Major improvements to Neo4j's Azure Cloud support

[david_allen]

Hi everybody,

Recently we've made new Azure Marketplace entries available for Neo4j Enterprise, and I wanted to provide a quick rundown on what this is about and where to find the documentation.

Azure Marketplace now contains:

• Neo4j Enterprise Causal Cluster, which allows you to easily deploy clusters of any number of core and read replicas.
• Neo4j Enterprise VM which is similar to the clustered deploy, but for single-node deploys only.

This is a self-managed option, meaning that if you launch Neo4j using these templates, you'll have new VMs spun up within your Azure account, and you'll be granted administrative access to those VMs, so you'll have the ability to add any plugins or change any aspect of configuration you'd like.

What does this Replace?

Up until recently, the Neo4j option in the Azure marketplace was a "High Availability" cluster option only. This has been retired because HA clusters are an older version of the product; we now recommend people deploy causal clusters instead. Additionally, the previous templates contained a lot of extra optionality which was more likely to result in errors in the deploy process. We've simplified the flow and made it easier to get started quickly.

Documentation

We've provided on our site walk-throughs of how to use the marketplace entries here:

• How to launch a single image of Neo4j on Azure
• How to deploy a causal cluster on Azure

As with our other cloud platforms (AWS and Google Cloud), you can read about how the virtual machines work and can be configured in this article, Neo4j Cloud VMs.

[eric5]

Hello,
I'm unable to deploy to Azure for the last 10 days or so. Will you peek at this Stack Overflow post (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59623325/azure-neo4j-will-not-deploy) and help me understand whats going on?

Thank you

[david_allen]

Hi @eric5 I can confirm that you are using a very old deployment template that has been deprecated a long time ago and is no longer supported.

The correct one is here: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/neo4j.neo4j-enterprise-causal-cluster?...

[eric5]

Hi @david.allen, thank you for the response. Just to be clear " Azure is using a very old deployment template that has been deprecated...". I'm merely selecting the given prompts and being presented with the error , hence this post and the Stack Exchange post: Azure is providing the incorrect deployment

1. I click "Enterprise Edition" from the search bar
   
   
2. I enter basic info
3. I select "Latest version" (I've also tried selecting 3.4, 3.3, etc., NO CHANGE)
4. Boom, issue fails validation
   
   
   
   So it appears Azure should remove "Enterprise Edition" as an option.

[eric5]

Just verified that if I select "Causal Cluster", Neo4J deploys correctly.

[eric5]

PS: Your link "Neo4j Enterprise VM" is 404'd. https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/neo4j.neo4j-enterprise?tab=Overview
This is exactly the deployment I wanted. So... whats the deal? Is a single node Neo4j deployment on Azure possible?
I just want to play with the API and build a business case for my org. I dont' want to pay $250/month and manage a cluster.

[david_allen]

Single node deploy on Azure is possible, and should work with the enterprise deploy. I'll check into this with our packaging team ASAP and see what I can find, if this is replicatable and what can be done.

[david_allen]

Followup. OK there are some points of confusion which I'll try to clear up.

The offer labeled "Neo4j Enterprise Edition" should be delisted and not used, it is indeed the old one. I'm not sure why it is still listed, but we'll look internally into how we can get it removed. Do not use it.

For stand-alone non-clustered, you should use a listing called "Neo4j Enterprise VM Version 3.5". I double checked this link in a second browser and it does not 404: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/neo4j.neo4j-enterprise-3_5?tab=Overvie...

I recognize this is a confusing situation and we'll try to get the wrong one delisted.

[eric5]

I appreciate your attention Mr. Allen. Thank you very much.