Create Helm deployment values files
Enterprise Edition

You create a Helm deployment YAML file for each Neo4j cluster member with all the configuration settings.

Important configuration parameters

neo4j.name

Standalone servers and cluster servers have no distinction. This means a standalone server can be upgraded to a cluster by adding more servers. All Neo4j cluster servers are linked together by the value of the parameter neo4j.name. When installed via the Neo4j Helm chart, they will join the cluster identified by neo4j.name.
neo4j.name is different from the Helm release name, which is used to reference a cluster server elsewhere in Kubernetes.
All other names and labels of K8s objects created by the Helm chart derive from both neo4j.name and release name. The neo4j.name parameter is mandatory, and the installation will fail if it is not specified. neo4j.name must be unique within a namespace.

If you want to install 2 clusters in the same namespace, they must have different values for neo4j.name.
neo4j.minimumClusterSize

Standalone servers and cluster servers have no distinction. By default, servers in a cluster can host primary and secondary databases. See the Operational view for more details.
neo4j.minimumClusterSize is set to 1 by default, which means the server starts without waiting for the other servers. When installing a cluster, you should set neo4j.minimumClusterSize to the number of desired members in the cluster. If you later decide to add an extra cluster server in excess of neo4j.minimumClusterSize, you need to manually enable it using the Cypher command ENABLE SERVER. You can also use the configuration parameter neo4j.operations.enableServer to automatically enable the server when it joins the cluster. For more information, see Horizontal scaling.

neo4j.resources

The size of a Neo4j cluster member is defined by the values of the neo4j.resources.cpu and neo4j.resources.memory parameters. The minimum for a Neo4j instance is 0.5 CPU and 2GB memory. If invalid or less than the minimum values are provided, Helm will throw an error, for example:

Error: template: neo4j/templates/_helpers.tpl:157:11: executing "neo4j.resources.evaluateCPU" at <fail (printf "Provided cpu value %s is less than minimum. \n %s" (.Values.neo4j.resources.cpu) (include "neo4j.resources.invalidCPUMessage" .))>: error calling fail: Provided cpu value 0.25 is less than minimum.
 cpu value cannot be less than 0.5 or 500m

For more information, see Important configuration parameters.

neo4j.password

The password for the neo4j user. The same password must be set for all cluster members.
If you do not provide a password, the Neo4j Helm chart will automatically generate one for you. (Make a note of it.)

You cannot use neo4j as the initial password as this is the default password.
neo4j.edition and neo4j.acceptLicenseAgreement

By default, the Helm chart installs Neo4j Community Edition.
If you want to install Neo4j Enterprise Edition, set the configuration parameters edition: "enterprise" and acknowledge license compliance by setting neo4j.acceptLicenseAgreement to "yes" if you have a valid license or to "eval" if you want to accept the link:Neo4j evaluation license.
For more information on how to obtain a valid license for Neo4j Enterprise Edition, see https://neo4j.com/licensing/ and link:https://neo4j.com/terms/licensing/, or use the form Contact Neo4j.

volumes.data

The volumes.data parameter maps the data volume mount of each cluster member to the persistent volume for that member. For more information, see Volume mounts and persistent volumes.

For details of all Neo4j Helm chart configuration options, see Configure a Neo4j Helm deployment.

Create a values.yaml file for each server

Select the tab as per your Kubernetes environment, and using the provided example, create a YAML file for each of your cluster servers with all the configuration settings.

This guide assumes that the YAML files are named server-1.values.yaml, server-2.values.yaml and server-3.values.yaml.

The examples use storage classes provided by the vendor. If you want to use a different type of storage class, such as regional disks, consult the cloud vendor documentation on creating new storage classes.

neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  edition: "enterprise"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
      # * premium-rwo provisions SSD disks (recommended)
      # * standard-rwo provisions balanced SSD-backed disks
      # * standard provisions HDD disks
      storageClassName: premium-rwo
neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  edition: "enterprise"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
     # gp2 is a general-purpose SSD volume
     storageClassName: gp2
neo4j:
  name: "my-cluster"
  minimumClusterSize: 3
  resources:
    cpu: "0.5"
    memory: "2Gi"
  password: "my-password"
  edition: "enterprise"
  acceptLicenseAgreement: "yes"

volumes:
  data:
    mode: "dynamic"
    dynamic:
      # * managed-csi-premium provisions premium SSD disks (recommended)
      # * managed-csi provisions standard SSD backed disks
      storageClassName: managed-csi-premium

Glossary

allocator

A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.

asynchronous replication

Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.

Aura instance

A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.

auto-commit transaction

An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.

Bolt protocol

Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.

bookmark

A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.

category (Bloom)

A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).

causal consistency

All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.

cluster

A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.

client application

Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.

commit

A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.

composite database

Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.

constraint

Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.

Cypher®

Neo4j’s graph query language.

data model

A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.

database

A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.

database vs graph

Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.

Database Management System

Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.

database schema

The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.

deallocate

An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.

degree (of a node)

The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.

disaster recovery

A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.

driver

A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.

election

In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.

entity

A node or a relationship.

expression (Cypher)

A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.

fabric

Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.

fault tolerance

A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.

follower

A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.

Generative AI (GenAI)

A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

graph

A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.

index

Data structure that improves read performance of a database.

knowledge graph

A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.

label

Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.

leader

A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.

main database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.

motif

A description of a specific pattern within a graph.

node

A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.

operator

A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.

parameter

Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.

path

A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.

pattern

A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.

perspective (Bloom)

A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.

primary

A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.

primary vs secondary

In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.

project (Aura)

An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.

property

Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.

query (Cypher)

A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.

Raft group

A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.

Raft group member

A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.

Raft log

A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.

Raft protocol

The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.

read scaling

Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).

relationship

A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.

secondary

An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.

seed

A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.

server

A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.

session

A causally linked sequence of transactions.

session consistency

An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.

standalone

A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.

synchronous replication

Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.

system database

A database used by Neo4j to store system information.

tenant (Aura)

An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.

tool asset database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.

topology

A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.

transaction

A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).