Data Import in Self-Hosted Environment Failing (EOL Dgraph Cloud Migration)

Hi, we are currently looking for experts with experience in self-hosting the EOL Dgraph Cloud.

We’re facing issues with data import in our self-hosted setup and would highly appreciate any support and tips.

It looks like the issue might be related to how we’re specifying the alpha node we’re trying to connect to.

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Here is what has been implemented so far:

The instance is running, and we can access it via Ratel.

Namespaces have been created.

Login via the /admin endpoint is working correctly. Login is working for all namespaces 0,1,2 und 3:

login(userId:“groot” ,password:“password”, namespace:0){

response{

accessJWT

refreshJWT

}

}

Below is the call we are using and the corresponding error message:

Call: dgraph live --creds “user=groot;password=password;namespace=0” -f $PWD/g01.rdf.gz --force-namespace=3 -z dgraph_zero:5080 -a dgraph_alpha:7080

Error message:

root@a788e9a2a6b1:/import/production# dgraph live --creds “user=groot;password=password;namespace=0” -f $PWD/g01.rdf.gz --force-namespace=3 -z dgraph_zero:5080 -a dgraph_alpha:7080

I1009 19:02:22.619829 123 init.go:85\]

Dgraph version : v24.1.5

Dgraph codename : dgraph

Dgraph SHA-256 : c440347281f3e22765832e6f47e20768c020e8f6a519e6a93e18f7c7312f9cd4

Commit SHA-1 : 8d1c982

Commit timestamp : 2025-09-12 14:09:25 +0530

Branch : HEAD

Go version : go1.22.12

jemalloc enabled : true

Licensed variously under the Apache Public License 2.0 and Dgraph Community License.

Running transaction with dgraph endpoint: dgraph_alpha:7080

2025/10/09 19:02:22 rpc error: code = Unimplemented desc = unknown service api.Dgraph

unable to login to the groot account

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/x/x.go:1155

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/x/x.go:1095

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/live/run.go:791

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/live/run.go:131

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/root.go:79

main.main

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/main.go:98

runtime.main

/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.22.12/x64/src/runtime/proc.go:271

runtime.goexit

/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.22.12/x64/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:1695

While retrieving password and logging in

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/x/error.go:50

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/x/x.go:1100

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/live/run.go:791

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/live/run.go:131

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/

/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/cmd/root.go:79

main.main

/home/runner/work/dgraph/dgraph/dgraph/main.go:98

runtime.main

/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.22.12/x64/src/runtime/proc.go:271

runtime.goexit

/opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.22.12/x64/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:1695

Our **current setup is:**

version: “3.8”

services:

zero:

image: dgraph/dgraph:latest

container_name: dgraph_zero

volumes:

- ./data/zero:/dgraph

- ./license/key.txt:/etc/dgraph/key.txt:ro

- ./import:/import:ro

ports:

- “5080:5080” # grpc port

- “6080:6080” # http port

command:

- dgraph

- zero

- --my=zero:5080

- --enterprise_license=/etc/dgraph/key.txt

restart: always

networks:

- dgraph_db

alpha:

image: dgraph/dgraph:latest

container_name: dgraph_alpha

volumes:

- ./data/alpha:/dgraph

- ./license/hmac_secret_file:/etc/dgraph/hmac_secret_file:ro

- ./import:/import:ro

depends_on:

- zero

ports:

- “7080:7080” # grpc port of alpha

- “8080:8080” # HTTP port (GraphQL / HTTP API)

- “9080:9080” # optional / older ports

command:

- dgraph

- alpha

- --security

- whitelist=[0.0.0.0/0]

- --my=alpha:7080

- --zero=zero:5080

- --graphql

- lambda-url=

- --acl

- secret-file=/etc/dgraph/hmac_secret_file

restart: always

networks:

- dgraph_db

ratel:

image: dgraph/ratel:latest

container_name: dgraph_ratel

depends_on:

- alpha

ports:

- “8000:8000”

command:

- dgraph-ratel

restart: always

networks:

- dgraph_db

lambda:

image: local_dgraph_lambda

container_name: local_dgraph_lambda

depends_on:

- zero

ports:

- “8686:8686”

volumes:

- ./lambda/script.js:/app/script/script.js

environment:

- DGRAPH_URL=[http://alpha:8080](http://alpha:8080/ ")

restart: unless-stopped

networks:

- dgraph_db

liveloader:

image: dgraph/dgraph:latest

container_name: dgraph_liveloader

volumes:

- ./import:/import

command:

- sleep

- “100000”

restart: always

networks:

- dgraph_db

networks:

dgraph_db:

external: true

Our Current Version: 24.1.5

Exported files: exported from the portal via the *export* function — these are the files we are trying to import:

\-rwxrwxr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 1107 Oct 9 16:46 g01.gql_schema.gz

-rwxrwxr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 1025 Oct 9 16:46 g01.rdf.gz

-rwxrwxr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 787 Oct 9 16:46 g01.schema.gz

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance

Sam

Try port 9080 for the alpha. You should also consider using the bulk loader instead of the live loader, which is many times faster. Also, the latest version of Dgraph is now v25, so you might want to migrate directly to the newest version.

Hi Sam,

looks like you are hitting the gRPC port issue - dgraph live needs to connect to port 9080, not 7080 which is the internal gRPC port.

Try running your command with -a dgraph_alpha:9080 instead, and since you are using Docker networking, you can run it from within the liveloader container.

Also noticed you are mixing namespace auth (namespace=0) with force-namespace=3 - might want to align those or just use the target namespace in both places.

Been through similar migrations from Cloud to self-hosted setups, happy to help debug further if needed.

You can reach out to me on my email here

Colin

thanks a lot for your adive. We’re already using port 9080. Regarding v25 we will check.

thank you very much! We’ve sent an email with more details.