neo4j-admin:latest image not compatible with neo4j:5.22.0 image

[mateuszpawlik]

I tried to use the neo4j-admin:latest (at pull time 5.21.2 and couldn't find a newer one) image for a database dump as explained in the docs.

The documentation actually lists neo4j-admin:5.24.0 image, which is not available.

I use neo4j:5.22.0 image for my database, because APOC is not available for a newer version.

My command:

docker run --interactive --tty --rm --volume=neo4j_data:/data --volume=$PWD/neo4j-backups:/backups neo4j/neo4j-admin:latest neo4j-admin database dump neo4j --to-path=/backups

I get the following error:

2024-10-15 09:27:10.749+0000 INFO  [o.n.c.d.DumpCommand] Starting dump of database 'neo4j'
2024-10-15 09:27:10.966+0000 ERROR [o.n.c.d.DumpCommand] Failed to dump database 'neo4j': Failure when checking for recovery state: '%s'.org.neo4j.kernel.impl.transaction.log.entry.UnsupportedLogVersionException: Log file contains entries with prefix 18, and the highest supported Kernel Version is KernelVersion{V5_20,version=17}. This indicates that the log files originates from an newer version of neo4j, which we don't support downgrading from.
2024-10-15 09:27:10.966+0000 ERROR [o.n.c.d.DumpCommand] Dump failed for databases: 'neo4j'
Dump failed for databases: 'neo4j'

$ docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           27.3.1
 API version:       1.47
 Go version:        go1.22.7
 Git commit:        ce12230
 Built:             Fri Sep 20 11:41:11 2024
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          27.3.1
  API version:      1.47 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.22.7
  Git commit:       41ca978
  Built:            Fri Sep 20 11:41:11 2024
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.7.22
  GitCommit:        7f7fdf5fed64eb6a7caf99b3e12efcf9d60e311c
 runc:
  Version:          1.1.14
  GitCommit:        v1.1.14-0-g2c9f560
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

Operating system: Debian 12

[mateuszpawlik]

I solved it by using the same image I use for the database.

docker run --interactive --tty --rm --volume=neo4j_data:/data --volume=$PWD/neo4j-backups:/backups neo4j:5.22.0 neo4j-admin database dump neo4j --to-path=/backups

[mateuszpawlik]

Or so I thought that I fixed it. After cleaning Docker environment, the above command stopped working with:

ERROR [o.n.c.d.DumpCommand] Failed to dump database 'neo4j': Unable to dump database: AccessDeniedException: /backups

It took me several hours to figure out why it stopped working.

One difference between neo4j/neo4j-admin and neo4j images is explicit change of ownership of the /backup directory.

docker-neo4j/docker-image-src/5/neo4j-admin/docker-entrypoint.sh

Lines 133 to 135 in 3788f71

	if [ -d /backups ]; then
	check_mounted_folder_writable_with_chown "/backups"
	fi

When I executed neo4j-admin from neo4j/neo4j-admin image, although it failed, it silently (or I missed it) changed the ownership of the /backup directory. Then, neo4j-admin from neo4j simply worked. When I tried again in a fresh docker environment, I started getting AccessDeniedException. It does make sense that the neo4j user from docker container cannot write to my host directory with drwxr-xr-x permissions. However, it was difficult to find out.