Hi Alex, Thanks for starting this thread! My opinions below.
> 1) Should schema setup be separate from realm bootstrapping? I think it should be possible to execute the two actions separately. Yet, I do not mind running them together by default. > 2) Should the server perform schema setup at all? Only if the server is configured to bootstrap automatically (which should be off by default for any real persistence). > 3) different schemas per realm? I cannot imagine how this might work... Do you mean different schemas in different realms? That feels like a super narrow use case to me, although I do not mind supporting it. > 4) options [...] I believe the primary schema setup case (with many options, etc.) should be through the admin tool. If the server bootstraps automatically, it should use only defaults for the schema setup. I consider this case only as a "test" or "getting started" use case (i.e. not "production"). Cheers, Dmitri. On Fri, Aug 1, 2025 at 6:43 AM Alexandre Dutra <adu...@apache.org> wrote: > Hi all, > > A nice recent contribution [1], still under review, proposes to create > a separate admin tool command for setting up the database schema. > > Currently, schema setup is done as part of realm bootstrapping [2], > which can happen at server bootstrap, when running the tool's > bootstrap command, or on-demand, depending on the RealmContextResolver > in use. For this reason, the setup script must be idempotent. > > But the PR raised several questions. I will try to summarize them here: > > 1) Should schema setup be separate from realm bootstrapping? > > 2) Should the server perform schema setup at all? If so, when? At > startup, or when a new realm is resolved? > - Side question: if the server doesn't perform schema setup, how are > tests going to do it? > > 3) Do we want/need to support – or at least leave the door open for – > different schemas per realm? > > 4) If we introduce an option to control how schema setup is done: > - Should it be a configuration option in application.properties? It > would then be available to both server and tool. > - Should it be an option of the admin tool's `bootstrap` command? > Opt-in or opt-out? > - Should it be an admin tool's separate command like `setup` ? > > For 4) I would be in favor of a new configuration option, e.g.: > > polaris.schema.setup-mode=NEVER|STARTUP|PER_REALM > > It would be accessible to both server and tool, and the default could > be NEVER for production, and AT_STARTUP for tests. PER_REALM could be > introduced later. > > I'm curious to see what others think. > > Thanks, > Alex > > [1] https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/2196 > [2] > https://github.com/apache/polaris/blob/2117dbd08e8352b32a2c948ed6c166d7c77da50a/persistence/relational-jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/polaris/persistence/relational/jdbc/JdbcMetaStoreManagerFactory.java#L148-L158 >
