CREATE CHANGEFEED

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Note:

CREATE CHANGEFEED is an Enterprise-only feature. For the core version, see EXPERIMENTAL CHANGEFEED FOR.

The CREATE CHANGEFEED statement creates a new Enterprise changefeed, which targets an allowlist of tables called "watched rows". Every change to a watched row is emitted as a record in a configurable format (JSON or Avro) to a configurable sink. CREATE CHANGEFEED also supports change data capture queries that allow you to filter and transform change data before emitting changefeed messages. You can create, pause, resume, alter, or cancel an Enterprise changefeed.

To get started with changefeeds, refer to the Create and Configure Changefeeds page for important usage considerations. For detail on how changefeeds emit messages, refer to the Changefeed Messages page.

The examples on this page provide the foundational syntax of the CREATE CHANGEFEED statement. For examples on more specific use cases with changefeeds see the following pages:

Cockroach Labs recommends monitoring your changefeeds to track retryable errors and protected timestamp usage. Refer to the Monitor and Debug Changefeeds page for more information.

Required privileges

Note:

Starting in v22.2, CockroachDB introduces a new system-level privilege model that provides finer control over a user's privilege to work with the database, including creating and managing changefeeds.

There is continued support for the legacy privilege model for changefeeds in v23.1, however it will be removed in a future release of CockroachDB. We recommend implementing the new privilege model that follows in this section for all changefeeds.

You can grant a user the CHANGEFEED privilege to allow them to create changefeeds on a specific table:

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GRANT CHANGEFEED ON TABLE example_table TO user;

When you grant a user the CHANGEFEED privilege on a set of tables, they can:

These users will be able to create changefeeds, but they will not be able to run a SELECT query on that data directly. However, they could still read this data indirectly if they have read access to the sink.

New in v23.1: To restrict a user's access to changefeed data and sink credentials, enable the changefeed.permissions.require_external_connection_sink.enabled cluster setting. When you enable this setting, users with the CHANGEFEED privilege on a set of tables can only create changefeeds into external connections .

Privilege model

The following summarizes the operations users can run when they have changefeed privileges on a table:

Granted privileges Usage
CHANGEFEED Create changefeeds on tables.
Manage changefeed jobs on tables.
CHANGEFEED + USAGE on external connection Create changefeeds on tables to an external connection URI.
Manage changefeed jobs on tables.
Note: If you need to manage access to changefeed sink URIs, set the changefeed.permissions.require_external_connection_sink.enabled=true cluster setting. This will mean that users with these privileges can only create changefeeds on external connections.
SELECT Create a sinkless changefeed that emits messages to a SQL client.
Deprecated CONTROLCHANGEFEED role option + SELECT Create changefeeds on tables.

You can add CHANGEFEED to the user or role's default privileges with ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES:

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ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES GRANT CHANGEFEED ON TABLES TO user;
Note:

Users with the CONTROLCHANGEFEED role option must have SELECT on each table, even if they are also granted the CHANGEFEED privilege. The CONTROLCHANGEFEED role option will be deprecated in a future release.

Legacy privilege model

To create a changefeed, the user must be a member of the admin role or have the CREATECHANGEFEED parameter set.

Synopsis

CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR changefeed_target , INTO sink WITH option = value , INTO sink WITH option = value , AS SELECT target_list FROM changefeed_target_expr opt_where_clause

Parameters

Parameter Description
changefeed_target The name of the table (or tables in a comma separated list) to create a changefeed for.

Note: Before creating a changefeed, consider the number of changefeeds versus the number of tables to include in a single changefeed. Each scenario can have an impact on total memory usage or changefeed performance. Refer to Create and Configure Changefeeds for more detail.
sink The location of the configurable sink. The scheme of the URI indicates the type. For more information, refer to Sink URI.

Note: If you create a changefeed without a sink, your changefeed will run like a core changefeed sending messages to the SQL client. For more detail, refer to the Create and Configure Changefeeds page.
option / value For a list of available options and their values, refer to Options.

Parameters for change data capture queries

Change data capture queries allow you to define the change data emitted to your sink when you create a changefeed. Refer to the Change Data Capture Queries page for detail on the functionality, syntax, and use cases for creating changefeeds that include queries.

