Listing sharded property databases
Enterprise EditionNot available on AuraIntroduced in 2025.12

You can view all or a specific sharded property database using the SHOW DATABASES command. For details on the command syntax, arguments, and a complete list of the returned columns, see List databases.

Sharded property databases are listed differently depending on your privileges. If you have CREATE/DROP/ALTER DATABASE, SET DATABASE ACCESS, or DATABASE MANAGEMENT privileges, a sharded database is shown as a set of databases of different types:

  • A virtual sharded database aggregates the information of the underlying shards and has the type standard.

  • A graph shard is listed with the type graph shard and shows the information of a graph shard allocation.

  • A property shard is listed with the type property shard and shows the information of a property shard allocation.

If you lack any of these privileges, you will only be able to see the virtual sharded database.

Listing virtual sharded databases

The virtual sharded database aggregates the information of the underlying shards. Some columns are empty for the virtual sharded database. The information for these rows can be found on the associated graph and property shards, e.g., lastCommittedTxn or replicationLag.

The following columns are specific to the virtual sharded database in a sharded property database:

Column Description Type Default output

name

The name passed into the CREATE DATABASE command when creating the sharded property database

STRING

type

The type of the virtual sharded database is standard.

STRING

role

The role of the virtual sharded database can be (primary, secondary, unknown).

STRING

currentStatus

The currentStatus is aggregated from the current status of the underlying shards. The status is either:

  • Equal to the status shared by all shards.

  • “Mixed”, if some shards have a different status.

STRING

statusMessage

If the currentStatus is mixed, The statusMessage indicates the number of shards with different statuses, e.g., online (4) and starting (1).

STRING

graphShards

The names of any graph shards the database may have. Applicable also for standard databases (non-sharded databases), which have a single graph shard with the same name as the database. Not applicable to composite databases.

LIST<STRING>

propertyShards

The names of any property shards the database may have.

LIST<STRING>

Listing graph shards

The following columns are specific to graph shards in a sharded property database:

Column Description Type Default output

name

The name passed into the CREATE DATABASE command when creating the sharded property database appended with -g<index>.

STRING

type

The type of the virtual sharded database is graph shard.

STRING

role

The role of a graph shard. Can be primary, secondary, or unknown.

STRING

shardTxnLag

The number of transactions the current shard is behind compared to the most up-to-date shard allocation of the sharded database. The lag is expressed in negative integers.

INTEGER

Listing property shards

The following columns are specific to property shards in a sharded property database:

Column Description Type Default output

name

The name passed into the CREATE DATABASE command when creating the sharded property database appended with -p<index>.

STRING

type

The type of the virtual sharded database is property shard.

STRING

role

The role of a property shard. Can be property shard replica or unknown.

STRING

currentPropertyShardReplicas

Number of property shard replicas for this database reported as running currently. It is the same as the number of rows where role=property shard replica and name=this database.

INTEGER

requestedPropertyShardReplicas

The requested number of property shard replicas for this database. May be lower than current if the DBMS is currently reducing the number of copies of the database, or higher if it is currently increasing the number of copies.

INTEGER

shardTxnLag

The number of transactions the current shard is behind compared to the most up-to-date shard allocation of the sharded database. The lag is expressed in negative integers.

INTEGER

Distinction between the columns shardTxnLag and replicationLag

The columns shardTxnLag and replicationLag are only shown for the underlying shards of a sharded property database. Both provide information about how far behind a shard is in terms of transactions, but they measure different aspects:

  • The shardTxnLag column displays the number of transactions the current shard is behind compared to the most up-to-date shard allocation of the entire sharded database.

  • The replicationLag column displays the number of transactions the current database is behind compared to the most up-to-date allocation of the same shard.

Because shard information is collected as a snapshot within the cluster and reporting may be delayed, it may appear that a property shard allocation is ahead of all graph shard allocations, even though this does not actually occur.

Examples

The following are some examples of listing sharded property databases with different queries and outputs.

View an overview of a sharded property database

The example assumes that you have a sharded property database foo with the following topology:

  • One graph shard with one primary and no secondaries.

