[SOLVED] chromadb fails to load index on Azure App Service created using Linux OS, Python 3.11 runtime due to sqlite3 version incompatibility

chromadb fails to load index on Azure App Service created using Linux OS, Python 3.11 runtime due to sqlite3 version incompatibility

As we know - sqlite3 is typically part of python's standard library

We did a comparison for sqlite3 version found b/w Azure App Service and Local Windows Machine, while both having same Python 3.11 version

Created an Azure App Service with below options:

OS: Linux
Runtime: Python 3.11 (3.11.4)
App Service Plan: Free
Region: East US

Published this code snippet wrapped inside a web app on App Service:

import sqlite3
print(sqlite3.sqlite_version)

We executed the same code in local windows machine (Python 3.11) as well.

The results are as follows:

Sqlite3 version on Azure App Service is: 3.34.1 which is pretty old, Follow this link
Sqlite3 version on local windows machine is: 3.39.4 which is still recent, if not the latest

Because of this version gap, certain library such as chromadb which needs sqlite3 >= 3.35.0 fails to create index on Azure App Service.

Could someone explain this gap in sqlite3 version b/w Azure App Service vs Local Windows (using open-source python distribution), despite both having same Python 3.11 version, and how could we upgrade sqlite3 version on App Service

Thanks in advance.

Solution