Parameter Description
sink The location of the configurable sink. The scheme of the URI indicates the type. For more information, see Sink URI.
option / value For a list of available options and their values, see Options.
target_list The columns to emit data from.
changefeed_target_expr The target table for the changefeed.
opt_where_clause An optional WHERE clause to apply filters to the table.

Sink URI

This section provides example URIs for each of the sinks that CockroachDB changefeeds support. For more comprehensive detail of using and configuring each sink, refer to the Changefeed Sinks page.

'{scheme}://{host}:{port}?{query_parameters}'
URI Component Description
scheme The type of sink: kafka, gcpubsub, any cloud storage sink, or webhook sink.
host The sink's hostname or IP address.
port The sink's port.
query_parameters The sink's query parameters.

You can create an external connection to represent a changefeed sink URI. This allows you to specify the external connection's name in statements rather than the provider-specific URI. For detail on using external connections, see the CREATE EXTERNAL CONNECTION page.

Kafka

Example of a Kafka sink URI:

'kafka://broker.address.com:9092?topic_prefix=bar_&tls_enabled=true&ca_cert=LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZ&sasl_enabled=true&sasl_user={sasl user}&sasl_password={url-encoded password}&sasl_mechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256'
Note:

VPC Peering and AWS PrivateLink in CockroachDB Dedicated clusters do not support connecting to a Kafka sink's internal IP addresses for changefeeds. To connect to a Kafka sink from CockroachDB Dedicated, it is necessary to expose the Kafka cluster's external IP address and open ports with firewall rules to allow access from a CockroachDB Dedicated cluster.

Google Cloud Pub/Sub

Note:

This feature is in preview. This feature is subject to change. To share feedback and/or issues, contact Support.

Example of a Google Cloud Pub/Sub sink URI:

'gcpubsub://{project name}?region={region}&topic_name={topic name}&AUTH=specified&CREDENTIALS={base64-encoded key}'
Note:

New in v23.1: Enable the changefeed.new_pubsub_sink_enabled cluster setting to improve the throughput of changefeeds emitting to Pub/Sub sinks.

Use Cloud Storage for Bulk Operations explains the requirements for the authentication parameter with specified or implicit. Refer to Changefeed Sinks for further consideration.

Cloud Storage

The following are example file URLs for each of the cloud storage schemes:

Location Example
Amazon S3 's3://{BUCKET NAME}/{PATH}?AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID={KEY ID}&AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY={SECRET ACCESS KEY}'
Azure Blob Storage 'azure-blob://{CONTAINER NAME}/{PATH}?AZURE_ACCOUNT_NAME={ACCOUNT NAME}&AZURE_ACCOUNT_KEY={URL-ENCODED KEY}'
Google Cloud 'gs://{BUCKET NAME}/{PATH}?AUTH=specified&CREDENTIALS={ENCODED KEY'
HTTP 'http://localhost:8080/{PATH}'

Use Cloud Storage explains the requirements for authentication and encryption for each supported cloud storage sink. Refer to Changefeed Sinks for considerations when using cloud storage.

Webhook

Example of a webhook URI:

'webhook-https://{your-webhook-endpoint}?insecure_tls_skip_verify=true'
Note:

New in v23.1: Enable the changefeed.new_webhook_sink_enabled cluster setting to improve the throughput of changefeeds emitting to webhook sinks.

Refer to Changefeed Sinks for specifics on webhook sink configuration.

Query parameters

Note:

Parameters should always be URI-encoded before they are included in the changefeed's URI, as they often contain special characters. Use Javascript's encodeURIComponent function or Go language's url.QueryEscape function to URI-encode the parameters. Other languages provide similar functions to URI-encode special characters.

Query parameters include:

Parameter
Sink Type
Type
Description
assume_role Amazon S3 STRING Pass the ARN of the role to assume. Use in combination with AUTH=implicit or specified. New in v23.1: external_id: Use as a value to ASSUME_ROLE to specify the external ID for third-party access to your S3 bucket.
ca_cert Kafka, webhook, Confluent schema registry STRING The base64-encoded ca_cert file. Specify ca_cert for a Kafka sink, webhook sink, and/or a Confluent schema registry.

For usage with a Kafka sink, see Kafka Sink URI.

It's necessary to state https in the schema registry's address when passing ca_cert:
confluent_schema_registry='https://schema_registry:8081?ca_cert=LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZ'
See confluent_schema_registry for more detail on using this option.