  • Three property shards with one property shard replica each.

To view the statuses of the shards (currentStatus column) in the sharded property database foo, run the following query:

Query
CYPHER 25 SHOW DATABASES
YIELD name, type, role, currentStatus, statusMessage, graphShards, propertyShards
Result
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name       | type             | role                     | currentStatus   | statusMessage | graphShards  | propertyShards                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "foo"      | "standard"       | "primary"                | "online"        | ""            | ["foo-g000"] | ["foo-p000", "foo-p001", "foo-p0002"] |
| "foo-g000" | "graph shard"    | "primary"                | "online"        | ""            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p000" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "online"        | ""            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p001" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "online"        | ""            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p002" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "online"        | ""            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name       | type             | role                     | currentStatus   | statusMessage                 | graphShards  | propertyShards                        |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "foo"      | "standard"       | "primary"                | "online"        | "online (4) and starting (1)" | ["foo-g000"] | ["foo-p000", "foo-p001", "foo-p0002"] |
| "foo-g000" | "graph shard"    | "primary"                | "online"        | ""                            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p000" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "online"        | ""                            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p001" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "starting"      | ""                            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
| "foo-p002" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | "online"        | ""                            | NULL         | NULL                                  |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The first result shows all shards as online, while the second result indicates that one property shard replica is in the starting status, leading to a mixed status for the overall sharded database.

View the topology of a sharded property database

To view the topology of the sharded property database foo, run the following query:

Query
CYPHER 25 SHOW DATABASES
YIELD name, type, role, currentSecondariesCount, currentPropertyShardReplicas, requestedPrimariesCount, requestedSecondariesCount, requestedPropertyShardReplicas
WHERE name STARTS WITH 'foo'
Result
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name       | type             | role                     | currentPrimariesCount | currentSecondariesCount | currentPropertyShardReplicas | requestedPrimariesCount | requestedSecondariesCount | requestedPropertyShardReplicas |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "foo"      | "standard"       | "primary"                | NULL                  | NULL                     | NULL                         | NULL                   | NULL                      | NULL                           |
| "foo-g000" | "graph shard"    | "primary"                | 1                     | 0                        | NULL                         | 1                      | 0                         | NULL                           |
| "foo-p000" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | NULL                  | NULL                     | 1                            | NULL                   | NULL                      | 1                              |
| "foo-p001" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | NULL                  | NULL                     | 1                            | NULL                   | NULL                      | 1                              |
| "foo-p002" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | NULL                  | NULL                     | 1                            | NULL                   | NULL                      | 1                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The result shows that the sharded property database foo has one graph shard with one primary and no secondaries, and three property shards each with one property shard replica.

View the lag between the shard allocations

The example assumes that you have a sharded property database foo with the following topology:

  • A graph shard with two primaries and no secondaries.

  • Three property shards with two property shard replicas each.

To view the lag between the shard allocations of the sharded property database foo, run the following query:

Query
CYPHER 25 SHOW DATABASES YIELD name, type, role, lastCommittedTxn, replicationLag, shardTxnLag
Result
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name       | type             | role                     | lastCommittedTxn   | replicationLag    | shardTxnLag |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "foo"      | "standard"       | "primary"                | NULL               | NULL              | NULL        |
| "foo"      | "standard"       | "primary"                | NULL               | NULL              | NULL        |
| "foo-g000" | "graph shard"    | "primary"                | 42                 |  0                |  0          |
| "foo-g000" | "graph shard"    | "priamry"                | 39                 | -3                | -3          |
| "foo-p000" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 40                 | -1                | -2          |
| "foo-p000" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 41                 |  0                | -1          |
| "foo-p001" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 40                 |  0                | -2          |
| "foo-p001" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 39                 | -1                | -3          |
| "foo-p002" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 42                 |  0                |  0          |
| "foo-p002" | "property shard" | "property shard replica" | 40                 | -2                | -2          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The result shows that one of the graph shard primaries is three transactions behind the other primary, and similarly for the property shard replicas.