gRPC 14 UNAVAILABLE vs 15 DATA_LOSS
Both gRPC 14 (UNAVAILABLE) and 15 (DATA_LOSS) belong to the gRPC Status Codes category. 14 indicates that the service is currently unavailable. This is most likely a transient condition, which can be corrected by retrying with a backoff. Meanwhile, 15 means that unrecoverable data loss or corruption has occurred.
Description
The service is currently unavailable. This is most likely a transient condition, which can be corrected by retrying with a backoff.
When You See It
The server is overloaded, shutting down, or a network partition occurred. This is the most common code to retry on, as it's explicitly transient.
How to Fix
Retry with exponential backoff. If persistent, check the server health, load balancer configuration, and network connectivity between client and server.
Description
Unrecoverable data loss or corruption has occurred.
When You See It
Critical data was lost or corrupted — for example, a checksum mismatch during transmission or an unrecoverable storage failure on the server.
How to Fix
Investigate the data integrity failure immediately. Restore from backups if available, and check for hardware failures or network corruption in the data path.
Key Differences
gRPC 14: The service is currently unavailable. This is most likely a transient condition, which can be corrected by retrying with a backoff.
gRPC 15: Unrecoverable data loss or corruption has occurred.
You encounter 14 when the server is overloaded, shutting down, or a network partition occurred. This is the most common code to retry on, as it's explicitly transient.
You encounter 15 when critical data was lost or corrupted — for example, a checksum mismatch during transmission or an unrecoverable storage failure on the server.
When to Use Which
For 14 (UNAVAILABLE): Retry with exponential backoff. If persistent, check the server health, load balancer configuration, and network connectivity between client and server. For 15 (DATA_LOSS): Investigate the data integrity failure immediately. Restore from backups if available, and check for hardware failures or network corruption in the data path.