US 7,149,761 B2Granted

System and method for managing the synchronization of replicated version-managed databases

AssigneeTadpole Technology PLC

InventorsIain C Cooke, Gary S M Thomson, Lucy Bastin

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Abstract

A system and method for synchronizing a local replicated database with remote replicated databases. Generally, the system includes a local replicated database and a synchronization manager associated with the local replicated database. The synchronization manager may send changes made on the local replicated database to one or more remote replicated databases for reconstruction by the one or more remote replicated databases, and may receive changes made on a remote replicated database. In addition, the synchronization manager may reconstruct changes received from a remote replicated database on the local replicated database. Preferably, the synchronization manager may send, receive, and reconstruct changes independently from one another, i.e., may perform one or more of these activities autonomously and/or asynchronously.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method for synchronizing a local replicated database with one or more remote replicated databases, comprising:

sending recent local changes made on the local database to a remote database;
receiving changes made on the remote database from the remote database;
and
reconstructing the received changes received from the remote database on the local database,
wherein any of the sending, receiving, and reconstructing steps may be performed independently from each other,
wherein the local and remote databases are version-managed databases, each having a plurality of versions, and wherein one version in the local database is nominated as an interface version, and wherein the reconstructing step is performed using the interface version,
wherein changes sent between the local and remote databases are sent in change files, and wherein the reconstructing step comprises:
(a) creating a child version from the interface version;
(b) setting the child version to a state identical to a state at the remote database before a received change file comprising the received changes were made at the remote database;
(c) loading the changes in the received change file into the child version;
(d) determining whether there has been more than one change file sent by the local database since a most-recent change file sent by the local database and received and processed by the remote database before the remote database sent the received change file;
(e) if there has been more than one change sent by the local database, reconciling the interface version with any intervening states of the local database following the state identified by the change file received from the remote database and preceding the interface version;
(f) reconciling the interface version with the child version;
and
(g) posting the state comprising the results of reconciling the child version with the interface version to the interface version.

12 more elements

A method for synchronizing a local replicated database with a remote replicated database, comprising the steps of:

autonomously and asynchronously sending changes made on the local database to the remote database, independent of any steps of receiving and reconstructing changes;
autonomously and asynchronously receiving changes made on the remote database to the local database, independent of any steps of sending and reconstructing changes;
and
autonomously and asynchronously reconstructing received changes made on the remote database on the local database, independent of any steps of sending and receiving changes,
wherein each of the local and remote databases is a version-managed database comprising a plurality of versions, and wherein a version in each of the local and remote databases is nominated as a local interface version and a remote interface version, respectively,
wherein changes sent between the local and remote databases are sent in change files,
wherein each change file sent by the local database comprises a local sequence number identifying a state of the local database at the time the change file is sent and a remote sequence number identifying a state of the remote database known by the local database, and wherein each change file sent by the remote database comprises a remote sequence number identifying a state of the remote database at the time the change file is sent and a local sequence number identifying a state of the local database known by the remote database at the time the change file is sent, and
wherein the reconstructing step comprises:
(a) creating a child version of the local database set to a state associated with a local sequence number in a received change file received from the remote database;
(b) loading the received change file into the child version;
(c) determining whether a difference between a sequence number associated with the local interface version and the local sequence number of the change file is more than one;
(d) if the difference is more than one, reconciling intervening versions of the local database, comprising:
(i) creating a grandchild version of the local database set to a state associated with a sequence number immediately following the local sequence number of the received change file;
(ii) reconciling the child version with the grandchild version;
(iii) posting reconciliation results of reconciling the child version with the grandchild version to the child version;
(iv) if a difference between the local sequence number of the local interface version and the sequence number of the child version is more than one, then repeating steps (i) to (iv) using a state of the local database associated with a sequence number next following the local sequence number of the received change file;
(e) reconciling the interface version with the child version;
and
(f) posting a state comprising reconciliation results of reconciling the interface version with the child version to the interface version.

16 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/991,485Filed 13 Nov 2001
Published: US 2003/0093431 A115 May 2003
Granted: 12 Dec 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06F 16/273
Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system…:…
G05B 2219/31215
From computer integrated manufacturing till monitoring: upon modification of data in one database, automatic update of mirror databases
Y10S 707/99954
Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users: version management
G06F
Computing and data processing