Skip to main content

Import & export

Reboot supports imports and exports of your application's data via the rbt import and rbt export commands.

Use cases​

Once your application is deployed to production, importing and exporting data is critical for creating backups, as well as for exporting data into analytics (OLAP) systems for executing offline queries.

Because Reboot's support for import/export operates on "logical" snapshots (i.e. with no assumptions about the "physical" storage/filesystem layout that is in use), imports are also a great way to adopt Reboot for a new application, upsize or downsize your hosting, or to create test instances.

Format​

Data is exported as one JSON lines file per partition, with a fairly self-explanatory format.

The types of exported data are:

  • Your states themselves - Useful for interoperating with OLAP systems.
  • All tasks executed on behalf of states - Useful for backups: if you have other use cases for exported tasks, please let us know!
  • Keys for idempotency - Useful for backups.

When importing data, any number of files are accepted and automatically partitioned appropriately on the nodes of your Reboot cluster.

Behavior​

When importing:

  • Any state that's part of the import and doesn't exist in the application yet is created. No methods are run, even if the state in question could normally only be created by calling a constructor method.
  • Any state that's part of the import but also already exists in the application is overwritten with the imported state value.
  • Any state that already exists in the application and isn't part of the import is left unchanged.

When exporting:

  • All states, tasks, and idempotency keys in the application are exported. If you need partial exports, please let us know!
  • The export is not a consistent snapshot. If the export needs to be fully consistent, it is necessary to ensure that no writer methods are being run by the system at the time of the export. If you need consistent, online exports, please let us know!.