Convert a gcp-starter index to serverless

This page shows you how to convert a free starter index in the gcp-starter environment to a serverless index.

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Before you begin

Make sure your starter index is in the gcp-starter environment. Starter indexes in other environments cannot be converted to serverless at this time.

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1. Pause traffic to the index

Converting your index to serverless takes less than 5 minutes. During that time, upsert and update requests will fail, so it’s recommended to pause client traffic to the index before starting conversion.

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2. Update clients and code

If you are using an older version of the Python or Node.js client, you must update the client to work with serverless indexes and make minor changes to your code.

1. Check your client version:

   Shell

   # For the Python client:  
   pip show pinecone-client  
   # For the Node.js client:  
   npm list | grep @pinecone-database/pinecone  
   

2. If your client version is less than 3.0.0 for Python, 2.0.0 for Node.js, or 1.0.0 for Java, upgrade the client as follows:

   Python

   JavaScript

   Java

   pip install pinecone-client --upgrade  
   

3. In your code, change how you import the Pinecone library and authenticate and initialize the client:

   Python

   JavaScript

   Java

   from pinecone import Pinecone, ServerlessSpec, PodSpec  
   # ServerlessSpec and PodSpec are required only when  
   # creating serverless and pod-based indexes.  
   pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")  
   

Depending on your usage of the client, there may be other changes to make. For a comprehensive list, see the Python client v3 migration guide or Node.js client v2 migration guide.

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3. Convert the index

In the Pinecone console, go to your starter index and click Convert to serverless.

The process takes less than 5 minutes and does not involve creating or deleting any indexes; instead, this process transforms your starter index into a serverless index and moves it to the us-east-1 region of the AWS cloud.

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4. Reinitialize clients

Once your index has been converted to serverless, your index will have a new DNS endpoint.

• If you are using Pinecone clients, reinitialize them so they pick up the new index endpoint.

• If you are using the REST API directly, get the new index endpoint and use it in all data plane requests:

  Shell

  PINECONE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"  
  INDEX_HOST="INDEX_HOST"  
  curl -X POST "https://$INDEX_HOST/describe_index_stats" \  
     -H "Api-Key: $PINECONE_API_KEY"  
  

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See also

• Quotas and rate limits
• Serverless architecture
• Understanding serverless cost