Method and system for online reorganization of databases

Computer software for online reorganization of an existing database that occurs while read and update activity of the existing database continues, the computer software residing on a computer-readable medium and comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform the following operations:

• unload the existing database;
• reload the existing database indexes;
• build shadow database indexes;
• capture updates for the existing database while the existing database is reloading into the shadow database;
• apply the captured updates to the shadow database;
• take the existing database offline;
• finalize the shadow database with any remaining updates when the existing database is taken offline;
• run a lesser set of calls on the existing database to obtain a first result;
• run the lesser set of calls on the finalized shadow database to obtain a second result;
• compare the first result with the second result;
• place the finalized shadow database online if the first result matches the second result;
• and
• place the existing database online if the first result does not match the second result.

A computer-readable medium including computer executable code for performing online reorganization of an existing database that occurs while read and update activity of the existing database continues, the computer-readable medium comprising:

• code for unloading the existing database;
• code for reloading the existing database to a shadow database;
• code for building shadow database indexes;
• code for capturing updates for the existing database while the existing database is reloading into the shadow database;
• code for applying the captured updates to the shadow database;
• code for taking the existing database offline;
• code for finalizing the shadow database with any remaining updates when the existing database is taken offline;
• code for running a lesser set of calls on the existing database to obtain a first result;
• code for running the lesser set of calls on the finalized shadow database to obtain a second result;
• code for comparing the first result with the second result;
• code for placing the finalized shadow database online if the first result matches the second result;
• and
• code for placing the existing database online if the first result does not match the second result.