Spring Boot Liquibase "Validation Failed" checksum in CI

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

Spring Boot runs Liquibase on startup. A ValidationFailedException means a changeSet recorded in DATABASECHANGELOG was edited after it ran, so its stored MD5 checksum no longer matches the changelog.

What this error means

Startup fails with "liquibase.exception.ValidationFailedException: Validation Failed: 1 changesets check sum" naming a changeSet whose checksum differs.

liquibase.exception.ValidationFailedException: Validation Failed:
     1 changesets check sum
          db/changelog/002-add-status.xml::2::alice was: 8:abc... but is now: 8:def...

Common causes

An executed changeSet was modified

The body of a changeSet already in DATABASECHANGELOG changed, so the recomputed checksum no longer matches the stored one.

A formatting or logic change altered the checksum

Even reformatting SQL inside a ran changeSet changes its MD5, tripping validation on a persistent DB.

How to fix it

Add a new changeSet instead of editing

1. Restore the modified changeSet to its original content.
2. Express the change as a new changeSet with a unique id.
3. Re-run so validation passes.

<changeSet id="3" author="alice">
  <addColumn tableName="orders"><column name="status" type="varchar(32)"/></addColumn>
</changeSet>

Clear checksums only if the change is intentional

When you deliberately changed a changeSet, clear stored checksums so Liquibase recomputes them.

liquibase clearCheckSums

How to prevent it

• Treat executed changeSets as immutable.
• Run Liquibase against a fresh CI database to catch drift early.
• Review changelog diffs so edits to ran changeSets are caught.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Apache Maven guides
• Gradle user manual
• GitHub Actions documentation