Queries

ColdPlane enables SQL queries directly against archived cold storage data without requiring expensive rehydration.

How It Works

Traditional cold storage requires restoring data to a hot tier before querying. ColdPlane bypasses this by:

1. Decrypting the relevant data files for the requested backup
2. Loading them into a high-performance columnar query engine
3. Caching the session for instant subsequent queries

Supported SQL

ColdPlane supports a broad subset of standard SQL:

• SELECT with column projection
• WHERE clauses with comparison and logical operators
• GROUP BY and aggregate functions (COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX)
• ORDER BY and LIMIT
• JOIN across tables within the same backup

Query Limits