Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-27
2002-11-26
Vu, Kim (Department: 2172)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C711S162000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06487558
ABSTRACT:
REFERENCE TO APPENDIX A
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document including Appendix A contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to database management, and more specifically to methods for saving data needed to reconstruct a database management system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A database system has hardware elements and software elements. The software elements of the database system commonly include the operating system such as a UNIX operating system, a Windows NT operating system, or an OS/2 operating systems, the database management programs such as those provided by Informix, Oracle or Sybase, and the databases utilized by the database management programs. A conventional database system is schematically shown in FIG.
1
.
The hardware elements commonly include the electronic computing devices and storage devices, such as hard disks or tape drives. Because of the usually large size of the software elements, the storage devices are normally large, having several hard disks linked together, for example. The databases are normally the largest in size among the software elements and commonly require the most storage space.
FIG. 1
shows one example of a conventional Sybase database system including a SQL server
102
that is installed on a database server computer
110
. SQL server
102
is one specific example of a database server. A computer network
100
that interconnects database server computer
110
, a plurality of workstations (not shown), and a database administrator workstation
107
. Data administrator workstation
107
includes a local hard disk drive system
117
and a tape back-up system
109
. Typically, data administrator workstation
107
is used to configure and control operation of SQL server
102
.
SQL server
102
is typically a relational database management system. In a relational database management system, all the data are stored in tables, where each table represents an “entity” or a group of related information. Each row in a table represents information about an individual example of that entity.
SQL server
102
typically maintains information regarding the configuration and use of the relational database system, i.e., system information, in system tables within a master database
103
. Master database
103
is one specific example of a system database in a more general database server. Master database
103
is dedicated to managing this system data. Master database
103
is completely independent of user databases
104
, which contain information an individual user of the database normally accesses, and which can be created and managed within SQL server
102
.
Within each user database, there are also system tables
105
that contain configuration data for that particular user database. Normally, user database system tables
105
contain user information such as access permission for the database objects.
The system tables in master database
103
store information regarding the users of SQL server
102
, the users' account names and passwords, the size of each database, the size and location of disk space available to the databases, and the placement of the individual databases on individual disks, etc. The information stored in master database
103
is critically important. Without this information, one cannot restore the configuration of SQL server
102
.
During normal operation, SQL server
102
automatically makes full and incremental backups of user databases
104
and master database
103
. If there is a problem with a particular user database, the database administrator can reload the full and incremental backups of that user database, and SQL server
102
restores the data in the user database to the same state as when the last incremental dump was done.
Unfortunately, there are many situations in which simply reloading the backups, sometimes called dumps, is not sufficient to recreate the configuration of SQL server
102
. Typically, the backups are stored in a proprietary format. In this situation, the backups are not useful unless the backup information can be loaded into a SQL server that is already properly configured.
In restructuring a server machine, e.g., adding additional physical disk capacity and moving logical volumes to the new physical disks, operating system
101
redefines the location of logical volumes, e.g., redefines the partitioning of the physical devices. In this situation, simply reloading database
103
restores the data in the system tables. Unfortunately, the data in the system tables now has no meaning because server machine
110
now has new disks and new disk partitioning, which is different from that in master database
103
. A similar problem occurs in transporting SQL server to a new server machine.
In case of a disk failure or a corrupted backup tape, master database
103
may be lost. If there is a tape backup, it is typically unusable given the priority nature of the format. In this case, the ability to reload master database
103
is lost. This effectively wipes out SQL server
102
. To assure restoration of an SQL server under all failure scenarios a new backup methodology is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A database configuration data backup computer process automatically backs up database configuration data in a database management system recovery file that is easily read by a database administrator. The database configuration information stored in the computer file is sufficient to permit the database administer to reconstruct the complete database management system including all system databases and all user databases.
Therefore, if the original database management system is corrupted, or if the original database management system is damaged, it is no longer necessary to have a working database server to read the backup data. Rather, the database administrator, using the database configuration file of this invention can restore the database management system. The database management system recovery output file is human readable which means that the data in the file is stored in a format, typically a text format such as the ASCII format, that can be displayed easily on a computer system. Since the data is not in a proprietary format that can be processed only by a working database management system server, the fact that there is not a working database management system server is of no consequence.
In one embodiment, a computer operating system includes a mechanism for executing a process at a scheduled time and this mechanism initiates the execution of database configuration data backup process of this invention. The process dumps the system configuration data, e.g., data in system tables of a system database, to the human readable database management system recovery output file. For example, an identification of a database server followed by the overall configuration of the database server is written to human readable database management system recovery output file. This information includes a complete map of the storage space used by database server as well as the storage space available to database server.
To obtain the configuration information for each user database in the database server, the user databases must be identified. Hence, the process of this invention accesses the system database and obtains the name of each user database. A list of user database names is written to human readable database management system recovery output file.
For each user database in the list, the configuration data from the user database is written to the human readable database management system recovery output file. The configuration data for the user database includes the database name, the user account names, the access codes, etc.
When the configuratio
Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Fleurantin Jean Bolte
Vu Kim
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