Guides

Practical, real-world guides for operating Geode in production. These guides provide step-by-step instructions, best practices, and proven patterns for common operational scenarios.

Overview

Whether you’re migrating from another database, designing an optimal schema, deploying across multiple datacenters, or troubleshooting performance issues, these guides provide the practical knowledge you need. Each guide combines theoretical understanding with hands-on examples and battle-tested best practices.

These guides complement the reference documentation by focusing on how-to rather than what. They’re designed to be followed sequentially or used as reference material when facing specific challenges.

Topics in This Section

  • Backup Automation - Automated backup strategies including WAL archiving, point-in-time recovery, and backup validation
  • Migration Guide - Migrate from other databases (Neo4j, Neptune, JanusGraph) with schema mapping and data transfer strategies
  • Multi-Datacenter Deployment - Deploy Geode across multiple datacenters with replication, consistency, and failover strategies
  • Performance Benchmarking - Benchmark Geode performance with realistic workloads and interpret results
  • Schema Design - Best practices for property graph schema design including label strategies, property modeling, and normalization
  • Testing Strategies - Comprehensive testing approaches including unit tests, integration tests, and production testing
  • Troubleshooting - Diagnose and resolve common issues including connection problems, query performance, and system errors

Common Scenarios

Setting Up Production Backups

Ensure data durability with automated backup strategies that support point-in-time recovery, incremental backups, and backup verification. Learn how to configure WAL archiving, schedule backups, and test recovery procedures.

See: Backup Automation

Migrating from Another Database

Migrate your existing graph data from Neo4j, Amazon Neptune, or JanusGraph to Geode. Includes schema mapping strategies, data transformation scripts, and validation approaches to ensure a smooth transition.

See: Migration Guide

Multi-Region Deployment

Deploy Geode across multiple datacenters or cloud regions for global scale, disaster recovery, or regulatory compliance. Covers replication strategies, consistency models, and failover procedures.

See: Multi-Datacenter Deployment

Optimizing Query Performance

Identify performance bottlenecks and optimize query execution with EXPLAIN/PROFILE analysis, index strategies, and query rewriting techniques. Includes real-world examples and performance benchmarks.

See: Performance Benchmarking , Query Performance Tuning

Designing Effective Schemas

Learn graph schema design patterns that optimize for both query performance and maintainability. Covers label strategies, property modeling, relationship patterns, and denormalization trade-offs.

See: Schema Design

Operational Excellence

Query Optimization

Development

Best Practices

Backup and Recovery

  • Schedule daily incremental backups and weekly full backups
  • Test recovery procedures quarterly
  • Store backups in geographically separate locations
  • Monitor backup success/failure with alerts
  • Encrypt backups at rest and in transit

Performance

  • Start with appropriate indexes for query patterns
  • Use EXPLAIN to understand query execution plans
  • Monitor query performance metrics over time
  • Set resource limits to prevent runaway queries
  • Profile production queries before optimization

Security

  • Enable TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) for data at rest
  • Use TLS 1.3 for all connections
  • Implement RBAC with principle of least privilege
  • Enable audit logging for compliance
  • Rotate credentials regularly

Monitoring

  • Set up health check endpoints
  • Configure alerts for critical metrics
  • Monitor resource utilization (CPU, memory, disk, network)
  • Track query latency and throughput
  • Implement distributed tracing for complex queries

Getting Help

If you encounter issues not covered in these guides:

  1. Check the Troubleshooting Guide for common problems and solutions
  2. Review the Error Codes Reference for specific error messages
  3. Search the documentation for relevant topics
  4. Review the Architecture Documentation for system design context
  5. Report issues on GitLab with detailed reproduction steps

Contributing

Have a guide you’d like to share? Contributions are welcome! See the Contributing Guide for how to submit documentation improvements.

Pages

Troubleshooting Guide

Comprehensive guide for diagnosing and resolving common Geode database issues including installation, connectivity, queries, and performance problems.

15 min read

Graph Schema Design Guide

Best practices for designing graph schemas and modeling domains as property graphs in Geode including node labels, relationship types, and property strategies.

11 min read

Migration Guide

Complete guide for migrating data to Geode, upgrading between versions, migrating from other graph databases, backup and restore procedures, and zero-downtime migration strategies.

12 min read

Automated Backup Guide

Complete guide to automated backup and recovery for Geode including S3 cloud backups, scheduled backups, point-in-time recovery, and disaster recovery procedures

9 min read

Testing Strategies

Comprehensive guide to testing strategies in Geode including unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, module testing, performance benchmarking, and CI/CD integration.

9 min read

Multi-Datacenter Deployment and Replication

Complete guide for deploying Geode across multiple datacenters with high availability, disaster recovery, and cross-region replication patterns

12 min read

Performance Benchmarking Guide

Comprehensive guide for benchmarking Geode performance: setup, tools, metrics, load testing, and result interpretation

9 min read