Merge monitor for table delta partitions

A system comprising:

• at least one programmable processor;
• and
• a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:
• calculating, at runtime, a first cost function and a second cost function associated with a request for a merge of a main partition of a table with a delta partition of the table, the table being part of a database that comprises a plurality of other tables, the request for the merge being prompted by occurrence of a merge motivation, the first cost function quantifying an urgency of the merge relative to availability of system resources required to perform the merge, the second cost function quantifying the urgency of the merge relative to other merges;
• determining whether the merge should occur, the determining comprising comparing the calculated first and second cost functions with calculations of other first and second cost functions for other merge requests of one or more other tables;
• assigning, upon determining that the merge should occur, a merge thread to execute the merge;
• determining an availability of one or more merge tokens to assign to the merge thread, the one or more merge tokens representing system resources usable for merge operations;
• and
• commencing execution of the merge by the merge thread if at least one merge token is available or adding the merge thread to a merge queue to await an available merge token if the at least one merge token is not available.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• calculating, at runtime, a first cost function and a second cost function associated with a request for a merge of a main partition of a table with a delta partition of the table, the table being part of a database that comprises a plurality of other tables, the request for the merge being prompted by occurrence of a merge motivation, the first cost function quantifying an urgency of the merge relative to availability of system resources required to perform the merge, the second cost function quantifying the urgency of the merge relative to other merges;
• determining whether the merge should occur, the determining comprising comparing the calculated first and second cost functions with calculations of other first and second cost functions for other merge requests of one or more other tables;
• assigning, upon determining that the merge should occur, a merge thread to execute the merge;
• determining an availability of one or more merge tokens to assign to the merge thread, the one or more merge tokens representing system resources usable for merge operations;
• and
• commencing execution of the merge by the merge thread if at least one merge token is available or adding the merge thread to a merge queue to await an available merge token if the at least one merge token is not available.