US 10,120,767 B2Granted

System, method, and computer program product for creating a virtual database

AssigneeIdera, Inc.

InventorsLon Jones Cherryholmes, Chandrashekhar M. Vaidya, George Eddie Bailey, Jr., Brett Hawton

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A virtual database is attached to a server database management system (“DBMS”) such that the DBMS believes it needs to recover the database to a last known point of consistency. In order to perform this recovery, the DBMS requests the transaction log file entries to be read from what it believes is the database's transaction log file. However, the requests are intercepted and translated into requests to read the transaction log portion of the backup file. The DBMS then uses the transaction log records to bring the database to a point of transactional consistency, unaware that the log records are actually being sourced from the backup file. All changes made to the data during the recovery phase and subsequent execution of any TSQL statements are routed into a cache file. Accordingly, a “virtual” database is created and used by the server DBMS engine as if it were a real database.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A computer system for creating a virtual database mechanism, the computer system comprising:

a memory;
a processor;
and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, instantiate:
a mechanism configured to detect an input/output (“I/O”) request, from a database management system comprising a database, to a first log file of the database, wherein the database includes a first data file and the first log file associated with the first data file;
a mechanism configured to intercept the I/O request;
a mechanism configured to deliver the intercepted I/O request to a cache file or, in the absence of a previous write, to a backup file, wherein the backup file includes a second log file and a second data file, wherein the second log file in the backup file is different from the first log file in the database;
and
a mechanism configured to update the cache file by replacing a data portion and a log portion of the cache file with the second log file and the second data file from the backup file respectively, thereby creating the virtual database mechanism configured to maintain Transact-SQL transactional consistency by using the log portion of the cache file, wherein Transact-SQL transactional consistency is obtained by applying Transact-SQL commit and rollback operations between the log portion of the cache file and the data portion of the cache file, thereby bringing the database to a point of transactional consistency, wherein the I/O request is managed by the database management system as if the I/O request is being serviced by the database instead of the virtual database mechanism;
wherein the I/O request is serviced immediately from the backup file without a restore copy phase first having to take place.

7 more elements

A computer implemented method for creating a virtual database mechanism, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting an input/output (“I/O”) request, from a database management system comprising a database, to a first log file of the database, wherein the database includes a first data file and the first log file associated with the first data file;
(b) intercepting the I/O request;
(c) delivering the intercepted I/O request to a cache file or, in the absence of a previous write, to a backup file, wherein the backup file includes a second log file and a second data file, wherein the second log file in the backup file is different from the first log file in the database;
and
(d) updating a cache file by replacing a data portion and a log portion of the cache file with the second log file and the second data file from the backup file respectively, thereby creating the virtual database mechanism configured to maintain Transact-SQL transactional consistency by using the log portion of the cache file, wherein Transact-SQL transactional consistency is obtained by applying Transact-SQL commit and rollback operations between the log portion of the cache file and the data portion of the cache file, thereby bringing the database to a point of transactional consistency, wherein the I/O request is managed by the database management system as if the I/O request is being serviced by the database instead of the virtual database mechanism;
wherein the I/O request is serviced immediately from the backup file without a restore copy phase first having to take place.

3 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution on a computer system, which when executed by the computer system, causes the computer system to perform the steps of:

(a) detecting an input/output (“I/O”) request, from a database management system comprising a database, to a first log file of the database, wherein the database includes a first data file and the first log file associated with the first data file;
(b) intercepting the I/O request;
(c) delivering the intercepted I/O request to a cache file or, in the absence of a previous write, to a backup file, wherein the backup file includes a second log file and a second data file, wherein the second log file in the backup file is different from the first log file in the database;
and
(d) updating a cache file by replacing a data portion and a log portion of the cache file with the second log file and the second data file from the backup file respectively, thereby creating a virtual database mechanism configured to maintain Transact-SQL transactional consistency by using the log portion of the cache file, wherein Transact-SQL transactional consistency is obtained by applying Transact-SQL commit and rollback operations between the log portion of the cache file and the data portion of the cache file, thereby bringing the database to a point of transactional consistency, wherein the I/O request is managed by the database management system as if the I/O request is being serviced by the database instead of the virtual database mechanism;
wherein the I/O request is serviced immediately from the backup file without a restore copy phase first having to take place.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/795,135Filed 7 Jun 2010 · us provisional application
Priority: 15 Jul 2009
Published: US 2011/0004586 A16 Jan 2011
Granted: 6 Nov 2018
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 11/1469
Management of the backup or restore process: backup restoration techniques
G06F 11/1471
Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations: involving logging of persistent data for recovery
G06F 2201/80
Indexing scheme relating to error detection, to error correction, and to monitoring: database-specific techniques
G06F
Computing and data processing

Family

Application61/225,596Us provisional application · filed 15 Jul 2009
US 2011/0004586 A1Pre-grant publication · published 6 Jan 2011
US 10,120,767 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

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