Astra DB Serverless release notes

This page summarizes significant changes and updates to Astra DB Serverless.

For Data API releases, see the Data API changelog.

November 6, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The term Keyspace replaces Namespace in the Astra Portal. This aligns with a previous similar change in the Data API.

October 25, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Astra DB GitHub Copilot extension is now in public preview.

September 10, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

Deprecated features

Legacy APIs for Astra DB Serverless are deprecated with end-of-life (EOL) scheduled for the end of 2025.

As EOL approaches, DataStax will provide migration information to support your transition to the DevOps API and the Data API. If you have questions or concerns, contact your account representative or DataStax Support.

August 30, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can scrape Astra DB metrics in exposition format.

June 24, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Increased the default collection limit for new Serverless (Vector) databases. Serverless (Vector) databases created after June 24, 2024 can have up to 10 collections. Databases created before this date can have up to 5 collections. The collection limit is based on the number of indexes.

June 21, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added the Hugging Face - Dedicated external embedding provider integration to use with Astra DB vectorize.
The Astra-hosted NVIDIA embedding provider integration is now available for all Serverless (Vector) databases in AWS us-east-2. The NVIDIA embedding provider and its related settings are selected by default when creating a new collection.

Only databases in the AWS us-east-2 region can use the built-in NVIDIA embedding provider integration.

June 10, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added the following external embedding provider integrations to use with Astra DB vectorize:

May 22, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Integrations section in the Astra Portal is now primarily used to manage built-in integrations with third-party services. For integration guides, refer to the Integrations documentation.
Introduced Astra DB vectorize.

With Astra DB vectorize, you can integrate external and Astra-hosted embedding providers to automatically generate an embedding from text for any operation that requires a vector.

The following embedding providers are supported at launch: OpenAI Microsoft Azure OpenAI ** NVIDIA

April 11, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Released v1.0.0 of the Python, TypeScript, and Java clients, which are based on the foundational Data API for Serverless (Vector) databases. To get started with the new clients, see Quickstart and Get started with the Data API.

March 21, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Data API supports generated document _id values, including the ObjectId type and related UUID types. Advantages include uniqueness, automation, and embedded timestamps.
Added the Data API estimatedDocumentCount command, which returns an approximate count of documents in the specified collection. The count is based on the current system statistics at the time the estimatedDocumentCount request was received by the database server.

March 14, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Data API updateMany command now includes pagination support. You can update one page of matching documents at a time. If there are more matching documents to update, the first transaction returns a nextPageState ID in its response. You then submit the insertMany command again and include the pageState ID in the second request to update the next page of documents that matched the filter.
Changed the URL of the Data API open-source GitHub repo. Previously, it was https://github.com/stargate/jsonapi/. Now it is https://github.com/stargate/data-api/. The prior GitHub URL redirects to the new one.

February 20, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Optimized Data API limits, including the following:
- The maximum path length increased from 250 to 1,000. That limit is the total for all segments, including any dots (.) between properties in a path.
- The maximum size of an entire batch of documents submitted via an insertMany or updateMany command increased from five million to 20 million characters.

January 31, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Data API supports an optional indexing clause for the createCollection command. By default, all properties in a document are indexed, which is consistent with prior implementations. To maintain the default behavior, omit the indexing clause from createCollection. To apply selective indexing, include the indexing clause and an array of document properties to index.

There are advantages and disadvantages to selective indexing. For more information and examples, see The indexing option.
Enhancements to Data API limits:
- The maximum number limit increased from 50 to 100 digits.
- The maximum array elements limit (1000) now applies to indexed properties only.
- The maximum document length limit increased from 1 million to 4 million characters.

January 17, 2024

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The new Data API and revamped developer experience to make Astra DB Serverless an even better fit for developing production generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications. For more about this release, see the blog post or join our YouTube livestream on January 24, 2024 with our partners from Vercel and LangChain.

The new Data API

The Data API is a schema-less, document-based, modern API that provides easy and intuitive access to structured vector data in your Serverless (Vector) databases. It leverages the scalability, performance, and real-time indexing capabilities of Apache Cassandra® to support GenAI application development. To get the most relevant results possible, you can execute vector search queries, apply complex document filtering, or both.

