Initialize CDC applications from an existing database

This feature has been released as a public beta in AuraDB Enterprise October Release and Neo4j Enterprise Edition 5.13 and breaking changes are likely to be introduced before it is made generally available (GA).

You can enable log enrichment on existing databases, but that will only affect future transactions and existing data will not be surfaced by CDC procedures. If your use case requires a snapshot of existing data for CDC purposes, you have to do so manually and without the aid of CDC query procedures.

In particular, the recommended steps are:

  • Enable log enrichment on the database

  • Set database to read-only

  • Capture the current change identifier

  • Perform a snapshot using an application of your own that reads all nodes and relationships of interest and processes those according to your CDC requirements

  • Set database to read-write

  • Run your CDC application starting with the captured change identifier