# connection failed in ReadOnly operational mode **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [October 26, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/connection-failed-in-readonly-operational-mode/22666 "2026-10-26T16:34:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dharanish](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/dharanish/32/659_2.png) [@Dharanish](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Dharanish)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/connection-failed-in-readonly-operational-mode/22666/1 "2026-10-26T16:34:15Z")
### Description I set OPERATIONAL\_MODE: ‘_ReadOnly_’ and started server . Then tried to connect to python client raise **WeaviateGRPCUnavailableError**. ### Server Setup Information - Weaviate Server Version: 1.39.12 - Deployment Method: docker - Multi Node? Number of Running Nodes: 3 - Client Language and Version: python , 4.23.1 - Multitenancy?: None **Docker config (node1 only)** weaviate-node-1: init: true command: - --host - 0.0.0.0 - --port - ‘8080’ - --scheme - http image: weaviate:1.39.12 ports: - 8080:8080 - 50051:50051 restart: on-failure:0 volumes: - ./data-node-1:/var/lib/weaviate environment: LOG\_LEVEL: ‘debug’ QUERY\_DEFAULTS\_LIMIT: 25 AUTHENTICATION\_ANONYMOUS\_ACCESS\_ENABLED: ‘true’ PERSISTENCE\_DATA\_PATH: ‘/var/lib/weaviate’ CLUSTER\_HOSTNAME: ‘node1’ CLUSTER\_GOSSIP\_BIND\_PORT: ‘7100’ CLUSTER\_DATA\_BIND\_PORT: ‘7101’ RAFT\_JOIN: ‘node1,node2,node3’ RAFT\_BOOTSTRAP\_EXPECT: 3 OPERATIONAL\_MODE : ‘ReadOnly’ AUTHENTICATION\_APIKEY\_ENABLED : ‘false’ **Error logs** ```auto Traceback (most recent call last): File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/v4.py", line 313, in _ping_grpc res = self._grpc_channel.unary_unary( ...<2 lines>... response_deserializer=health_weaviate_pb2.WeaviateHealthCheckResponse.FromString, )(health_weaviate_pb2.WeaviateHealthCheckRequest(), timeout=self.timeout_config.init) File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/grpc/_channel.py", line 1159, in __call__ return _end_unary_response_blocking(state, call, False, None) File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/grpc/_channel.py", line 990, in _end_unary_response_blocking raise _InactiveRpcError(state) # pytype: disable=not-instantiable ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ grpc._channel._InactiveRpcError: <_InactiveRpcError of RPC that terminated with: status = StatusCode.UNAVAILABLE details = "read-only mode is enabled temporally at the config level: write operations are not allowed during this time" debug_error_string = "UNKNOWN:Error received from peer {grpc_message:"read-only mode is enabled temporally at the config level: write operations are not allowed during this time", grpc_status:14}" > The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/dharan-19096/StudioProjects/warrsaou/script.py", line 3, in client = weaviate.connect_to_custom( http_host="localhost", ...<6 lines>... skip_init_checks=False ) File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/helpers.py", line 347, in connect_to_custom return __connect( WeaviateClient( ...<12 lines>... ) ) File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/helpers.py", line 371, in __connect raise e File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/helpers.py", line 367, in __connect client.connect() ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^^ File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/client_executor.py", line 152, in connect return executor.execute( ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^ response_callback=lambda _: None, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ method=self._connection.connect, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ) ^ File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/executor.py", line 99, in execute return cast(T, exception_callback(e)) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^^^ File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/executor.py", line 38, in raise_exception raise e File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/executor.py", line 80, in execute call = method(*args, **kwargs) File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/v4.py", line 947, in connect raise e File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/v4.py", line 943, in connect executor.result(self._ping_grpc("sync")) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^^^^^^^^ File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/v4.py", line 335, in _ping_grpc self.__handle_ping_exception(e) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^^^ File "/opt/miniconda3/envs/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/weaviate/connect/v4.py", line 346, in __handle_ping_exception raise WeaviateGRPCUnavailableError( f"v{self.server_version}", self._connection_params._grpc_address ) from e weaviate.exceptions.WeaviateGRPCUnavailableError: Weaviate v1.39.12 makes use of a high-speed gRPC API as well as a REST API. Unfortunately, the gRPC health check against Weaviate could not be completed. This error could be due to one of several reasons: - The gRPC traffic at the specified port is blocked by a firewall. - gRPC is not enabled or incorrectly configured on the server or the client. - Please check that the server address and port (localhost:50051) are correct. - your connection is unstable or has a high latency. In this case you can: - increase init-timeout in `weaviate.connect_to_local(additional_config=wvc.init.AdditionalConfig(timeout=wvc.init.Timeout(init=X)))` - disable startup checks by connecting using `skip_init_checks=True` ``` **Additional** Setting > skip\_init\_checks=True in client resolves the connection failure but it look like a workaround not a solution.