Milvus — Storage Model Part One, Collections and Partitions

Storage Model

Milvus employs several components to manage and process data efficiently. Key among these are collections, partitions, and segments. In this article, I will delve into these three components, providing a comprehensive understanding of their roles and functionalities within Milvus.

Collections in Milvus

A collection in Milvus is similar to a table in a relational database, serving as the primary data container. Each collection is created with a specific schema that defines the fields it will contain, much like the columns in a relational database table.

Prior to developing a collection, it’s crucial to prepare the collection schema and the field schema for all the fields. The collection schema encapsulates the field definitions, the collection’s description, and whether a primary key allocation is enabled. Meanwhile, the field schema outlines the name of the field, its data type, and other properties associated with the field.