Zero-downtime update (automatic)

With the zero-downtime update, data in a project can be uploaded automatically without the dashboard being temporarily unavailable because of the data upload.
Important note: currently the zero-downtime update only supports the upload setting “Replace table” (not “Append to table”) on MySQL databases (not on Exasol).
If you want to append data or make data available on Exasol without interruption, you can do so using the manual variant.

How is a zero-downtime update carried out?

1. Navigate to the data source you want to update

2. Select the dataset you want to upload

3. Click Save

4. You will now see the preview of your data. If everything looks fine, select the zero-downtime update and click Save again

5. The zero-downtime update is now carried out in the background

What happens during the zero-downtime update in the background?

1. The data table to be updated is copied (a copy is created in the database - this is not visible in the backend)

2. The new data is uploaded into the copy → as long as this upload is active, the dashboards still access the old data

3. After the data has been uploaded successfully: the current data table is renamed to “data table name_old”

4. The copy is renamed to “data table name”

5. From the renaming onwards, the dashboards access the new data

Should something unexpectedly go wrong during the upload, you can access the backup copy of your data table as follows:

1. Create a new data source

2. Enter the name “data table name_old” → you now have access to the backup copy of your data table

3. If needed, you can also rename the data source again so that the original data is accessed once more

You can find more information on data sources and data tables here.