General Idea

Simulate a SmartGraph or a SatelliteGraph on a single server and then to port it to an ArangoDB Cluster

The graphs are created in a single server instance and tested there. Internally, the graphs are General Graphs supplemented by formal properties such as isSmart, which however play no role in the behavior of the graphs. The same is true for vertex and edge collections: they have the corresponding properties, which are non-functional.

After a test phase such a graph can be dumped and then restored in a cluster instance. The graph itself and the vertex and edge collections now obtain true SmartGraph or SatelliteGraph sharding properties as if they were created in the cluster.

The Procedure

On a single server, create SmartGraphs or SatelliteGraphs graphs by using arangosh as usual. Then you can set all the cluster relevant properties of graphs and collections: numberOfShards, isSmart, isSatellite, replicationFactor, smartGraphAttribute, satellites and shardingStrategy. After that you can dump the graphs with arangodump as usual.

Now restore the dumped data into a running instance of ArangoDB Cluster. As a result, all cluster relevant properties are restored correctly and affect now the sharding and the performance.