The Data API is an entry point for Astra DB Serverless to integrate with the GenAI ecosystem, which includes tools like LangChain, LlamaIndex, and a variety of embedding providers.

New client libraries

The new client libraries for Python, TypeScript, and Java simplify the development process with Astra DB Serverless. With just an API endpoint and token, developers can quickly add the most performant and scalable vector store to their next GenAI application.

Data Explorer in the Astra Portal

With the Data Explorer, developers can visualize similarity search scores and conduct vector-based searches with a ranked list of up to 100 results, based on similarity. This feature is particularly beneficial for RAG and AI agent use cases, allowing for refined search results. The Data Explorer also supports hybrid search filters, enabling more versatile and powerful data querying capabilities.

Focused and practical documentation

The Astra DB Serverless documentation is tailored to meet developers at each specific stage of development, providing relevant and essential information without unnecessary details.

Previous releases

2023 release notes

November 14, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Introduced a new vector database experience in the Astra Portal that includes:
- Python, TypeScript, and Java clients for Serverless (Vector) databases.
- New UIs for Database Metrics, Database Loader, and Database Explorer.
- Documentation about the new vector experience.
Existing users of the JSON API and Mongoose public preview can toggle between the existing and new experiences. In the Astra Portal, use the Enable Preview or Disable Preview buttons in the top banner.

September 5, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Analyzers are now available. Using analyzers with vector search allows you to create a hybrid search that includes your keyword and a vector.

July 18, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Vector search is generally available. Astra DB Serverless supports vector search to aid in developing Generative AI and Machine Learning applications.
Changes to database creation accommodate new vector-enabled regions.

June 26, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Updated Organization Settings simplify user, role, token, billing, and security management for your Astra DB organization.

June 25, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

In the Astra Portal, you can add Splunk, Pulsar/Streaming, or Datadog as a destination for exported Astra DB Serverless health metrics. These destinations were already supported by the DevOps API.

June 22, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added standard and sidecar caller modes, and updated vault commands in the Astra DB Serverless Plugin for HashiCorp Vault 2.0.0 release.

June 7, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Vector search is in public preview for Astra DB Serverless. Vector search efficiently finds highly relevant and similar context in large language models (LLMs). Vector search captures semantics in a way that eclipses term-based relevance methods.

February 27, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Integrations are now embedded within the Astra Portal.
You can now expand and collapse the Astra Portal navigation menu.
The Astra Portal supports tablet and laptop browsers.

February 2, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Datadog is a supported destination for Astra DB Serverless database health metrics through DevOps API v2 only.

January 31, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Released DataStax Zero Downtime Migration 2.2.0, which added the zdm_proxy_cluster_config.yml file to contain all the configuration variables for Origin and Target. Prior to version 2.2.0, the variables were in the zdm_proxy_core_config.yml file. The change is backward compatible.

January 13, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

In Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) 2.1.0, ZDM Proxy sends heartbeats after 30 seconds of inactivity on a cluster connection by default.

January 5, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Lightweight Transactions (LWTs) now support EACH_QUORUM and SERIAL consistency levels.

January 3, 2023

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Astra DB Serverless adds support on AWS for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 3.2.1 (PCI DSS). To create and use Astra DB Serverless on AWS that complies with PCI DSS, contact your DataStax account manager or DataStax Support.

2022 release notes

December 14, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Published Astra Command Line Interface (Astra CLI) 0.2 documentation. The Astra CLI provides a one-stop shop for managing your Astra DB resources through scripts or commands in your local terminal.

December 5, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can export Astra DB Serverless health metrics to Splunk and Pulsar with the DevOps API.

November 10, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Astra DB Serverless plugin for HashiCorp Vault is generally available. This version includes support for dynamic token management:
Define a default lease time
Create new tokens with lease settings
List tokens by each one’s Client ID
View lease details
List all leases
Renew a lease
Revoke a token/lease before the lease expires
Delete a token

October 18, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can use DataStax Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) 2.0 to migrate to Astra DB Serverless from Apache Cassandra® and DataStax Enterprise (DSE). For example, you can use ZDM to migrate your client applications and data from Cassandra 3.11.x directly to Astra DB Serverless.