Note: To encode your ca.cert, run base64 -w 0 ca.cert.
client_cert Kafka, webhook, Confluent schema registry STRING The base64-encoded Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) certificate. This is used with client_key.
client_key Kafka, webhook, Confluent schema registry STRING The base64-encoded private key for the PEM certificate. This is used with client_cert.

Note: Client keys are often encrypted. You will receive an error if you pass an encrypted client key in your changefeed statement. To decrypt the client key, run: openssl rsa -in key.pem -out key.decrypt.pem -passin pass:{PASSWORD}. Once decrypted, be sure to update your changefeed statement to use the new key.decrypt.pem file instead.
file_size cloud STRING The file will be flushed (i.e., written to the sink) when it exceeds the specified file size. This can be used with the WITH resolved option, which flushes on a specified cadence. When you change or increase file_size, ensure that you adjust the changefeed.memory.per_changefeed_limit cluster setting, which has a default of 512MiB. Buffering messages can quickly reach this limit if you have increased the file size. Refer to Advanced Changefeed Configuration for more detail.

Default: 16MB
insecure_tls_skip_verify Kafka, webhook BOOL If true, disable client-side validation of responses. Note that a CA certificate is still required; this parameter means that the client will not verify the certificate. Warning: Use this query parameter with caution, as it creates MITM vulnerabilities unless combined with another method of authentication.

Default: false
partition_format cloud STRING Specify how changefeed file paths are partitioned in cloud storage sinks. Use partition_format with the following values:

  • daily is the default behavior that organizes directories by dates (2022-05-18/, 2022-05-19/, etc.).
  • hourly will further organize directories by hour within each date directory (2022-05-18/06, 2022-05-18/07, etc.).
  • flat will not partition the files at all.

For example: CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE users INTO 'gs://...?AUTH...&partition_format=hourly'

Default: daily
S3_STORAGE_CLASS Amazon S3 cloud storage sink STRING Specify the Amazon S3 storage class for files created by the changefeed. See Create a changefeed with an S3 storage class for the available classes and an example.

Default: STANDARD
New in v23.1: sasl_client_id Kafka STRING Client ID for OAuth authentication from a third-party provider. This parameter is only applicable with sasl_mechanism=OAUTHBEARER.
New in v23.1: sasl_client_secret Kafka STRING Client secret for OAuth authentication from a third-party provider. This parameter is only applicable with sasl_mechanism=OAUTHBEARER. Note: You must base64 encode this value when passing it in as part of a sink URI.
sasl_enabled Kafka BOOL If true, the authentication protocol can be set to SCRAM or PLAIN using the sasl_mechanism parameter. You must have tls_enabled set to true to use SASL.

Default: false
New in v23.1: sasl_grant_type Kafka STRING Override the default OAuth client credentials grant type for other implementations. This parameter is only applicable with sasl_mechanism=OAUTHBEARER.
sasl_mechanism Kafka STRING Can be set to OAUTHBEARER, SCRAM-SHA-256, SCRAM-SHA-512, or PLAIN. A sasl_user and sasl_password are required.

See the Connect to a Changefeed Kafka sink with OAuth Using Okta tutorial for detail setting up OAuth using Okta.

Default: PLAIN
New in v23.1: sasl_scopes Kafka STRING A list of scopes that the OAuth token should have access for. This parameter is only applicable with sasl_mechanism=OAUTHBEARER.
New in v23.1: sasl_token_url Kafka STRING Client token URL for OAuth authentication from a third-party provider. Note: You must URL encode this value before passing in a URI. This parameter is only applicable with sasl_mechanism=OAUTHBEARER.
sasl_user Kafka STRING Your SASL username.
sasl_password Kafka STRING Your SASL password. Note: Passwords should be URL encoded since the value can contain characters that would cause authentication to fail.
tls_enabled Kafka BOOL If true, enable Transport Layer Security (TLS) on the connection to Kafka. This can be used with a ca_cert (see below).

Default: false
topic_name Kafka, GC Pub/Sub STRING Allows arbitrary topic naming for Kafka and GC Pub/Sub topics. See the Kafka topic naming limitations or GC Pub/Sub topic naming for detail on supported characters etc.

For example, CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR foo,bar INTO 'kafka://sink?topic_name=all' will emit all records to a topic named all. Note that schemas will still be registered separately. When using Kafka, this parameter can be combined with the topic_prefix parameter (this is not supported for GC Pub/Sub).

