Parallel runtime: reference

The parallel runtime behaves differently compared to the slotted and pipelined runtimes in several regards. This page explains the relevant configuration settings for the parallel runtime and the scenarios in which it is either not supported or considered thread-safe. It also includes relevant information for Neo4j Aura users.

Readers not familiar with the parallel runtime are encouraged to read about the parallel runtime concepts before reading this page.

Updating queries

The parallel runtime will throw an error if a query attempts to update the graph. For example, any query run on the parallel runtime which uses the CREATE clause, will throw the following error:

Error message

The parallel runtime does not support updating queries. Please use another runtime.

For a full list of all available Cypher^® write clauses, see the Clauses overview page.

Transactions

It is not possible to use the parallel runtime if a change has been made to the state of a transaction.

For example, the following transaction (initiated on Cypher Shell) will be rolled back, because executing a Cypher query will make changes to the state of a transaction.

Step 1: Initiate a new transaction and change its state by creating a node

:begin
CREATE (n:Person)

Step 2: Attempt to execute a Cypher query with the parallel runtime on the existing transaction

CYPHER runtime = parallel
RETURN 42

Error message

An error occurred while in an open transaction. The transaction will be rolled back and terminated. Error: The parallel runtime is not supported if there are changes in the transaction state. Use another runtime.

For more information about transactions in Neo4j, see the Operations Manual → Transaction management.

Configuration settings

The following setting can be configured to modify the behavior of the parallel runtime:

Table 1. server.cypher.parallel.worker_limit
Description	Number of threads to allocate to Cypher worker threads for the parallel runtime. If set to a positive number, that number of workers will be started. If set to `0`, one worker will be started for every logical processor available to the Java Virtual Machine. If set to a negative number we will subtract the value from the number of logical processors available; for example, say Neo4j is running on a server with 16 available processors, using `server.cypher.parallel.worker_limit = -1` would then mean that 15 threads are available for the parallel runtime.
Valid values	Integer
Default value	`0`

Setting server.cypher.parallel.worker_limit to a negative number -n where n is greater than the total number of cores will disable the parallel runtime.

For more information about configuration settings in Neo4j, see the Operations Manual → Configuration.

Aura

The parallel runtime is available on all non-free AuraDB instances, regardless of their size or CPU count. Additionally, when a query is run with parallel runtime on an Aura instance, it can utilize up to the total number of available CPUs.

The parallel runtime is disabled on AuraDB Free instances. Attempting to run a query with parallel runtime on AuraDB Free will throw the following error message:

Error message

Parallel runtime has been disabled, please enable it or upgrade to a bigger Aura instance.

Users of AuraDB Professional, AuraDB Business Critical, and AuraDB Virtual Dedicated Cloud select the the size and the number of available CPUs when creating an instance. More information about the various tiers of AuraDB can be found on the Neo4j Pricing page.

Procedures and functions

Procedures and functions that read the database are supported by the parallel runtime. Apart from this, there are two categories of procedures and functions to keep in mind when using the parallel runtime.

The first can be categorized as updating procedures. These are procedures that update the graph with write queries, such as the Neo4j procedures db.createLabel and db.createProperty. If such procedures are called in a query run on the parallel runtime, the query will fail.

The second can be categorized as non-thread-safe procedures and functions. These are procedures and functions which perform tasks that are not protected against multiple worker threads concurrently interacting with the targeted data. This includes procedures and functions that perform either of the following tasks:

Executes a Cypher query (because that will start a new transaction, which is not supported by the parallel runtime).
Starts a new transaction (because this is not supported by the parallel runtime).

Calling procedures which perform any of these tasks in a query run on the parallel runtime will not fail the query. Instead the query will automatically run on the pipelined runtime.

Neo4j procedures

The following Neo4j procedures are not considered thread-safe and cannot be run on the parallel runtime. Trying to call them in a query run on the parallel runtime will not fail the query. Instead the query will automatically run on the pipelined runtime.

Table 2. Non-thread-safe Neo4j procedures
Procedure
`db.awaitIndex`
`db.awaitIndexes`
`db.checkpoint`
`db.info`
`db.labels`
`db.listLocks`
`db.ping`
`db.propertyKeys`
`db.prepareForReplanning`
`db.relationshipTypes`
`db.resampleIndex`
`db.resampleOutdatedIndexes`
`db.schema.nodeTypeProperties`
`db.schema.relTypeProperties`
`db.schema.visualization`
`dbms.checkConfigValue`
`dbms.listActiveLocks`
`dbms.listPools`
`dbms.scheduler.failedJobs`
`dbms.scheduler.groups`
`dbms.scheduler.jobs`
`dbms.upgrade`
`dbms.upgradeStatus`

APOC

The APOC library contains procedures and functions which extend the use of Cypher. There are a number of APOC procedures and functions that are not considered thread-safe, and cannot be run on the parallel runtime. For information about these, refer to the pages of the individual procedures and functions in the APOC Manual.

User-defined functions

User-defined functions are simpler forms of procedures that return a single value and are read-only. To learn more about user-defined functions in Neo4j, see the Java Reference Manual → User-defined functions.

Similar to Neo4j and APOC procedures, any user-defined function that starts a new transaction by executing a Cypher query is not considered thread-safe and will not be supported by the parallel runtime (this includes all user-defined aggregating functions).

For example, consider the two following user-defined functions:

class MyFunctions {
  @Context
  public Transaction transaction;

  @UserFunction("examples.return42")
  public long return42() {
    return 42L;
  }

  @UserFunction("examples.return42ViaCypher")
  public long return42ViaCypher() {
    return (long) transaction.execute("RETURN 42 AS res").next().get("n);
  }
}

Running examples.return42() will succeed with the parallel runtime, whereas examples.return42ViaCypher() will fail because executing a new Cypher query will start a new transaction.

However, if @NotThreadSafe is added to the method, then the query will automatically not run on the parallel runtime. The query will instead default to the single-threaded pipelined runtime and generate a notification.

Calling the below user-defined function would, therefore, not fail with the parallel runtime. Instead, the Cypher query would automatically be run on the pipelined runtime.

class MyFunctions {
  @Context
  public Transaction transaction;

  @UserFunction("examples.return42ViaCypher")
  @NotThreadSafe
  public long return42ViaCypher() {
    return (long) transaction.execute("RETURN 42 AS res").next().get("n);
  }
}