, StaffID, SocialClubRegionID, DateCreated, CreatedBy, LastModifiedDate, ModifiedBy
FROM [News].[dbo].[News] order by NewsID"
  }
}
filter {
}
output {
  elasticsearch {
    hosts => ["tst-sch-20:9200"]
    index => "newsindex"
    document_id => "%{NewsID}"
    user => "elastic"
    password => elastic123
  }
  stdout { codec => json }
}

```

After running the above I only have 1 record in my index. When I go to the elasticsearch log I have lots of stuff in there, but one thing I've found is:

> java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: name cannot be empty string  
> at org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ObjectMapper.(ObjectMapper.java:326)

all the database table columns are nullable except for NewsID being the primary key and as such some of the columns are null. Interestingly, I dont have anything called specifically 'Name'. The logstash logs give more info and suggests that my type column cant be null, how do I handle Nulls in the conversion process?

in the Logstash Logs I have:

> [2017-11-02T08:37:42,489][WARN][logstash.outputs.elasticsearch] Could not index event to Elasticsearch. {:status=\>400, :action=\>["index", {:\_id=\>"%{NewsID}", :\_index=\>"newsindex", :\_type=\>"", :\_routing=\>nil}, 2017-11-02T08:37:40.223Z %{host} %{message}], :response=\>{"index"=\>{"\_index"=\>"newsindex", "\_type"=\>"", "\_id"=\>"%{NewsID}", "status"=\>400, "error"=\>{"type"=\>"illegal\_argument\_exception", "reason"=\>"name cannot be empty string"}}}}

I have changed the select statement wrapping each column in an IsNull(xxxxx,'') style synatax and still receive the same error. I guess because NULL is not an empty string, but elasticsearch should be able to handle an empty string, so too should logstash.

interstingly when I use Kibana and perform a query match\_all against the index, in the output window for the 1 record that has been placed in the index I can see things like `caption = ""` for those that could be empty. so it looks as though empty strings can be saved. what is going on totally confused.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bilpor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bilpor/32/24043_2.png) [@bilpor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bilpor)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-keeps-crashing-using-the-jdbc-plugin/106146/2 "2017-11-02T15:56:21Z")

</div>

I needed to add the following to the jdbc input:

> use\_column\_value =\> true  
> tracking\_column =\> "NewsID"

Additionally all the columns that could have an empty string needed to be changed to be in the following form on my SQL Statement:

> NULLIF(UserName,'') as UserName

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-keeps-crashing-using-the-jdbc-plugin/106146/3 "2017-11-30T15:56:22Z")

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