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ALTER MEMORY

Enterprise command reference.

Command Snapshot

Field Value
Category Platform Extensions
Mutates Data Yes/Depends
Scope Cluster / Object
Privilege Model Requires administrative or feature-specific governance/cluster privileges.

Purpose

Defines, changes, or removes schema and metadata objects.

Syntax

ALTER MEMORY [IF EXISTS] memory_name [WITH (...)]
ALTER MEMORY [IF EXISTS] memory_name COMPACT

Operational Notes

  • Use schema-qualified identifiers in automation and automation pipelines.
  • Validate behavior in staging for cluster-impacting or governance-impacting changes.
  • Confirm runtime effects through system tables and metrics before and after execution.

When to Use

  • Use for graph, memory, governance, and licensing lifecycle management.
  • Use when feature-specific metadata and policy controls are required.

When Not to Use

  • Avoid enabling strict enforcement modes before validation and staged verification.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely Cause Action
Permission denied / unauthorized Missing privilege on object or cluster scope Re-run with required grants or elevated admin role.
Analysis/parse error Syntax variant or object shape mismatch Compare with canonical syntax and object definition.
Runtime failure under load Resource limits, breaker pressure, or node state transitions Check sys.jobs, sys.operations, sys.checks, and retry after mitigation.

Cross-References

Detailed Reference

Changes memory namespace options or compacts expired entries.

SQL Statement

ALTER MEMORY [IF EXISTS] memory_name [WITH (...)]
ALTER MEMORY [IF EXISTS] memory_name COMPACT

Parameters

  • memory_name: Existing memory namespace.
  • WITH (...): Option updates such as entry_ttl_ms and max_entries.
  • COMPACT: Triggers maintenance compaction.

Privileges

Requires DDL privilege for memory objects.

Examples

ALTER MEMORY session_store WITH (entry_ttl_ms = 1800000, max_entries = 2000);
ALTER MEMORY session_store COMPACT;

SELECT last_compacted_at, last_compaction_pruned_entries, total_compaction_pruned_entries
FROM memory.memories
WHERE memory_name = 'session_store';

Notes

  • Use compaction after large write/delete bursts to reclaim stale entry overhead.
  • Validate runtime behavior via memory.memory_status.