Neo4j Aura/Enterprise to Community Edition Downgrade

If you want to move your Neo4j database from the Aura/Enterprise Edition to the Community Edition, you might face some challenges. This script will help you convert the data dump from the Aura/Enterprise Edition to a format compatible with the Community Edition.

Note: Use this script at your own risk. Make sure to back up your data before running this script.

Neo4j's data dumps can be in the following formats:

Format	Introduced	Deprecated	Description
Block	Neo4j 5.16		Only available in Enterprise Edition
Aligned	Neo4j 5.0		Default format for Community and Enterprise Edition versions prior to 5.22
Standard	Neo4j 3.0	Neo4j 5.23
High limit	Neo4j 3.0	Neo4j 5.23	Supports up to 1 Quadrillion Nodes & Relationships

Neo4j Enterprise and Aura by default export data in the block format. This format is not compatible with the Community Edition. This format includes some Enterprise features as well which are not supported in the Community Edition. This script will convert the block format to the aligned format, which is compatible with the Community Edition.

Under the hoods what it does is the following:

1. Load the data dump in the Enterprise Edition in a Docker container
2. Copy the database to a new one in the aligned format
3. Make a pre-export list of all constraints and indexes from the new database
4. Remove all Enterprise only constraints and indexes from the new database
5. Make another post-export list of all constraints and indexes
6. Export the new database
7. Export a Cypher script to create the constraints and indexes

Prerequisites

• Data dump from the Neo4j Aura/Enterprise Edition database
• Docker installed on your machine

Steps

Setup the environment

Clone this repository and put your data dump in the dumps directory. Set the environment variable NEO4J_VERSION to the version of the Neo4j your database dump is from. For example, if you want to use Neo4j 4.3.1, you can run the following command:

export NEO4J_VERSION=4.3.1

Trigger the process

Run the following command to start the process:

./scripts/convert.sh <filename> <neo4j-version>

For example, if your dump file is neo4j.dump and you want to use Neo4j 4.3.1, you can run the following command:

./scripts/convert.sh neo4j 4.3.1

Note: The script needs only the file name without the extension.

This command creates these files in the dumps directory:

File	Description
<filename>_aligned.dump	Copy of the <filename>.dump is a format compatible with Neo4j Community
<filename>_pre_constraints.txt	A list of constraints in the original <filename>.dump
<filename>_post_constraints.txt	A list of constraints in the new data dump without Enterprise constraints
<filename>_constraints.cypher	Cypher script to run to create non Enterprise constraints in the new DB.

Import

Once you have set up your self-hosted version of Neo4j Community Edition, you can import the new data dump

Constraints

The script convert.sh will create a list of constraints and indexes in the new database. The constraints and indexes that are not supported in the Community Edition will be removed from the new database. This list will be found in the dumps directory with the name <filename>_post_constraints.txt. You will also find a Cypher script in the same directory with the name <filename>_constraints.cypher. This script can be used to create the constraints and indexes in the new database.

Troubleshooting

If you face any issues, remove the /dev/null from the docker commands in the convert.sh script to see the logs. I do not take any responsibility or liability for any unforeseen data loss or corruption. Please make sure to back up your data before running this script.