Patent · US Expired

Non-blocking drain method and apparatus used to reorganize data in a database

US6070170A · kind A · utility

57Cited by
10References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 1, 1997
Grant dateMay 30, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 1, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99953
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for online reorganization of a database which does not prevent a process from accessing the database during the data reorganization. The invention uses a non-blocking drain to lock on a database, unloads a copy of the data contained in the database, reorganizes the copied data, loads the reorganized data into a shadow location, applies log records to the shadow location data so that the reorganized data may be adjusted for any changes to the database after the data was copied and reorganized, and then replaces the data in the database with the reorganized data. The non-blocking drain does not prevent other requests on the database from being processed while the reorganization lock is in place, except briefly when the reorganized data replaces the data in the database.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.