Load csv merge performance - neo4j

I have a performance issue with bulk insert into neo4j.
I have a csv file with 400k rows which produces about 3.5 million rows, and I use LOAD CSV command, with the latest version on neo4j.
I've noticed that when I user Create statement, the load takes about 4 minutes, and without indexes at all- about 3.5 minutes.
My first question, is whether this is the normal rate of nodes/ min.
Now, my real problem, is that I need to use merge, for data integrity reasons, and when I use it, it can take even 24 hours, together with indexes.
So 2 additional questions will be:
Is the LOAD CSV recommended for the best performance load,
and also:
What can I do do about this performance issue?
EDIT:
here is the query:
LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM 'file:///import.csv' AS line FIELDTERMINATOR '|'
MERGE (session :Session { session:line.session })
MERGE (hit :Hit { key:line.key,date_time:line.date_time,session:line.session })
MERGE (user :User { id:line.user_id })
MERGE (session2 :Session2 { session2:line.session2 })
MERGE (country :Country{ name:line.country})
MERGE (tv :TV { name:tv.Model })
MERGE (transfer_protocol :Protocol { name:line.transfer_protocol })
MERGE (os :OS { name:line.os_name ,version:line.os_version, row_key:line.os_name+line.os_version})
Sample: session_guid|hit_key_guid|useridguid|session2_guid|PANASONIC|TCP|ANDROID|5.0
the session,user,session2,country,tv,transfer_protocol and os has unique constraint, and hit has an index
**session1 and session2 can have many hits (1 to 100, average 5)
hit_key_guid is different for each csv line
it's running really slow- pretty strong machine, and each 1000 rows can take up to 10 seconds.
also checked with the profiler, and no "Eager"
thanks
Lior

You should share your data model, your indexes, your LOAD CSV query and also the profile output. Are you using PERIODIC commit?
Make sure that you don't run into the Eager issue, see here:
http://neo4j.com/developer/guide-import-csv/#_load_csv_for_medium_sized_datasets
http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2014/10/23/neo4j-cypher-avoiding-the-eager/
In general for a dataset your size LOAD CSV is ok, from 10M rows I'd probably switch to the import-tool.

It appears that the server side code, didn't create the indexes properly, and once they were created, the load done in good performance

Related

Can I load in nodes and relationships from a csv file using 1 cypher command?

I have 2 csv files which I am trying to load into a Neo4j database using cypher: drivers.csv which holds every formula 1 driver and lap times.csv which stores every lap ever raced in F1.
I have managed to load in all of the nodes, although the lap times file is very large so it took quite a long time! I then tried to add relationships after, but there is so many that needs to be added that I gave up on it waiting (it was taking multiple days and still had not loaded in fully).
I’m pretty sure there is a way to load in the nodes and relationships at the same time, which would allow me to use periodic commit for the relationships which I cannot do right now. Essentially I just need to combine the 2 commands into one and after some attempts I can’t seem to work out how to do it?
// load in the lap_times.csv, changing the variable names - about half million nodes (takes 3-4 days)
PERIODIC COMMIT 25000
LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS from 'file:///lap_times.csv'
AS row
MERGE (lt: lapTimes {raceId: row.raceId, driverId: row.driverId, lap: row.lap, position: row.position, time: row.time, milliseconds: row.milliseconds})
RETURN lt;
// add a relationship between laptimes, drivers and races - takes 3-4 days
MATCH (lt:lapTimes),(d:Driver),(r:race)
WHERE lt.raceId = r.raceId AND lt.driverId = d.driverId
MERGE (d)-[rel8:LAPPING_AT]->(lt)
MERGE (r)-[rel9:TIMED_LAP]->(lt)
RETURN type(rel8), type(rel9)
Thanks in advance for any help!
You should review the documentation for indexes here:
https://neo4j.com/docs/cypher-manual/current/administration/indexes-for-search-performance/
Basically, indexes, once created, allow quick lookups of nodes of a given label, for the given property or properties. If you DON'T have an index and you do a MATCH or MERGE of a node, then for every row of that MATCH or MERGE, it has to do a label scan of all nodes of the given label and check all of their properties to find the nodes, and that becomes very expensive, especially when loading CSVs because those operations are likely happening for each row in the CSV.
For your :lapTimes nodes (though we would recommend you use singular labels in most cases), if there are none of them in your graph to start with, then a CREATE instead of a MERGE is fine. You may want a composite index on :lapTimes(raceId, driverId, lap), since that should uniquely identify the node, if you need to look it up later. Using CREATE instead of MERGE here should process much much faster.
Your second query should be MATCHing on :lapTimes nodes (label scan), and from each doing an index lookup on the :race and :driver nodes, so indexes are key here for performance.
You need indexes on: :race(raceId) and :Driver(driverId).
MATCH (lt:lapTimes)
WITH lt, lt.raceId as raceId, lt.driverId as driverId
MATCH (d:Driver), (r:race)
WHERE r.raceId = raceId AND d.driverId = driverId
MERGE (d)-[:LAPPING_AT]->(lt)
MERGE (r)-[:TIMED_LAP]->(lt)
You might consider CREATE instead of MERGE for the relationships, if you know there are no duplicate entries.
I removed your RETURN because returning the types isn't useful information.
Also, consider using consistent cases for your node labels, and that you are using the same case between the labels in your graph and the indexes you create.
Also, you would probably want to batch these changes instead of trying to process them all at once.
If you install APOC Procedures you can make use of apoc.periodic.iterate(), which can be used to batch changes, which will be faster and easier on your heap. You will still need indexes first.
CALL apoc.periodic.iterate("
MATCH (lt:lapTimes)
WITH lt, lt.raceId as raceId, lt.driverId as driverId
MATCH (d:Driver), (r:race)
WHERE r.raceId = raceId AND d.driverId = driverId
RETURN lt, d, ir",
"MERGE (d)-[:LAPPING_AT]->(lt)
MERGE (r)-[:TIMED_LAP]->(lt)", {}) YIELD batches, total, errorMessages
RETURN batches, total, errorMessages
Single CSV load
If you want to handle everything all at once in a single CSV load, you can do that, but again you will need indexes first. Here's what you'll need at a minimum:
CREATE INDEX ON :Driver(driverId);
CREATE INDEX ON :Race(raceId);
After those are created, you can use this, assuming you are starting from scratch (I fixed the case of your labels and made them singular:
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 25000
LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS from 'file:///lap_times.csv' AS row
MERGE (d:Driver {driverId:row.driverId})
MERGE (r:Race {raceId:row.raceId})
CREATE (lt:LapTime {raceId: row.raceId, driverId: row.driverId, lap: row.lap, position: row.position, time: row.time, milliseconds: row.milliseconds})
CREATE (d)-[:LAPPING_AT]->(lt)
CREATE (r)-[:TIMED_LAP]->(lt)