Default: table name.
topic_prefix Kafka, cloud STRING Adds a prefix to all topic names.

For example, CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE foo INTO 'kafka://...?topic_prefix=bar_' would emit rows under the topic bar_foo instead of foo.

Options

Option Value Description
avro_schema_prefix Schema prefix name Provide a namespace for the schema of a table in addition to the default, the table name. This allows multiple databases or clusters to share the same schema registry when the same table name is present in multiple databases.

Example: CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR foo WITH format=avro, confluent_schema_registry='registry_url', avro_schema_prefix='super' will register subjects as superfoo-key and superfoo-value with the namespace super.
compression gzip, zstd Compress changefeed data files written to a cloud storage sink. For compression options when using a Kafka sink, see Kafka sink configuration.
confluent_schema_registry Schema Registry address The Schema Registry address is required to use avro.

Use the timeout={duration} query parameter (duration string) in your Confluent Schema Registry URI to change the default timeout for contacting the schema registry. By default, the timeout is 30 seconds.

To connect to Confluent Cloud, use the following URL structure: 'https://{API_KEY_ID}:{API_SECRET_URL_ENCODED}@{CONFLUENT_REGISTRY_URL}:443'. See the Stream a Changefeed to a Confluent Cloud Kafka Cluster tutorial for further detail.

Use the changefeed.schema_registry.retry_count metric to measure the number of request retries performed when sending requests to the schema registry. For more detail on monitoring changefeeds, refer to Monitor and Debug Changefeeds.
cursor Timestamp Emit any changes after the given timestamp. cursor does not output the current state of the table first. When cursor is not specified, the changefeed starts by doing an initial scan of all the watched rows and emits the current value, then moves to emitting any changes that happen after the scan.

The changefeed will encounter an error if you specify a timestamp that is before the configured garbage collection window for the target table. (Refer to gc.ttlseconds.) With default garbage collection settings, this means you cannot create a changefeed that starts more than the default MVCC garbage collection interval in the past.

You can use cursor to start a new changefeed where a previous changefeed ended.

Example: cursor='1536242855577149065.0000000000'
diff N/A Publish a before field with each message, which includes the value of the row before the update was applied. Changefeeds must use the diff option with the default wrapped envelope to emit the before field.
end_time Timestamp Indicate the timestamp up to which the changefeed will emit all events and then complete with a successful status. Provide a future timestamp to end_time in number of nanoseconds since the Unix epoch. For example, end_time="1655402400000000000". You cannot use end_time and initial_scan = 'only' simultaneously.
envelope wrapped / bare / key_only / row wrapped the default envelope structure for changefeed messages containing an array of the primary key, a top-level field for the type of message, and the current state of the row (or null for deleted rows).

bare removes the after key from the changefeed message and stores any metadata in a crdb field. When used with avro format, record will replace the after key. Note: This is the default envelope format for CDC queries. For an example, refer to Filter columns.

key_only emits only the key and no value, which is faster if you only need to know the key of the changed row. This envelope option is only supported for Kafka sinks or sinkless changefeeds.

row emits the row without any additional metadata fields in the message. This envelope option is only supported in Kafka sinks or sinkless changefeeds. row does not support avro format.

Refer to Responses for more detail on message format.

Default: envelope=wrapped. Default for CDC queries: envelope=bare.
New in v23.1: execution_locality Key-value pairs Restricts the execution of a changefeed to nodes that match the defined locality filter requirements, e.g., WITH execution_locality = 'region=us-west-1a,cloud=aws'.

See Run a changefeed job by locality for usage and reference detail.
format json / avro / csv / parquet Format of the emitted message.

avro: For mappings of CockroachDB types to Avro types, refer to the table and detail on Avro limitations. Note: confluent_schema_registry is required with format=avro.

csv: You cannot combine format=csv with the diff or resolved options. Changefeeds use the same CSV format as the EXPORT statement. Refer to Export data with changefeeds for details using these options to create a changefeed as an alternative to EXPORT. Note: initial_scan = 'only' is required with format=csv.

parquet: This is in Preview. Cloud storage is the only supported sink. The topic_in_value option is not compatible with parquet format.

