Showing sharded property databases
InfinigraphNot 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 Show databases. For general information about the SHOW command, see the Cypher Manual → SHOW.

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.

Showing 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>

Showing 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

Showing 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.

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).