Flip-flap mechanism for high availability, online analytical processing databases

A method for maintaining high availability for an on-line database comprising:

• providing a first user account comprising a plurality of first tables and a plurality of first schema objects;
• providing a second user account comprising a plurality of second tables and a plurality of second schema objects;
• providing a third user account comprising a first set of synonyms for the plurality of first tables and the plurality of first schema objects;
• providing a fourth user account comprising a second set of synonyms for the plurality of second tables;
• accessing the first user account using the first set of synonyms;
• modifying data using the second set of synonyms into the second user account to provide a plurality of revised second tables and a plurality of revised second schema objects;
• dropping the first set of synonyms;
• providing a third set of synonyms in the third user account for the plurality of revised second tables and the plurality of revised second schema objects;
• and
• accessing the second user account using the third set of synonyms.

A method for maintaining high availability for an on-line database comprising:

• providing a first user account comprising a plurality of first tables and a plurality of first schema objects;
• providing a second user account comprising a plurality of second tables and a plurality of second schema objects;
• providing a third user account comprising a first set of synonyms for the plurality of first tables and the plurality of first schema objects;
• providing a fourth user account comprising a second set of synonyms for the plurality of second tables;
• accessing the first user account using the first set of synonyms;
• modifying data using the second set of synonyms into the second user account to provide a plurality of revised second tables and a plurality of revised second schema objects;
• dropping the first set of synonyms;
• truncating the plurality of first tables after the first set of synonyms is dropped;
• providing a third set of synonyms in the third user account for the plurality of revised second tables and the plurality of revised second schema objects;
• accessing the second user account using the third set of synonyms;
• dropping the second set of synonyms;
• and
• providing a fourth set of synonyms in the fourth user account for the plurality of first tables,
• wherein the first set of synonyms and the third set of synonyms support schema access for user read only queries, wherein the second set of synonyms supports ETL (extract transform and load) data loading utilities, and wherein the user accounts are in one or more databases.