High-speed database checkpointing through sequential I/O to disk
US5996088A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 22, 1997 |
| Grant date | Nov 30, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 22, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2201/80
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method for performing a checkpointing operation in a client/server computer system for safeguarding data in case of a failure. The records of a database are stored in a mass storage device, such as a hard disk drive array. A separate disk drive is dedicated for use only in conjunction with checkpointing. Periodically, when a checkpoint process is initiated, the server writes a number of its modified records to checkpoint files which are stored by the dedicated checkpoint disk drive. The write operation is performed through one or more sequential I/O operations. Thus, the modified records are stored in consecutive sectors of the hard disk drive. If the server becomes disabled, the data can be recovered by reading the contents of the most recent checkpoint files and loading the contents sequentially back to the server's main memory.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.