[java-spanner] `.setBuiltInMetricsEnabled(false)` simply has no effect

[kberezin-nshl]

Startup logs:

2026-02-15 13:04:33.932 CET
SpannerClient is getting created...
Feb 15, 2026 12:04:34 PM com.google.cloud.grpc.GcpManagedChannel initMetrics
INFO: pool-1: OpenTelemetry meter detected. Using OpenTelemetry metrics.
Feb 15, 2026 12:04:34 PM com.google.cloud.grpc.GcpManagedChannel initMetrics
INFO: pool-2: OpenTelemetry meter detected. Using OpenTelemetry metrics.
Feb 15, 2026 12:04:35 PM com.google.cloud.grpc.GcpManagedChannel initMetrics
INFO: pool-3: OpenTelemetry meter detected. Using OpenTelemetry metrics.
Feb 15, 2026 12:04:35 PM com.google.cloud.spanner.SpannerImpl logSpannerOptions
INFO: Spanner options:
Project ID: <REDACTED>
Host: https://spanner.googleapis.com
Num gRPC channels: 8
Leader aware routing enabled: true
Direct access enabled: false
Active Tracing Framework: OPEN_CENSUS
API tracing enabled: false
Extended tracing enabled: false
End to end tracing enabled: false
Built-in metrics enabled: false
Feb 15, 2026 12:04:35 PM com.google.cloud.spanner.SpannerImpl logSpannerOptions
INFO: Session pool options (deprecated, no longer used):
Session pool min sessions: 100
Session pool max sessions: 400
Multiplexed sessions enabled: true
Multiplexed sessions enabled for RW: true
Multiplexed sessions enabled for blind write: true
Multiplexed sessions enabled for partitioned ops: true
SpannerClient was created. Took 1.133 s

Approximately 5-10 seconds later:

INFO - 2026-02-15 13:07:05.746 CET - Feb 15, 2026 12:07:03 PM com.google.cloud.spanner.SpannerCloudMonitoringExporter$1 onFailure
INFO - 2026-02-15 13:07:05.746 CET - WARNING: createServiceTimeSeries request failed for spanner metrics. Need monitoring metric writer permission on project=<REDACTED>. Follow https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/view-manage-client-side-metrics#access-client-side-metrics to set up permissions
ERROR - 2026-02-15 13:07:05.746 CET - com.google.api.gax.rpc.PermissionDeniedException: io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException: PERMISSION_DENIED: Permission monitoring.timeSeries.create denied (or the resource may not exist).

Environment details

1. Spanner Java lib 6.105
2. OS type and version: Mac OS X 26.2
3. Java version: 25

Steps to reproduce

setBuiltInMetricsEnabled() simply has no effect.
Create the client within a project without time series permission and observe the same result

Code example

This is the only place in the code where SpannerOptions is created.

              var optionsBuilder =
                  SpannerOptions.newBuilder()
                      .setProjectId(config.getInfraProjectId())
                      .setBuiltInMetricsEnabled(false);

Stack trace

com.google.api.gax.rpc.PermissionDeniedException: io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException: PERMISSION_DENIED: Permission monitoring.timeSeries.create denied (or the resource may not exist).
	at com.google.api.gax.rpc.ApiExceptionFactory.createException(ApiExceptionFactory.java:98)
	at com.google.api.gax.rpc.ApiExceptionFactory.createException(ApiExceptionFactory.java:41)
	at com.google.api.gax.grpc.GrpcApiExceptionFactory.create(GrpcApiExceptionFactory.java:86)
	at com.google.api.gax.grpc.GrpcApiExceptionFactory.create(GrpcApiExceptionFactory.java:66)
	at com.google.api.gax.grpc.GrpcExceptionCallable$ExceptionTransformingFuture.onFailure(GrpcExceptionCallable.java:97)
	at com.google.api.core.ApiFutures$1.onFailure(ApiFutures.java:84)
	at com.google.common.util.concurrent.Futures$CallbackListener.run(Futures.java:1125)
	at com.google.common.util.concurrent.DirectExecutor.execute(DirectExecutor.java:30)
	at com.google.common.util.concurrent.AbstractFuture.executeListener(AbstractFuture.java:1004)
	at com.google.common.util.concurrent.AbstractFuture.complete(AbstractFuture.java:767)
	at com.google.common.util.concurrent.AbstractFuture.setException(AbstractFuture.java:516)
	at io.grpc.stub.ClientCalls$GrpcFuture.setException(ClientCalls.java:668)
	at io.grpc.stub.ClientCalls$UnaryStreamToFuture.onClose(ClientCalls.java:638)
	at io.grpc.PartialForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(PartialForwardingClientCallListener.java:39)
	at io.grpc.ForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(ForwardingClientCallListener.java:23)
	at io.grpc.ForwardingClientCallListener$SimpleForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(ForwardingClientCallListener.java:40)
	at com.google.api.gax.grpc.ChannelPool$ReleasingClientCall$1.onClose(ChannelPool.java:602)
	at io.grpc.PartialForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(PartialForwardingClientCallListener.java:39)
	at io.grpc.ForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(ForwardingClientCallListener.java:23)
	at io.grpc.ForwardingClientCallListener$SimpleForwardingClientCallListener.onClose(ForwardingClientCallListener.java:40)
	at com.google.api.gax.grpc.GrpcLoggingInterceptor$1$1.onClose(GrpcLoggingInterceptor.java:98)
	at io.grpc.internal.DelayedClientCall$DelayedListener$3.run(DelayedClientCall.java:500)
	at io.grpc.internal.DelayedClientCall$DelayedListener.delayOrExecute(DelayedClientCall.java:464)
	at io.grpc.internal.DelayedClientCall$DelayedListener.onClose(DelayedClientCall.java:497)
	at io.grpc.internal.ClientCallImpl.closeObserver(ClientCallImpl.java:566)
	at io.grpc.internal.ClientCallImpl.access$100(ClientCallImpl.java:72)
	at io.grpc.internal.ClientCallImpl$ClientStreamListenerImpl$1StreamClosed.runInternal(ClientCallImpl.java:734)
	at io.grpc.internal.ClientCallImpl$ClientStreamListenerImpl$1StreamClosed.runInContext(ClientCallImpl.java:715)
	at io.grpc.internal.ContextRunnable.run(ContextRunnable.java:37)
	at io.grpc.internal.SerializingExecutor.run(SerializingExecutor.java:133)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: io.grpc.StatusRuntimeException: PERMISSION_DENIED: Permission monitoring.timeSeries.create denied (or the resource may not exist).
	at io.grpc.Status.asRuntimeException(Status.java:532)
	... 21 more

External references such as API reference guides

• ?

Any additional information below

Following these steps guarantees the quickest resolution possible.

Thanks!

[kberezin-nshl]

Any update on this? It is a very annoying problem. It's been 2 months since it was reported.

cc @rahul2393