How to improve performance of LOAD CSV in NEO4J

I am using community edition of neo4j.I am trying to create 50000 nodes and 93400 relationships using CSV file.But the load csv command in neo4j is taking around 40 mins to create the nodes and relationships.
Using py2neo package in python to connect and run cypher queries.Load csv command looks similar to one below:
USING PERIODIC COMMIT LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM "file:///Sample.csv" AS row WITH row
MERGE(animal:Animal { name:row.`ANIMAL_NAME`})
ON CREATE SET animal{name:row.`ANIMAL_NAME`,type:row.`TYPE`, status:row.`Status`, birth_date:row.`DATE`}
ON MATCH SET animal +={name:row.`ANIMAL_NAME`,type:row.`TYPE`,status:row.`Status`,birth_date:row.`DATE`}
MERGE (person:Person { name:row.`PERSON_NAME`})
ON CREATE SET person ={name:row.`PERSON_NAME` age:row.`AGE`, address:row.`Address`, birth_date:row.`PERSON_DATE`}
ON MATCH SET person += { name:row.`PERSON_NAME`, age:row.`AGE`, address:row.`Address`, birth_date:row.`PERSON_DATE`}
MERGE (person)-[:OWNS]->(animal);
Infrastructure Details:
dbms.memory.heap.max_size=16384M
dbms.memory.heap.initial_size=2048M
dbms.memory.pagecache.size=512M
neo4j_version:3.3.9
How would I get it to work faster.Thanks in advance
Ideally, you should be using the lastest neo4j version, as there have been many performance improvements since 3.3.9. Since you already have indexes on :Animal(name) and :Person(name), the other main issue is probably that the Cypher planner is generating an expensive Eager operation (at least in neo4j 4.0.3) for your query. Whenever you have performance issues, you. should use EXPLAIN or PROFILE to see the operations that the Cypher planner generates.
Try using this simpler query (which should do the same thing as yours). Using EXPLAIN in neo4j 4.0.3, this query does not use the Eager operation:
:auto USING PERIODIC COMMIT LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM "file:///Test.csv" AS row
MERGE(animal:Animal {name: row.`ANIMAL_NAME`})
SET animal += {type:row.`TYPE`, status:row.`Status`, birth_date:row.`DATE`}
MERGE (person:Person { name:row.`PERSON_NAME`})
SET person += {age:row.`AGE`, address:row.`Address`, birth_date:row.`PERSON_DATE`}
MERGE (person)-[:OWNS]->(animal);
The :auto command is required in neo4j 4.x when using USING PERIODIC COMMIT.

