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+---
+title: Performance upgrade preview
+seotitle: Performance upgrade preview for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise
+description: >
+  Preview performance upgrades in InfluxDB 3 Enterprise with improved
+  single-series query performance, consistent resource usage, wide-and-sparse
+  table support, column families, and bulk data export.
+menu:
+  influxdb3_enterprise:
+    name: Performance upgrade preview
+weight: 12
+influxdb3/enterprise/tags: [storage, performance, beta, preview]
+related:
+  - /influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/setup/
+  - /influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/configure/
+  - /influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/monitor/
+  - /influxdb3/enterprise/admin/performance-tuning/
+---
+
+> [!Warning]
+> #### Performance preview beta
+> The performance upgrade preview is available to {{% product-name %}} Trial
+> and Commercial users as a beta. These features are subject to breaking changes
+> and **should not be used for production workloads**.
+>
+> To share feedback on this preview, see [Support and feedback options](#bug-reports-and-feedback).
+> Your feedback on stability
+> and performance at scale helps shape the future of InfluxDB 3.
+
+## What is the performance upgrade preview?
+
+{{% product-name %}} includes a preview of major upgrades to the
+storage layer that improve how data is written, stored, compressed, compacted,
+and queried.
+These upgrades touch every layer of the storage path--from a new on-disk file
+format to how fields are organized into column families and how compaction
+manages resources.
+
+## Why these upgrades
+
+The existing InfluxDB 3 storage layer uses [Apache Parquet](https://parquet.apache.org/)
+and is optimized for analytical workloads.
+Customers running high-cardinality, wide-schema, and query-intensive workloads
+need better single-series query performance, more predictable resource usage,
+and the schema flexibility that made InfluxDB v1 and v2 popular.
+These upgrades extend the storage layer to support those workloads while
+maintaining full compatibility with InfluxDB 3's data model and query languages.
+
+Key improvements include:
+
+- **Faster single-series queries** -- Single-digit millisecond response times
+  for highly selective time-series queries.
+- **Consistent resource usage** -- Bounded CPU and memory during persistence
+  and compaction, eliminating spikes during heavy ingestion or compaction bursts.
+- **Wide-and-sparse table support** -- Schemas with up to millions of columns
+  and dynamic schema evolution without expensive rewrites.
+- **Column families** -- Group related fields for efficient compression and I/O,
+  so queries only read the data they need.
+- **Bulk data export** -- Export compacted data as Parquet files for use with
+  external tools.
+- **Automatic Parquet upgrade** -- Seamlessly migrate existing data with
+  hybrid query mode during the transition.
+
+## Enable the preview
+
+Include the `--use-pacha-tree` flag in your
+[`influxdb3 serve` startup command](/influxdb3/enterprise/get-started/setup/):
+
+```bash {{< code-callout "--use-pacha-tree" >}}
+influxdb3 serve \
+  --node-id host01 \
+  --cluster-id cluster01 \
+  --object-store file \
+  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
+  --use-pacha-tree
+```
+ {{< /code-callout >}}
+ 
+You can also enable the preview with an environment variable:
+
+```bash
+export INFLUXDB3_ENTERPRISE_USE_PACHA_TREE=true
+influxdb3 serve ...
+```
+
+The `--use-pacha-tree` flag exposes additional configuration options prefixed
+with `--pt-`.
+See [Configure the preview](/influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/configure/)
+for tuning options, or
+[Monitor the preview](/influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/monitor/)
+for system tables and telemetry.
+
+> [!Warning]
+> #### Existing clusters with Parquet data
+>
+> On clusters with existing Parquet data, enabling `--use-pacha-tree`
+> **automatically converts Parquet files to `.pt` format** on startup, which
+> consumes additional CPU and memory while the migration runs.
+> Queries continue to work normally during this period.
+> See [Upgrade from Parquet](#upgrade-from-parquet) for details.
+>
+> For the beta, we recommend enabling the preview with a fresh cluster in a
+> staging or test environment first.