Default: format=json.
full_table_name N/A Use fully qualified table name in topics, subjects, schemas, and record output instead of the default table name. This can prevent unintended behavior when the same table name is present in multiple databases.

Note: This option cannot modify existing table names used as topics, subjects, etc., as part of an ALTER CHANGEFEED statement. To modify a topic, subject, etc., to use a fully qualified table name, create a new changefeed with this option.

Example: CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR foo... WITH full_table_name will create the topic name defaultdb.public.foo instead of foo.
New in v23.1: gc_protect_expires_after Duration string Automatically expires protected timestamp records that are older than the defined duration. In the case where a changefeed job remains paused, gc_protect_expires_after will trigger the underlying protected timestamp record to expire and cancel the changefeed job to prevent accumulation of protected data. Use with protect_data_from_gc_on_pause to limit the amount of time a changefeed job will remain paused protecting change data.

See Garbage collection and changefeeds for more detail on protecting changefeed data.
initial_scan yes/no/only Control whether or not an initial scan will occur at the start time of a changefeed. Only one initial_scan option (yes, no, or only) can be used. If none of these are set, an initial scan will occur if there is no cursor, and will not occur if there is one. This preserves the behavior from previous releases. With initial_scan = 'only' set, the changefeed job will end with a successful status (succeeded) after the initial scan completes. You cannot specify yes, no, only simultaneously.

If used in conjunction with cursor, an initial scan will be performed at the cursor timestamp. If no cursor is specified, the initial scan is performed at now().

Although the initial_scan / no_initial_scan syntax from previous versions is still supported, you cannot combine the previous and current syntax.

Default: initial_scan = 'yes'
kafka_sink_config STRING Set fields to configure the required level of message acknowledgement from the Kafka server, the version of the server, and batching parameters for Kafka sinks. Set the message file compression type. See Kafka sink configuration for more detail on configuring all the available fields for this option.

Example: CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR table INTO 'kafka://localhost:9092' WITH kafka_sink_config='{"Flush": {"MaxMessages": 1, "Frequency": "1s"}, "RequiredAcks": "ONE"}'
New in v23.1: key_column 'column' Override the key used in message metadata. This changes the key hashed to determine downstream partitions. In sinks that support partitioning by message, CockroachDB uses the 32-bit FNV-1a hashing algorithm to determine which partition to send to.

Note: key_column does not preserve ordering of messages from CockroachDB to the downstream sink, therefore you must also include the unordered option in your changefeed creation statement. It does not affect per-key ordering guarantees or the output of key_in_value.

See the Define a key to determine the changefeed sink partition example.
key_in_value N/A Add a primary key array to the emitted message. This makes the primary key of a deleted row recoverable in sinks where each message has a value but not a key (most have a key and value in each message). key_in_value is automatically used for cloud storage sinks, webhook sinks, and GC Pub/Sub sinks.
metrics_label STRING Define a metrics label to which the metrics for one or multiple changefeeds increment. All changefeeds also have their metrics aggregated.

The maximum length of a label is 128 bytes. There is a limit of 1024 unique labels.

WITH metrics_label=label_name

For more detail on usage and considerations, see Using changefeed metrics labels.
min_checkpoint_frequency Duration string Controls how often nodes flush their progress to the coordinating changefeed node. Changefeeds will wait for at least the specified duration before a flush to the sink. This can help you control the flush frequency of higher latency sinks to achieve better throughput. If this is set to 0s, a node will flush as long as the high-water mark has increased for the ranges that particular node is processing. If a changefeed is resumed, then min_checkpoint_frequency is the amount of time that changefeed will need to catch up. That is, it could emit duplicate messages during this time.

Note: resolved messages will not be emitted more frequently than the configured min_checkpoint_frequency (but may be emitted less frequently). Since min_checkpoint_frequency defaults to 30s, you must configure min_checkpoint_frequency to at least the desired resolved message frequency if you require resolved messages more frequently than 30s.

Default: 30s
mvcc_timestamp N/A Include the MVCC timestamp for each emitted row in a changefeed. With the mvcc_timestamp option, each emitted row will always contain its MVCC timestamp, even during the changefeed's initial backfill.
on_error pause / fail Use on_error=pause to pause the changefeed when encountering non-retryable errors. on_error=pause will pause the changefeed instead of sending it into a terminal failure state. Note: Retryable errors will continue to be retried with this option specified.

