Common questions about the centralized and distributed integrated database feature of PolarDB-X.
Can a PolarDB-X instance operate only in distributed mode?
No. PolarDB-X is a centralized and distributed integrated database that supports both Standard Edition (centralized) and Enterprise Edition (distributed). You can upgrade a PolarDB-X instance from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition to benefit from the scalability and availability of a distributed database.
What are the differences between Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition?
For a full comparison, see Differences between Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition.
Do I need to migrate data when upgrading from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition? Do the endpoints change?
No on both counts. The upgrade is in-place: Standard Edition nodes are converted directly to data nodes in distributed mode, so no data migration is required and your endpoints stay the same.
How do I convert data objects when upgrading from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition?
Run the IMPORT DATABASE statement on the PolarDB-X instance to convert centralized data objects into distributed data objects.
After the upgrade, you can access and manage the instance the same way you did before — the transparent distributed capabilities of PolarDB-X handle the underlying distribution without changing how you interact with the database.