+
+## What's changed
+
+These upgrades touch every layer of the storage path -- from the on-disk file
+format to how data is compressed, organized, and compacted.
+
+### New file format
+
+Data is stored in a new columnar file format (`.pt` files) optimized for
+time-series workloads.
+All data within a file is sorted by column family key,
+[series key](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/glossary/#series-key), and
+timestamp, which enables efficient compaction, querying, and filtering.
+
+The format uses type-specific compression algorithms that adapt to data
+characteristics -- delta-delta RLE for timestamps, Gorilla encoding for floats,
+dictionary encoding for low-cardinality strings, and more -- typically
+achieving 5-20x compression ratios.
+
+### Column families
+
+Column families let you group related fields together so that queries only read
+the data they need.
+Fields in the same family are stored together on disk.
+For wide tables with hundreds of fields, this dramatically reduces I/O.
+
+When writing [line protocol](/influxdb3/enterprise/reference/line-protocol/), use the `::` (double-colon) delimiter in field
+names to assign fields to a family.
+The portion before `::` is the family name; everything after is the field name.
+
+```txt
+metrics,host=sA cpu::usage_user=55.2,cpu::usage_sys=12.1,cpu::usage_idle=32.7 1000000000
+metrics,host=sA mem::free=2048i,mem::used=6144i,mem::cached=1024i 1000000000
+metrics,host=sA disk::read_bytes=50000i,disk::write_bytes=32000i 1000000000
+```
+
+This creates three column families:
+
+| Family | Fields |
+|:-------|:-------|
+| `cpu` | `usage_user`, `usage_sys`, `usage_idle` |
+| `mem` | `free`, `used`, `cached` |
+| `disk` | `read_bytes`, `write_bytes` |
+
+When a query references only `mem::free`, the storage layer reads only the
+`mem` family block and skips `cpu` and `disk` data entirely.
+
+> [!Note]
+> Only the first `::` is significant.
+> A field name like `a::b::c` creates family `a` with field `b::c`.
+
+Fields written without `::` are assigned to auto-generated families (named
+`__0`, `__1`, etc.), each holding up to 100 fields.
+Explicit family names are an excellent way to optimize performance with known
+workloads, but they're not required to achieve good results.
+
+### Bounded compaction
+
+Incoming writes are buffered in the WAL, flushed to snapshots, and then merged
+into [Gen0 files](/influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/configure/#gen0).
+The upgraded storage layer organizes compacted data into 24-hour UTC windows
+and progresses Gen0 files through four [compaction levels (L1 through L4)](/influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/configure/#l1-l4-level-tuning).
+Compaction runs continuously in the background with a byte-based memory budget
+(default: 50% of system RAM), so it never causes resource spikes.
+
+Old files are cleaned up after a cooldown period, ensuring query replicas have
+time to see new checkpoints before old data is removed.
+Failures are automatically retried, and the system is designed to be
+self-healing for transient issues.
+
+## Upgrade from Parquet
+
+Existing clusters with Parquet data can upgrade with zero manual migration.
+The upgrade is fully automatic and occurs on initial startup.
+
+When you restart a cluster with `--use-pacha-tree`, the system:
+
+1. Detects existing Parquet data and enters hybrid mode.
+2. Clears the legacy WAL on ingest nodes and streams Parquet files through a
+   conversion pipeline.
+3. Integrates converted files into the new storage format through compaction.
+4. Automatically transitions once all data is migrated.
+
+During hybrid mode, queries merge results from both the legacy and upgraded
+storage layers.
+If there is a conflict (same series key and timestamp), the upgraded data takes
+precedence.