how to print logs and measure execution time

Currently, I'm trying to import a CSV file that contains around 2 million lines. Each line corresponds to a node. I'm using neo4j browser. note: I also tried neo4j import tool but it is also somehow working slower.
I tried to run the script with standard cypher query like
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 500 LOAD CSV FROM 'file:///data.csv' AS r
WITH toInteger(r[0]) AS ID, toInteger(r[1]) AS national_id, toInteger(r[2]) as passport_no, toInteger(r[3]) as status, toInteger(r[4]) as activation_date
MERGE (p:Customer {ID: ID}) SET p.national_id = national_id, p.passport_no = passport_no, p.status = status, p.activation_date = activation_date
This works very slow.
Later I tried.
CALL apoc.periodic.iterate('CALL apoc.load.csv(\'file:/data.csv\') yield list as r return r','WITH toInteger(r[0]) AS ID, toInteger(r[1]) AS national_id, toInteger(r[2]) as passport_no, toInteger(r[3]) as status, toInteger(r[4]) as activation_date MERGE (p:Customer {ID: ID}) SET p.national_id = national_id, p.passport_no = passport_no, p.status = status, p.activation_date = activation_date',
{batchSize:10000, iterateList:true, parallel:true});
This one seems like working faster since the parallel option is true. BUT I want to measure the execution time of one batch.
How could I print something on the neo4j browser?
How could I measure execution time for one batch?
Your first query uses a batch size of 500, and your second one uses a batch size that is 20 times larger. You need to use the same batch size to do a valid comparison.
Since your query requires a large number of batches (at least 200), dividing the total time by the number of batches should be a reasonable approximation of the average time per batch.
Have you created an index on :Customer(ID)? That should help to speed up your queries.
You should consider whether you should use the ON CREATE expression with your MERGE clause. Right now, the SET clause is always executed, even if the node already exists.
The key thing is adding "unique constraint" before adding any data. This makes the process a lot faster. I see that from https://neo4j.com/docs/getting-started/current/cypher-intro/load-csv/
Now a script like this
CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (n:Movie) ASSERT n.no IS UNIQUE;
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 10000
LOAD CSV FROM 'file:///data/MovieData.csv' AS r
WITH r[0] AS no, toInteger(r[1]) AS status, toInteger(r[2]) as activation_date
MERGE (p:Movie {no: no})
ON CREATE SET p.status = status, p.activation_date = activation_date
adding 1 million nodes in 1 minute. Before it was more than 2-3 days.

Loading edges to neo4j taking too much time

Hi I am trying to load edge files to neo4j of approximately 80000 records each.
I am using:
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 500 LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM
"file:///EdgesWriterSong_wrote.csv" AS csvLine
MATCH (writer:Writer { id: toInt(csvLine.WriterId),(songs:Songs { SongId: toInt(csvLine.SongId)
CREATE (writer)-[r:Wrote]->(songs)
It is taking way too much time to load. Is there a quicker way pls?
Your query has syntax errors, but I will assume your actual code looks like this:
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 500 LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM "file:///EdgesWriterSong_wrote.csv" AS csvLine
MATCH (writer:Writer { id: toInt(csvLine.WriterId) }),
(songs:Songs { SongId: toInt(csvLine.SongId) })
CREATE (writer)-[r:Wrote]->(songs);
The most obvious reason for slowness for such a simple query would be that you have not yet created indexes for :Writer(id) and Songs(SongId). Do that by running these 2 queries (one at a time):
CREATE INDEX ON :Writer(id);
CREATE INDEX ON :Songs(SongId);

Out of memory when creating large number of relationships

I'm new to Neo4J, and I want to try it on some data I've exported from MySQL. I've got the community edition running with neo4j console, and I'm entering commands using the neo4j-shell command line client.
I have 2 CSV files, that I use to create 2 types of node, as follows:
USING PERIODIC COMMIT
LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM "file:/tmp/updates.csv" AS row
CREATE (:Update {update_id: row.id, update_type: row.update_type, customer_name: row.customer_name, .... });
CREATE INDEX ON :Update(update_id);
USING PERIODIC COMMIT
LOAD CSV WITH HEADERS FROM "file:/tmp/facts.csv" AS row
CREATE (:Fact {update_id: row.update_id, status: row.status, ..... });
CREATE INDEX ON :Fact(update_id);
This gives me approx 650,000 Update nodes, and 21,000,000 Fact nodes.
Once the indexes are online, I try to create relationships between the nodes, as follows:
MATCH (a:Update)
WITH a
MATCH (b:Fact{update_id:a.update_id})
CREATE (b)-[:FROM]->(a)
This fails with an OutOfMemoryError. I believe this is because Neo4J does not commit the transaction until it completes, keeping it in memory.
What can I do to prevent this? I have read about USING PERIODIC COMMIT but it appears this is only useful when reading the CSV, as it doesn't work in my case:
neo4j-sh (?)$ USING PERIODIC COMMIT
> MATCH (a:Update)
> WITH a
> MATCH (b:Fact{update_id:a.update_id})
> CREATE (b)-[:FROM]->(a);
QueryExecutionKernelException: Invalid input 'M': expected whitespace, comment, an integer or LoadCSVQuery (line 2, column 1 (offset: 22))
"MATCH (a:Update)"
^
Is it possible to create relationships in this way, between large numbers of existing nodes, or do I need to take a different approach?
The Out of Memory Exception is normal as it will try to commit it all at once and as you didn't provide it, I assume java heap settings are set as default (512m).
You can however, batch the process with kind of pagination, only I would prefer to use MERGE rather than CREATE in this case :
MATCH (a:Update)
WITH a
SKIP 0
LIMIT 50000
MATCH (b:Fact{update_id:a.update_id})
MERGE (b)-[:FROM]->(a)
Modify SKIP and LIMIT after each batch until your reach 650k update nodes.

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