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title: What’s New in InfluxDB 3.12: Distributed Compaction, 3x...
description: InfluxDB 3.12 extends the 3.11 performance foundation for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise with 3x faster bulk imports from Parquet (parallelized, no longer requiring an...
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# What’s New in InfluxDB 3.12: Distributed Compaction, 3x Faster Imports, and More Control

**[InfluxData](https://daily.dev/sources/influxdb)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

InfluxDB 3.12 extends the 3.11 performance foundation for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise with 3x faster bulk imports from Parquet (parallelized, no longer requiring an admin token), beta distributed compaction that scales horizontally across compact-mode nodes, and per-database schema enforcement that rejects writes introducing undefined columns. Role-based access control is now generally available in Explorer, which also gains six new visualization types, an Explain in SQL feature, and preconfigured setup for new deployments. The Processing Engine can run as a separate process, and Core/Enterprise now run on Apache DataFusion 52. Multi-node upgraders should review new node role and upgrade order requirements before updating.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.influxdata.com/blog/whats-new-influxdb-3-1-2>

## Questions this post answers

### What's new in InfluxDB 3.12 for bulk imports?

Bulk import from Parquet is roughly three times faster, with parallelized imports that scale with available hardware; testing showed import time fell by 64-70 percent across workloads. Bulk import also no longer requires an admin token, instead authorizing against write permission on the target database, so backfill credentials only need access to the data being loaded.

_Teams planning large backfills can track performance-focused database releases like this one on daily.dev._

### How does distributed compaction work in InfluxDB 3.12 Enterprise?

Distributed compaction, shipped in beta, lets compaction scale horizontally by adding nodes running in compact mode, with a coordinating node spreading jobs across them. If a compact node drops out mid-job, the work is reassigned in the next scheduling cycle. It is off by default, so existing deployments are unaffected until explicitly enabled.

_Engineers scaling time series workloads can follow database architecture updates like this on daily.dev._

### Can InfluxDB 3.12 enforce a fixed schema on a database instead of schema-on-write?

Yes, InfluxDB 3.12 lets you define a schema when creating a database so that writes introducing undefined columns are rejected rather than silently changing the schema. Schema-on-write remains the default overall, so teams can lock down production databases while keeping exploratory databases flexible.

_Anyone guarding shared production databases from schema drift can keep up with changes like this on daily.dev._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

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- [What’s New in InfluxDB 3.10: Performance Beta Expanded with New Enterprise Features](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-new-in-influxdb-3-10-performance-beta-expanded-with-new-enterprise-features-sswmj2tkj) · InfluxData · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
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---

Tags: [#influxdb](https://daily.dev/tags/influxdb)

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