Use with protect_data_from_gc_on_pause to protect changes from garbage collection.

If a changefeed with on_error=pause is running when a watched table is truncated, the changefeed will pause but will not be able to resume reads from that table. Using ALTER CHANGEFEED to drop the table from the changefeed and then resuming the job will work, but you cannot add the same table to the changefeed again. Instead, you will need to create a new changefeed for that table.

Default: on_error=fail
protect_data_from_gc_on_pause N/A When a changefeed is paused, ensure that the data needed to resume the changefeed is not garbage collected. If protect_data_from_gc_on_pause is unset, pausing the changefeed will release the existing protected timestamp records. It is also important to note that pausing and adding protect_data_from_gc_on_pause to a changefeed will not protect data if the garbage collection window has already passed.

Use with on-error=pause to protect changes from garbage collection when encountering non-retryable errors.

See Garbage collection and changefeeds for more detail on protecting changefeed data.

Note: If you use this option, changefeeds that are left paused for long periods of time can prevent garbage collection. Use with the gc_protect_expires_after option to set a limit for protected data and for how long a changefeed will remain paused.
New in v23.1: pubsub_sink_config STRING Set fields to configure sink batching and retries. The schema is as follows:

{ "Flush": { "Messages": ..., "Bytes": ..., "Frequency": ..., }, "Retry": {"Max": ..., "Backoff": ..., } }.

Note that if either Messages or Bytes are nonzero, then a non-zero value for Frequency must be provided.

Refer to Pub/Sub sink configuration for more details on using this option.
resolved Duration string Emits resolved timestamp events per changefeed in a format dependent on the connected sink. Resolved timestamp events do not emit until all ranges in the changefeed have progressed to a specific point in time.

Set an optional minimal duration between emitting resolved timestamps. Example: resolved='10s'. This option will only emit a resolved timestamp event if the timestamp has advanced and at least the optional duration has elapsed. If a duration is unspecified, all resolved timestamps are emitted as the high-water mark advances.

Note: If you set resolved lower than 30s, then you must also set min_checkpoint_frequency to at minimum the same value as resolved, because resolved messages may be emitted less frequently than min_checkpoint_frequency, but cannot be emitted more frequently.

Refer to Resolved messages for more detail.
schema_change_events default / column_changes The type of schema change event that triggers the behavior specified by the schema_change_policy option:
Default: schema_change_events=default
schema_change_policy backfill / nobackfill / stop The behavior to take when an event specified by the schema_change_events option occurs:
  • backfill: When schema changes with column backfill are finished, output all watched rows using the new schema.
  • nobackfill: For schema changes with column backfill, perform no logical backfills. The changefeed will not emit any messages about the schema change.
  • stop: For schema changes with column backfill, wait for all data preceding the schema change to be resolved before exiting with an error indicating the timestamp at which the schema change occurred. An error: schema change occurred at <timestamp> will display in the cockroach.log file.

Default: schema_change_policy=backfill
split_column_families N/A Use this option to create a changefeed on a table with multiple column families. The changefeed will emit messages for each of the table's column families. See Changefeeds on tables with column families for more usage detail.
topic_in_value BOOL Set to include the topic in each emitted row update. This option is automatically set for webhook sinks. Note: topic_in_value is not compatible with changefeeds running in parquet format.
New in v23.1: unordered N/A Run a changefeed to Google Cloud Pub/Sub without specifying a region.

You must include the unordered option with key_column in your changefeed creation statement.

You cannot use unordered with resolved, because resolved timestamps may not be correct in unordered mode.
updated N/A Include updated timestamps with each row.

If a cursor is provided, the "updated" timestamps will match the MVCC timestamps of the emitted rows, and there is no initial scan. If a cursor is not provided, the changefeed will perform an initial scan (as of the time the changefeed was created), and the "updated" timestamp for each change record emitted in the initial scan will be the timestamp of the initial scan. Similarly, when a backfill is performed for a schema change, the "updated" timestamp is set to the first timestamp for when the new schema is valid.
virtual_columns STRING Changefeeds omit virtual computed columns from emitted messages by default. To maintain the behavior of previous CockroachDB versions where the changefeed would emit NULL values for virtual computed columns, set virtual_columns = "null" when you start a changefeed.

