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# Batched Background Migrations **(FREE SELF)**
> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/51332) in GitLab 13.11.
> - [Deployed behind a feature flag](../../../user/feature_flags.md), disabled by default.
> - [Enabled by default](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/329511) in GitLab 13.12.
> - Enabled on GitLab.com.
> - Recommended for production use.
> - For GitLab self-managed instances, GitLab administrators can opt to [disable it](#enable-or-disable-batched-background-migrations). **(FREE SELF)**
There can be [risks when disabling released features](../../../user/feature_flags.md#risks-when-disabling-released-features).
Refer to this feature's version history for more details.
To update database tables in batches, GitLab can use batched background migrations. These migrations
are created by GitLab developers and run automatically on upgrade. However, such migrations are
limited in scope to help with migrating some `integer` database columns to `bigint`. This is needed to
prevent integer overflow for some tables.
All migrations must be finished before upgrading GitLab. To check the status of the existing