Migrate a self-managed deployment to Aura

There are different ways to migrate data from a self-managed Neo4j deployment Community Edition to Aura. You can do it manually as described in Migrate from self-managed to Aura, using neo4j-admin to create a database dump and then manually uploading it to an Aura instance.

But if your self-managed CE deployment is already connected and monitored using Fleet Manager, Fleet Manager can guide you through the migration directly from the Aura console.

Fleet Manager has two options for migration from Community Edition:

  • Migrate to Aura (or the Migrate to Aura button) to open the migration wizard.

  • Migrate to Aura with one click to migrate to a new instance using a recommended configuration, without going through the full wizard (see One-click migration).

The migration wizard helps you check compatibility, select a destination Aura instance, and transfer your data. Fleet Manager stops the database, creates a dump, and uploads and imports it into Aura for you.

Prerequisites

To migrate a self-managed deployment to Aura using Fleet Manager you need to ensure the following:

  • The deployment must be monitored by Fleet Manager and in the RUNNING state. See Add a deployment for how to set up monitoring.

  • The deployment must run Neo4j Community Edition 2026.05.0 or later, or Neo4j Community Edition 5.26.0 or later with Fleet Management plugin 1.2.0 or later.

  • You must have the Project admin role for the Aura project where the deployment is monitored.

Before migrating your database, consider creating a defragmented copy of your database. This can lead to a reduction in the size of the dump file, thus possibly lower cost for the Aura instance and a faster migration process. See Reclaim unused space for further reading on compacting a database.

Start a migration

You start a migration from the self-managed deployment in the Aura console using the […​] menu on the remote instance card, or you can use the Migrate to Aura button (if you want to use the migration wizard). Select your preferred migration option to start the process.

Migration wizard

The wizard has three steps: Check compatibility, Choose Aura destination, and Transfer data.

Step 1: Check compatibility

This step helps you verify that your workload is compatible with Aura before migrating.

Check your driver versions

If you connect using one of Neo4j’s official drivers, make sure you are on a version supported by Aura. Only some 4.4 driver versions work with Aura, so updating to 5.x drivers or later is recommended (for more information see the driver support article).

Identify queries or workloads that can’t run on Aura

Decide whether you want Fleet Manager to check your workload for compatibility or if you want to do this manually. You can allow Fleet Manager to collect data about your workload for 24 hours to gauge whether your workload is compatible with Aura.

Manually review your workload. Aura does not allow custom plugins or arbitrary procedures and functions:

  • A subset of APOC Core is available. See APOC support.

  • APOC Extended and custom plugins are not supported.

  • User-defined procedures and functions are not available on Aura.

You must acknowledge that verifying compatibility is your responsibility before continuing.

Step 2: Select Aura destination

Select where to migrate your data:

Migrate to a new instance

Create a new Aura instance for the migration. The wizard pre-fills a recommended size based on your deployment’s usage and hides unsupported (too-small) sizes. Migrating to AuraDB Free is not supported. The estimated cost is shown before you create the instance.

Migrate to an existing instance

Select a running Aura instance as the target.

All existing data in the selected instance is deleted and replaced with data from your deployment. You must acknowledge this before continuing.

The target instance must:

  • Have more than double the storage of your database dump file.

  • Have enough RAM for your query load and memory requirements.

  • Not be an AuraDB Free instance. Migrating to AuraDB Free is not supported.

Step 3: Transfer data

Select how to transfer your data.

Automatic (recommended)

Fleet Manager performs the migration for you. It:

  1. Shuts down the neo4j database on the self-managed deployment.

  2. Creates a database dump.

  3. Restarts the neo4j database on the self-managed deployment.

  4. Creates or selects the target Aura instance.

  5. Uploads the dump to Aura and starts the import.

  6. Waits for the import to complete.

You must consent to these actions, including the database shutdown, before starting the migration.

This process can take several hours depending on the size of the database. You can monitor progress in the Aura console (see Monitor migration status).

Manual

You migrate the data yourself by following an in-console checklist. Mark each section Done to complete the guide.

  1. Create a database dump

    Open a console in the Neo4j installation directory, stop the database, and create the dump:

    # Stop the database
bin/neo4j stop

# Create the dump (note the path -- you need it later)
bin/neo4j-admin database dump neo4j --to-path=PATH_TO_DUMP

    Make a note of the dump file size to help select the correct Aura instance size.

  2. Check the target Aura instance state

    Confirm the selected target Aura instance is in the expected state before uploading.

  3. Upload the database dump to Aura

    After a successful upload, the Aura instance is in a LOADING state and unavailable until the dump is processed. This can take several hours depending on database size.

    Upload using neo4j-admin (recommended for large dumps):

    bin/neo4j-admin database upload neo4j \
    --from-path=PATH_TO_DUMP \
    --to-uri=BOLT_URL \
    --overwrite-destination=false

    Alternatively, for dumps 4 GB or smaller, you can restore directly from the Aura console: open Inspect on the Aura instance, select Restore from backup file, and drag and drop the .dump file.

One-click migration

Migrate to Aura with one click creates a new Aura instance using a configuration recommended from your deployment’s recent usage, then starts the migration.

A confirmation dialog shows the recommended configuration before you proceed:

  • Self-managed disk usage

  • Cloud provider

  • Region

  • Tier

  • Memory

  • Storage

The dialog also shows the estimated cost of the new instance. Select Migrate to start or Cancel to go back.

Monitor migration status

After a migration starts, open the status page from the deployment’s Migration status menu item or the View migration status banner.

A migration can be in one of three states: running, completed (success), or failed.

The status page shows a timeline of four stages:

  1. Aura instance creation

  2. Database dump

  3. Upload to Aura

  4. Import into Aura

Each stage shows its progress (pending, in progress, success, or failure). If a stage fails, you can expand Standard output, Standard error, and Stack trace sections to inspect the logs.

After migration

Uploading a database to Aura does not change its store format. If you migrated from a Community Edition deployment its likely that your database is not on block format. After a successful migration, you should consider switching to block format to take advantage of the performance and storage benefits it provides. See Store formats for more information about the block store format.

To migrate your Aura instance to block format, you can use the instance cloning functionality in Aura console as described in Clone to a new instance. Make sure to check the box to include the upgrade of the store format to block.