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Upgrading to v1.9 (beta)

Resources​

What to know before upgrading​

dbt Labs is committed to providing backward compatibility for all versions 1.x, except for any changes explicitly mentioned on this page. If you encounter an error upon upgrading, please let us know by opening an issue.

Remember from version 1.8 that we're going versionless and we have a new adapter installation procedure.

New and changed features and functionality​

Features and functionality new in dbt v1.9.

New microbatch incremental_strategy​

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Historically, managing incremental models involved several manual steps and responsibilities, which involved using:

  • Explicit filtering to define "new" data by writing your SQL within an is_incremental block.
  • Custom logic for incremental loads by implementing your own logic to handle different loading strategies, such as append or delete+insert.
  • Handle batches manually by implementing custom logic using variables.

These steps made the process error-prone and introduced performance concerns because you had to run a single large SQL query to process all new and updated records.

Starting in Core 1.9, you can use the new microbatch strategy, which streamlines this process and automates many of these tasks. The benefits include:

  • Simplified query design: Write your model query for a single day of data and no longer need is_incremental() logic or manual SQL for determining "new" records.
  • Automatic batch processing: dbt automatically breaks down the loading process into smaller batches based on the specified batch_size and handles the SQL queries for each batch independently, improving efficiency and reducing the risk of query timeouts.
  • Dynamic filtering: Use event_time, lookback, and batch_size configurations to generate necessary filters for you, making the process more streamlined and reducing the need for you to manage these details.
  • Handling updates: Use the lookback configuration to keep track of late-arriving records instead of you making that calculation.

Snapshots improvements​

Originally, snapshots were defined directly in the dbt_project.yml file, which involved YAML configuration for source and target schemas without any SQL logic. This method was cumbersome, as it limited flexibility and made managing snapshots more complex. Over time, snapshots evolved to use Jinja blocks, allowing for SQL logic within .sql files, but this added parsing complexity and made the development process less efficient.

Beginning in dbt Core 1.9, we've streamlined snapshot configuration by defining snapshots purely in YAML without any SQL logic. This improvement includes:

  • New snapshot specification: Snapshots are now configured in a YAML file doe a cleaner more structured set up.
  • New snapshot_meta_column_names config: Allows you to customize the names of meta fields (for example, dbt_valid_from, dbt_valid_to, etc.) that dbt automatically adds to snapshots. This increases flexibility to tailor metadata to your needs.
  • target_schema now optional for snapshots: This schema is now optional When ommitted, snapshots will use the schema defined for the current environment.
  • Standard schema and database configs supported: Snapshots will now be consistent with other dbt resources You can specify where snapshots should be stored.
  • Warning for incorrect updated_at data type: To ensure data integrity, you'll see a warning if the updated_at field specified in the snapshot configuration is not the proper data type or timestamp.

state:modified improvements​

INSERT HERE Point me to a resource for this?

Fewer false positives in state:modified state_modified_compare_more_unrendered_values state_modified_compare_vars

Deprecated functionality​

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Managing changes to legacy behaviors​

dbt Core v1.9 has introduced flags for managing changes to legacy behaviors. You may opt into recently introduced changes (disabled by default), or opt out of mature changes (enabled by default), by setting True / False values, respectively, for flags in dbt_project.yml.

You can read more about each of these behavior changes in the following links:

INSERT HERE! Any behavior changes?

Quick hits​

We also made some quality-of-life improvements in Core 1.9, enabling you to:

  • Document singular data tests.
  • Use ref and source in foreign key constraints
  • New CLI flag for dbt test. Choose which resource types are included or excluded when you run the dbt test by including --resource-type/--exclude-resource-type
  • New CLI flag for dbt show. --inline-direct enables you to avoid loading the entire manifest and skip rendering any Jinja templates.

We also made improvements for adapters, enabling you to:

  • Use arbitrary config options in data_test For example, you can set snowflake_warehouse for tests.
  • Use behavior flags INSERT HERE MORE INFO
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