Backup and restore Neo4j Graph Database using Ansible

Increasing data volumes are like double-edged swords. The good thing about that is — a lot of data means a lot of information and a lot of value that comes with it. However, it also means a lot of technology to store and analyze this information is on its way. Thankfully, the graph database with its agility, performance, and flexibility is here to help us through this.

A graph database uses graph structures with two major elements for semantic queries viz. nodes and relationships. Nodes are the entities in the graph and relationships represent the connections between two nodes. In normal databases, data is the most important entity but a graph database treats the relationships between data with equal importance. Instead of narrowing down the approach towards data with a predefined model, the data is analyzed based on the inter-relation between two nodes. Let’s take an example that will help you understand what I am talking about. Just to make sure everyone gets it, I will select everyone’s favorite topic.

In this particular example New England Patriots, Tom Brady, and Greater Boston are the nodes. The relationship between these nodes is represented over the arrow and the arrow represents that these relationships are directional. The additional attributes associated with the nodes are properties as represented below the node.

Neo4j is open-source and provides an ACID-compliant transactional backend. Neo4j is referred to as a native graph database because of the efficient implementation of the property graph model down to the storage level. This means that the data is stored exactly as you whiteboard it and the database uses pointers to navigate and traverse the graph. When it comes to production scenarios, Neo4j assures cluster support and runtime failover. Apart from these and the efficient store, process, and raise queries, here are some of the features and advantages that make Neo4j a popular choice among graphical databases –

• It follows the Property Graph Data Model.
• It supports UNIQUE constraints which ensures the uniqueness of data stored.
• It contains a UI (Neo4j Data Browser) to execute CQL Commands that help to create and alter different storage unit for data. Neo4j CQL query language commands are in a readable format and very easy to learn.
• The ACID(Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) rules support ensures the validity of the data.
• Support for Cypher API and Native Java API makes it easy to develop Java applications./li>
• It is very easy to represent and retrieve/navigate connected data as well as it represents semi-structured data very easily.

Recently, in one of the projects I was working on, we wanted to automate the Neo4j database backup and restore process. We used …read more