Method, system, and program for online incremental deferred integrity maintenance of rolled in and rolled out data

For a data warehouse management system to be operatively coupled to a data processing system having memory for storing a data warehouse, a method of managing the data warehouse having a table dividable into partitions for containing rows of at least one of rolled-in data and rolled-out data, a metadata element and a data warehouse management system having operation mechanisms, the method allowing for execution of integrity checking of rolled-in data and maintenance of rolled-out data to be deferred and incrementally processed while allowing a general user access to other content of the data warehouse, the method comprising the steps of:

• arranging roll-in and rolled-out data into partitions;
• assigning a distinguishable identifier corresponding to each partition;
• creating a metadata entry, in the metadata element, associated with each identifier having attributes asserted to signify if rolled-in data and rolled-out data are contained in a corresponding partition respectively;
• providing for data warehouse management system operations responsive to the attributes;
• and
• de-asserting the attribute signifying rolled-in data is contained in the corresponding partition after integrity processing is completed for the partition.

A computer program product for managing a data warehouse to be stored in memory of a data processing system, the data warehouse having a table dividable into partitions for containing rows of rolled-in data and rolled-out data, a metadata element and a data warehouse management system having operation mechanisms, the computer program product allowing for execution of integrity checking of at least one of rolled-in data and maintenance of rolled-out data to be deferred and incrementally processed while allowing a general user access to other content of the data warehouse, the computer program product comprising:

• computer readable medium for tangibly embodying and transporting computer executable code directing the data processing system to perform the tasks of:
• arranging roll-in and rolled-out data into partitions;
• assigning a distinguishable identifier corresponding to each partition;
• creating a metadata entry, in the metadata element, associated with each identifier having attributes asserted to signify if rolled-in data and rolled-out data are contained in a corresponding partition respectively;
• providing for data warehouse management system operations responsive to the attributes;
• and
• de-asserting the attribute signifying rolled-in data is contained in the corresponding partition after integrity processing is completed for the partition.