You may also define virtual_columns = "omitted", though this is already the default behavior for v22.1+. If you do not set "omitted" on a table with virtual computed columns when you create a changefeed, you will receive a warning that changefeeds will filter out virtual computed values.

Default: "omitted"
webhook_auth_header STRING Pass a value (password, token etc.) to the HTTP Authorization header with a webhook request for a "Basic" HTTP authentication scheme.

Example: With a username of "user" and password of "pwd", add a colon between "user:pwd" and then base64 encode, which results in "dXNlcjpwd2Q=". WITH webhook_auth_header='Basic dXNlcjpwd2Q='.
webhook_client_timeout INTERVAL If a response is not recorded from the sink within this timeframe, it will error and retry to connect. Note this must be a positive value.

Default: "3s"
webhook_sink_config STRING Set fields to configure sink batching and retries. The schema is as follows:

{ "Flush": { "Messages": ..., "Bytes": ..., "Frequency": ..., }, "Retry": {"Max": ..., "Backoff": ..., } }.

Note that if either Messages or Bytes are nonzero, then a non-zero value for Frequency must be provided.

See Webhook sink configuration for more details on using this option.
Note:

Using the format=avro, envelope=key_only, and updated options together is rejected. envelope=key_only prevents any rows with updated fields from being emitted, which makes the updated option meaningless.

Files

The files emitted to a sink use the following naming conventions:

Note:

The timestamp format is YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNNNNNNNLLLLLLLLLL.

General file format

/[date]/[timestamp]-[uniquer]-[topic]-[schema-id]

For example:

/2020-04-02/202004022058072107140000000000000-56087568dba1e6b8-1-72-00000000-test_table-1.ndjson

When emitting changefeed messages to a cloud storage sink, you can specify a partition format for your files using the partition_format query parameter. This will result in the following file path formats:

  • daily: This is the default option and will follow the same pattern as the previous general file format.
  • hourly: This will partition into an hourly directory as the changefeed emits messages, like the following:

    /2020-04-02/20/202004022058072107140000000000000-56087568dba1e6b8-1-72-00000000-test_table-1.ndjson
    
  • flat: This will result in no file partitioning. The cloud storage path you specify when creating a changefeed will store all of the message files with no additional directories created.

Resolved file format

/[date]/[timestamp].RESOLVED

For example:

/2020-04-04/202004042351304139680000000000000.RESOLVED

Examples

Before running any of the examples in this section it is necessary to enable the kv.rangefeed.enabled cluster setting. If you are working on a CockroachDB Serverless cluster, this cluster setting is enabled by default.

The following examples show the syntax for managing changefeeds and starting changefeeds with different use cases and features. The Options table on this page provides a list of all the available options. For information on sink-specific query parameters and configurations, refer to the Changefeed Sinks page.

You can create an external connection to represent a changefeed sink URI. This allows you to specify the external connection's name in statements rather than the provider-specific URI. For detail on using external connections, see the CREATE EXTERNAL CONNECTION page.

Note:

We recommend limiting the number of changefeeds per cluster to 80.

Create a changefeed connected to a sink

You can connect a changefeed to the following sinks:

  • Kafka
  • Cloud storage / HTTP
  • Google Cloud Pub/Sub
  • Webhook
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CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name, table_name2, table_name3
  INTO 'scheme://host:port'
  WITH updated, resolved;

For guidance on the sink URI, refer to:

Create a changefeed that filters and transforms change data

CDC queries can filter and transform change data before emitting it to a sink or a SQL client.

You can adapt a changefeed with CDC queries by including SELECT and WHERE clauses in your CREATE statement:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED INTO 'scheme://host:port'
  WITH updated, resolved
  AS SELECT owner_id, status
  FROM vehicles
  WHERE status = 'lost';

CDC queries can only run on a single table per changefeed and require an Enterprise license.

Create a sinkless changefeed

You can create a changefeed that will send messages to the SQL client rather than a sink:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name, table_name2, table_name3
  WITH updated, resolved;

Sinkless changefeeds do not require an Enterprise license; however, a sinkless changefeed with CDC queries does require an Enterprise license.

To create a sinkless changefeed using CDC queries:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED WITH updated, resolved
  AS SELECT owner_id, status
  FROM vehicles
  WHERE status = 'lost';

Use an external connection to specify a changefeed sink

External connections provide a way to define a name for a sink, which you can use instead of the provider-specific URI.