+
+### Monitor upgrade progress
+
+Use system tables to track upgrade status:
+
+```sql
+-- Per-node upgrade status
+SELECT * FROM system.upgrade_parquet_node
+
+-- Per-file migration progress
+SELECT * FROM system.upgrade_parquet
+```
+
+### Configure upgrade behavior
+
+| Option | Description | Default |
+|:-------|:------------|:--------|
+| `--pt-disable-hybrid-query` | Disable hybrid query mode. Queries return only data from the upgraded storage layer, even during migration. | `false` |
+| `--pt-upgrade-poll-interval` | Polling interval for upgrade status monitoring. | `5s` |
+
+## Downgrade to Parquet
+
+If you need to revert from the performance preview back to standard Parquet
+storage, use the `influxdb3 downgrade-to-parquet` command.
+This command updates the catalog and deletes all PachaTree-specific files from
+object storage.
+
+> [!Note]
+> #### Downgrade impacts
+>
+> The downgrade deletes all `.pt` files, including data written
+> after the upgrade.
+> **Only data that existed before the upgrade (original Parquet files) is preserved.**
+> You can re-enable the preview later by restarting with `--use-pacha-tree`.
+
+### Before you downgrade
+
+1. **Stop all nodes** in the cluster before running the downgrade command.
+   The command checks for running nodes and refuses to proceed if any are active.
+
+   ```bash
+   influxdb3 stop node --node-id <NODE_ID>
+   ```
+
+2. **Verify table compatibility.**
+   The downgrade validates that all tables can be represented in Parquet format.
+   Tables that exceed the Parquet column limit or contain columns without legacy
+   Parquet column IDs block the downgrade.
+
+### Preview the downgrade
+
+Use the `--dry-run` flag to list files that would be deleted without making
+any changes:
+
+```bash
+influxdb3 downgrade-to-parquet \
+  --cluster-id cluster01 \
+  --object-store file \
+  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
+  --dry-run
+```
+
+### Run the downgrade
+
+```bash
+influxdb3 downgrade-to-parquet \
+  --cluster-id cluster01 \
+  --object-store file \
+  --data-dir ~/.influxdb3
+```
+
+After the downgrade completes, restart nodes without the `--use-pacha-tree` flag
+to resume standard Parquet storage mode.
+
+For all available options, see
+[Downgrade options](/influxdb3/enterprise/performance-preview/configure/#downgrade-options).
+
+## Export to Parquet
+
+You can export compacted data as Parquet files for use with external tools.
+
+> [!Note]
+> Data must be compacted before it can be exported.
+> Uncompacted data is not available for export at this time.
+
+### Export workflow
+
+```bash
+# Step 1: List available databases
+influxdb3 export databases
+
+# Step 2: List tables in a database
+influxdb3 export tables -d mydb
+
+# Step 3: List compacted 24-hour windows for a table
+influxdb3 export windows -d mydb -t cpu
+
+# Step 4: Export data as Parquet files
+influxdb3 export data -d mydb -t cpu -o ./export_output
+```
+
+To export specific time windows only:
+
+```bash
+influxdb3 export data -d mydb -t cpu -w 2026-01-15,2026-01-16 -o ./export_output
+```
+
+## Who should try the preview
+
+Consider enabling the preview in your staging or development environment if
+you have workloads with:
+
+- High cardinality or wide tables
+- Frequent backfill across time ranges
+- Query-heavy access patterns requiring low latency
+- Sparse schemas with dynamic column creation
+- Resource constraints where bounded memory and CPU usage matter
+
+> [!Important]
+> #### Important: New file format
+>
+> These upgrades use a new columnar file format (`.pt` files).
+> When you enable the preview, new data is written in the new format.
+> Hybrid query mode (enabled by default) allows querying across both legacy
+> Parquet data and new `.pt` data seamlessly.
+>
+> For the beta, we recommend starting with a fresh setup for
+> testing and evaluation rather than converting existing data.
+
+## Bug reports and feedback
+
+To share feedback on the performance upgrade preview:
+
+- Contact [InfluxData support](https://support.influxdata.com)
+- Reach out to your InfluxData account team
+
+Your feedback on stability and performance at scale helps shape the future of
+InfluxDB 3.
+
+{{< children hlevel="h2" readmore=true hr=true >}}