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Vector Retrieval Service for Milvus:Data migration

Last Updated:Jan 16, 2026

Milvus provides several data migration solutions for various cloud migration scenarios. You can migrate data between other databases and Alibaba Cloud Milvus with no service disruption.

Supported scenarios

Scenario

Documentation link

(Cloud migration) Migrate a self-managed Milvus database to Alibaba Cloud

Data migration between Milvus instances

Data migration between Alibaba Cloud Milvus instances

Key migration requirements and limits

Pre-migration preparations (required)

  1. Operation status control

    Cluster type

    Requirement

    Description

    Source cluster

    Stop all data modification operations

    This includes write, delete, and update operations. Ensure the cluster is in a read-only state to prevent data inconsistencies during migration.

    Destination cluster

    Pause all data operations

    This includes query, write, delete, and update operations. Keep the cluster unavailable to avoid data conflicts with the migration.

  2. Version compatibility

    Requirement

    Specification

    Source cluster version

    Must be later than 2.3.6 (≥ v2.3.7)

    Destination cluster version

    Must be the same as or later than the source cluster version

Migration task limits

  1. Task management

    • Concurrency limit: Only one migration task can run at a time.

  2. Data scope

    • Database limit: Each migration task can migrate collections from only one database.

    • Collection limit: Each migration task supports a maximum of five collections.

    • Total data size: The total number of entities across all collections cannot exceed 500 million.

  3. Data state

    • Source instance requirement: The collections to be migrated must be in a loaded state.

    • Destination instance requirement: The destination instance must be empty and contain no existing entity data.