New in v23.1: To restrict a user's access to changefeed data and sink credentials, enable the changefeed.permissions.require_external_connection_sink.enabled cluster setting. When you enable this setting, users with the CHANGEFEED privilege on a set of tables can only create changefeeds into external connections .

External connections support all changefeed sinks.

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CREATE EXTERNAL CONNECTION kafka_sink
  AS 'kafka://broker.address.com:9092?topic_prefix=bar_&tls_enabled=true&ca_cert={certificate}&sasl_enabled=true&sasl_user={sasl user}&sasl_password={url-encoded password}&sasl_mechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256';

In the changefeed statement, you specify the external connection name:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name INTO 'external://kafka_sink'
  WITH resolved;

Manage a changefeed

For Enterprise changefeeds, use SHOW CHANGEFEED JOBS to check the status of your changefeed jobs:

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SHOW CHANGEFEED JOBS;

Use the following SQL statements to pause, resume, or cancel a changefeed.

Pause a changefeed

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PAUSE JOB job_id;

For more information, see PAUSE JOB.

Resume a paused changefeed

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RESUME JOB job_id;

For more information, see RESUME JOB.

Cancel a changefeed

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CANCEL JOB job_id;

For more information, see CANCEL JOB.

Modify a changefeed

To modify an Enterprise changefeed, pause the job and then use:

ALTER CHANGEFEED job_id [ADD table] [DROP table] [SET option] [UNSET option];

You can add new table targets, remove them, set new changefeed options, and unset them.

For more information, see ALTER CHANGEFEED.

Configuring all changefeeds

It is useful to be able to pause all running changefeeds during troubleshooting, testing, or when a decrease in CPU load is needed.

To pause all running changefeeds:

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PAUSE JOBS (WITH x AS (SHOW CHANGEFEED JOBS) SELECT job_id FROM x WHERE status = ('running'));

This will change the status for each of the running changefeeds to paused, which can be verified with SHOW CHANGEFEED JOBS.

To resume all running changefeeds:

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RESUME JOBS (WITH x AS (SHOW CHANGEFEED JOBS) SELECT job_id FROM x WHERE status = ('paused'));

This will resume the changefeeds and update the status for each of the changefeeds to running.

Start a new changefeed where another ended

In some situations, you may want to start a changefeed where a previously running changefeed ended. For example, a changefeed could encounter an error it cannot recover from, such as when a TRUNCATE is performed, and you need to restart the changefeed.

  1. Use SHOW CHANGEFEED JOB to find the high-water timestamp for the ended changefeed:

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    SHOW CHANGEFEED JOB {job_id};
    
            job_id       | ... |      high_water_timestamp      | ...
    +--------------------+ ... +--------------------------------+ ...
      383870400694353921 | ... | 1537279405671006870.0000000000 | ...
    (1 row)
    
    Note:

    If a changefeed has failed, you must restart the changefeed from a timestamp after the event that caused the failure.

  2. Use the high_water_timestamp to start the new changefeed:

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    CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name, table_name2, table_name3
      INTO 'scheme//host:port'
      WITH cursor = '<high_water_timestamp>';
    

When you use the cursor option to start a changefeed, it will not perform an initial scan.

Create a changefeed with an S3 storage class

To associate the changefeed message files with a specific storage class in your Amazon S3 bucket, use the S3_STORAGE_CLASS parameter with the class. For example, the following S3 connection URI specifies the INTELLIGENT_TIERING storage class:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name
  INTO 's3://{BUCKET NAME}?AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID={KEY ID}&AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY={SECRET ACCESS KEY}&S3_STORAGE_CLASS=INTELLIGENT_TIERING'
  WITH resolved;

Use the parameter to set one of these storage classes listed in Amazon's documentation. For more general usage information, see Amazon's Using Amazon S3 storage classes documentation.

Define a key to determine the changefeed sink partition

New in v23.1: With the key_column option, you can define the key used in message metadata that determines the partition for the changefeed message at your downstream sink. This option overrides the default primary key:

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CREATE CHANGEFEED FOR TABLE table_name
  INTO 'external://kafka-sink'
  WITH key_column='partition_column', unordered;

key_column does not preserve ordering of messages from CockroachDB to the downstream sink, therefore you must include the unordered option. It does not affect per-key ordering guarantees or the output of key_in_value.

See also


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