Low Description
From http://www.mail-archive.com/user@cassandra.apache.org/msg20757.html
CompactionTask.execute() checks if there is a valid compactionFileLocation only if partialCompactionsAcceptable() . upgradesstables results in a CompactionTask with userdefined set, so the valid location check is not performed.
The result is a NPE, partial stack
$ nodetool -h localhost upgradesstables Error occured while upgrading the sstables for keyspace MyKeySpace java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: java.lang.NullPointerException at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:222) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:83) at org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager.performAllSSTableOperation(CompactionManager.java:203) at org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager.performSSTableRewrite(CompactionManager.java:219) at org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore.sstablesRewrite(ColumnFamilyStore.java:995) at org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.upgradeSSTables(StorageService.java:1648) <snip> Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at java.io.File.<init>(File.java:222) at org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore.getTempSSTablePath(ColumnFamilyStore.java:641) at org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore.getTempSSTablePath(ColumnFamilyStore.java:652) at org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore.createCompactionWriter(ColumnFamilyStore.java:1888) at org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionTask.execute(CompactionTask.java:151) at org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager$4.perform(CompactionManager.java:229) at org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager$2.call(CompactionManager.java:182) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
(night time here, will fix tomorrow, anyone else feel free to fix it.)