Consistency checker

You can use the neo4j-admin database check command to check the consistency of a database, a dump, or a backup. The neo4j-admin tool is located in the /bin directory.

Syntax

The neo4j-admin database check command has the following syntax:

neo4j-admin database check [-h] [--expand-commands] [--force] [--verbose]
                           [--check-counts[=true|false]] [--check-graph[=true|false]]
                           [--check-indexes[=true|false]] [--check-property-owners[=true|false]]
                           [--additional-config=<file>] [--max-off-heap-memory=<size>]
                           [--report-path=<path>] [--threads=<number of threads>]
                           [[--from-path-data=<path> --from-path-txn=<path>] | [--from-path=<path> [--temp-path=<path>]]]
                           <database>

Description

This command allows for checking the consistency of a database, a dump, or a backup. It cannot be used with a database that is currently in use.

Some checks can be quite expensive, so it may be useful to turn some of them off for very large databases. Increasing the heap size might be a good idea.

It is not recommended to use an NFS to check the consistency of a database, a dump, or a backup as this slows the process down significantly.

Parameters

Table 1. `neo4j-admin database check` parameters
Parameter	Description
`<database>`	Name of the database to check.

Options

The neo4j-admin database check command has the following options:

Table 2. `neo4j-admin database check` options
Option	Description	Default
`--verbose`	Enable verbose output.
`-h, --help`	Show this help message and exit.
`--expand-commands`	Allow command expansion in config value evaluation.
`--additional-config=<file>`	Configuration file with additional configuration.
`--force`	Force a consistency check to be run, despite resources, and may run a more thorough check.
`--check-indexes[=true\|false]`	Perform consistency checks on indexes.	`true`
`--check-graph[=true\|false]`	Perform consistency checks between nodes, relationships, properties, types, and tokens.	`true`
`--check-counts[=true\|false]`	Perform consistency checks on the counts. Requires <check-graph>, and may implicitly enable <check-graph> if it were not explicitly disabled.	`<check-graph>`
`--check-property-owners[=true\|false]`	Perform consistency checks on the ownership of properties. Requires <check-graph>, and may implicitly enable <check-graph> if it were not explicitly disabled.	`false`
`--report-path=<path>`	Path to where a consistency report will be written. Interpreted as a directory, unless it has an extension of `.report`.	`.`
`--max-off-heap-memory=<size>`	Maximum memory that `neo4j-admin` can use for page cache and various caching data structures to improve performance. Value can be plain numbers, like `10000000` or e.g. `20G` for 20 gigabytes, or even e.g. `70%`, which will amount to 70% of currently free memory on the machine.	`90%`
`--threads=<number of threads>`	Number of threads used to check the consistency.	`The number of CPUs on the machine.`
`--from-path-data=<path>`	Path to the databases directory, containing the database directory to source from.	`server.directories.data/databases`
`--from-path-txn=<path>`	Path to the transactions directory, containing the transaction directory for the database to source from.	`server.directories.transaction.logs.root`
`--from-path=<path>`	Path to directory containing dump/backup artifacts to check the consistency of.
`--temp-path=<path>`	Path to directory to be used as a staging area to extract dump/backup artifacts, if needed.	`<from-path>`

Output

If the consistency checker does not find errors, it exits cleanly and does not produce a report. If the consistency checker finds errors, it exits with an exit code other than 0 and writes a report file with a name in the format inconsistencies-YYYY-MM-DD.HH24.MI.SS.report. The location of the report file is the current working directory, or as specified by the parameter report-path.

Example

Example 1. Run the consistency checker

Note that the database must be stopped first.

$neo4j-home> bin/neo4j-admin database check neo4j

Running consistency check with max off-heap:618.6MiB
  Store size:160.0KiB
  Allocated page cache:160.0KiB
  Off-heap memory for caching:618.5MiB
ID Generator consistency check
....................  10%
....................  20%
....................  30%
....................  40%
....................  50%
....................  60%
....................  70%
....................  80%
....................  90%
.................... 100%
Index structure consistency check
....................  10%
....................  20%
....................  30%
....................  40%
....................  50%
....................  60%
....................  70%
....................  80%
....................  90%
.................... 100%
Consistency check
....................  10%
....................  20%
....................  30%
....................  40%
....................  50%
....................  60%
....................  70%
....................  80%
....................  90%
.................... 100%

Run with the --from-path option to check the consistency of a backup or a dump.

bin/neo4j-admin database check --from-path=<directory-with-backup-or-dump> neo4j

neo4j-admin database check cannot be applied to Composite databases. It must be run directly on the databases that are associated with that Composite database.