In-place Firestore Standard → Enterprise migration
Description:
Add an in-place upgrade from Firestore Standard to Enterprise edition — a single button in the console (or a gcloud flag) that converts our existing database, with no downtime and no application code changes.
Today there's no in-place path. The edition is fixed at creation, so the only route is to provision a new Enterprise database and copy data over via export/import or the Dataflow firestore-to-firestore template. The problems:
- It's a point-in-time copy, not a live cutover — so there's effective downtime unless we build our own dual-write/backfill.
- Only documents move; indexes, TTL policies, and other settings must be recreated.
- The destination has a new database ID, forcing a client re-point and redeploy.
Enterprise already keeps backward compatibility for core operations, so an in-place toggle should be feasible: migrate storage to SSD and enable the advanced query engine behind the existing database ID, preserving security rules and client connections.
Reference links:
- Editions overview (Standard vs. Enterprise): https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/editions
- Current migration path: https://docs.cloud.google.com/firestore/native/docs/migrate-standard-to-enterprise
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Rüdiger Busche
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