To use zero downtime migration, your database must meet the minimum requirements. If your database does not meet these requirements, you can complete the migration from Origin to Target, but downtime might be necessary to finish the migration.

October 13, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Launched renamed aggregated health metrics. You can export these metrics to a third-party system such as Amazon CloudWatch, Kafka, and Prometheus, and you can use tools such as Grafana Cloud to visualize the metrics.

July 21, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added support for Azure private endpoints.

May 24, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

The Astra DB Serverless plugin for HashiCorp Vault is in public preview. This open-source project adds robust token lifecycle management features for Astra DB Serverless. For details, see the plugin’s GitHub repo.

May 16, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can use the DevOps API v2 to forward Astra DB Serverless database health metrics to an external third-party metrics system, such as Prometheus.

April 28, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can configure customer keys in the Astra Portal for Astra DB Serverless databases in Google Cloud regions.

April 18, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can configure customer keys in the Astra Portal for Astra DB Serverless databases in AWS regions. This Astra Portal option extends the bring your own key (BYOK) feature already present in the Astra DB DevOps API.

March 24, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

CDC for Astra DB Serverless is now available. CDC for Astra DB Serverless automatically captures changes in real time, de-duplicates the changes, and streams the clean set of changed data into Astra Streaming where it can be processed by client applications or sent to downstream systems.

February 23, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Astra DB Serverless supports the following regions:
- Google Cloud: West Europe2 (europe-west2)
- Azure Canada Central (canadacentral)
- Azure US East (eastus)

February 14, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can now remove a payment method from the Pay As You Go plan in the Astra Portal.

February 8, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can configure single sign-on (SSO) for your Astra DB organizations. SSO allows for a seamless sign-on experience, and gives centralized and streamlined access control to security operations teams. Once configured, this security enhancement means that during a user’s next login attempt in the Astra Portal, the user is prompted to enter their company SSO credentials. If the credentials are valid, the authenticated user is logged into their Astra DB Serverless organization automatically.

January 31, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can use AWS customer keys for Astra DB Serverless databases.

January 7, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Load data into your Astra DB Serverless database from an Amazon S3 bucket that contains exported DynamoDB data in the Astra DB Serverless Data Loader.

January 6, 2022

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added support for the Azure Central India (centralindia) region.

2021 release notes

November 9, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can add private endpoints for Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud in the Astra Portal in addition to the DevOps API.

September 14, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can deploy databases to multiple regions.

September 2, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can add Google Cloud private endpoints through the DevOps API.
Added Astra DB Serverless support for the AWS us-east-2 region.

August 12, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can add Azure private endpoints through the DevOps API.

July 29, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added Astra DB Serverless support for the Google Cloud us-east-4 region.

July 21, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can add AWS private endpoints through the DevOps API.

June 16, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can configure database IP access lists to restrict public access to your Astra DB Serverless databases.

June 11, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Added Astra DB Serverless support for the Azure southcentralus.

May 24, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Backup and restore is now available for Astra DB Serverless.

May 14, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Size of values in a single column increased to 10MB.
Maximum number of columns per table increased to 75.
Maximum number of indexes increased to 50 per table or database.
Added support for the Microsoft Azure northeurope region.

May 3, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can now manage roles and tokens with the DevOps API.

April 15, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

You can create Astra DB Serverless databases in Microsoft Azure regions.
Added support for the AWS us-west-2 and GCP us-west-1 regions.
Astra DB Serverless databases now support logged batches.

March 4, 2021

This release includes the following changes and updates:

New features and enhancements

Astra DB Serverless is available on multiple cloud providers.
Manage user permissions with Identity and Access Management (IAM) and custom roles.
Use application tokens to connect to your databases through DataStax APIs.
Astra DB Serverless workloads are limited to 4096 ops/s/coordinator by default.
Each element of a call to the Document API counts as a read or write. This can increase the number of reads and writes and affect your billed charges. For example, 5,000 write requests/s with 11 fields means 55,000 op/s.