Sharding data with the `copy` command
Enterprise EditionNot available on Aura

The copy command can be used to filter out data when creating database copies. In the following example, a sample database is separated into 3 shards.

Example 1. Use the copy command to filter out data

The sample database contains the following data:

(p1 :Person :S2 {id:123, name: "Ava"})
(p2 :Person :S2 {id:124, name: "Bob"})
(p3 :Person :S3 {id:125, name: "Cat", age: 54})
(p4 :Person :S3 {id:126, name: "Dan"})
(t1 :Team :S1 :SAll {id:1, name: "Foo", mascot: "Pink Panther"})
(t2 :Team :S1 :SAll {id:2, name: "Bar", mascot: "Cookie Monster"})
(d1 :Division :SAll {name: "Marketing"})
(p1)-[:MEMBER]->(t1)
(p2)-[:MEMBER]->(t2)
(p3)-[:MEMBER]->(t1)
(p4)-[:MEMBER]->(t2)

The data has been prepared using queries to add the labels :S1,:S2, :S3, and :SAll, which denotes the target shard. Shard 1 contains the team data. Shard 2 and Shard 3 contain person data.

Create Shard 1 with:
```
bin/neo4j-admin database copy neo4j shard1 \
 --copy-only-nodes-with-labels=S1,SAll \ (1)
 --skip-labels=S1,S2,S3,SAll (2)
```
1 The --copy-only-node-with-labels property is used to filter out everything that does not have the label :S1 or :SAll.
2 The --skip-labels property is used to exclude the temporary labels you created for the sharding process.

The resulting shard contains the following:
(t1 :Team {id:1, name: "Foo", mascot: "Pink Panther"}) (t2 :Team {id:2, name: "Bar", mascot: "Cookie Monster"}) (d1 :Division {name: "Marketing"})
Create Shard 2:
```
bin/neo4j-admin database copy neo4j shard2 \
 --copy-only-nodes-with-labels=S2,SAll \
 --skip-labels=S1,S2,S3,SAll \
 --copy-only-node-properties=Team.id
```
In Shard 2, you want to keep the :Team nodes as proxy nodes, to be able to link together information from the separate shards. The nodes will be included since they have the label :SAll, but you specify --copy-only-node-properties so as to not duplicate the team information from Shard 1.
```
(p1 :Person {id:123, name: "Ava"})
(p2 :Person {id:124, name: "Bob"})
(t1 :Team {id:1})
(t2 :Team {id:2})
(d1 :Division {name: "Marketing"})
(p1)-[:MEMBER]->(t1)
(p2)-[:MEMBER]->(t2)
```
Observe that --copy-only-node-properties did not filter out Person.name since the :Person label was not mentioned in the filter.
Create Shard 3, but with the filter --skip-node-properties, instead of --copy-only-node-properties.
```
bin/neo4j-admin database copy neo4j shard3 \
 --copy-only-nodes-with-labels=S3,SAll \
 --skip-labels=S1,S2,S3,SAll \
 --skip-node-properties=Team.name,Team.mascot
```
The result is:
```
(p3 :Person {id:125, name: "Cat", age: 54})
(p4 :Person {id:126, name: "Dan"})
(t1 :Team {id:1})
(t2 :Team {id:2})
(d1 :Division {name: "Marketing"})
(p3)-[:MEMBER]->(t1)
(p4)-[:MEMBER]->(t2)
```
As demonstrated, you can achieve the same result with both --skip-node-properties and --copy-only-node-properties. In this example, it is easier to use --copy-only-node-properties because only one property should be kept. The relationship property filters work in the same way.

Sharding data with the copy commandEnterprise EditionNot available on Aura

Sharding data with the `copy` command
Enterprise EditionNot available on Aura