Automatic and dynamic provisioning of databases

• US 20050038831A1
• Filed: 11/21/2003
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lakshminath, Anand, Wong, Lik, Souder, Benny, Downing, Alan, Ciminski, John, Stamos, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,873,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2386 Bulk updating operations data conversion details G06F16/258

Abstract

Approaches described herein may be used for provisioning of databases that requires a bulk transfer of data within a distributed computing environment, such as a grid. The approaches do not require the manual intervention of a DBA to, for example, transfer a tablespace between the file systems of operating systems. Instead, the tablespaces may be provisioned automatically and dynamically by a grid computing system whenever it determines the need to dynamically provision a database. In addition, as copies of tablespaces are provisioned, synchronization mechanisms can also be automatically provisioned to keep the tablespaces and their copies in sync.

Claims

1. A method for automatically provisioning data in a distributed database system, the method comprising the steps:

a database server causing a tablespace to be transported from a first file system to a second file system; and

after transporting said tablespace to said second file system, said database server importing said tablespace into a local database managed by said database server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of a database server causing a tablespace to be transported and the step of said database server importing said tablespace are both performed in response to invocation of a routine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said routine is written in code that conforms to a database language and that may be executed by a database server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of importing includes attaching said tablespace to said local database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the tablespace is attached to another database before and during performance of the step of said database server causing a tablespace to be transported.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tablespace is offline before and during performance of the step of said database server causing a tablespace to be transported.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of importing the tablespace includes attaching a copy of the tablespace, wherein the copy is different than said tablespace; and

said database server provisions a synchronization mechanism that applies changes made to the tablespace to the copy.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the synchronization mechanism applies changes made to the copy to the tablespace.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the steps further include:

the synchronization mechanism determining which changes to the tablespace to propagate to the copy based on the results of an evaluation of a set of rules by a rules engine; and

wherein the step of provisioning the synchronization mechanism includes configuring said set of rules.

23. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

25. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

26. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

27. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

28. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

29. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

30. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

31. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

10. A method for a database server to provide copies of files, the method comprising the steps of:

a first database server receiving a request to create a copy of a file stored in a first file system of a first operating system;

said first database server causing the creation of said copy in a particular file system of a particular operating system; and

wherein said copy is a different file than said particular file.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the step of a first database server receiving a request includes the first database server receiving a request to transport a copy of the file to said particular file system;

wherein the first database server causing the creation of said copy includes causing the transmission of the copy of said file between said first database server and said second database server; and

storing said copy in said particular file system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

said first file system is local relative to said first database server and remote relative to said second database server;

said particular file system is local relative to said second database server and remote relative to said first database server; and

wherein the step of storing is performed by said second database server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of causing the transmission includes causing the transmission of the copy as a binary file via a messaging system that propagates messages between said first database server and said second database server.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

said first file system is local relative to said second database server and remote relative to said first database server;

said particular file system is local relative to said first database server and remote relative to said second database server; and

wherein the step of storing is performed by said first database server.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein said first file system is local relative to said first database server and said particular file system is local relative to said first database server.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving a request includes the invocation of a routine that passes as a parameter a value identifying the file.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein:

receiving a request includes receiving a command through an interface;

said database server executes commands received through said interface that conform to a database language; and

said command identifies the file.

32. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

33. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

34. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

35. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.

36. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 14.

37. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 15.

38. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 16.

39. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 17.

18. A method for automatically instantiating database data in a distributed database system, the method comprising the steps:

a database server causing a set of one or more files to be transported from a first file system to a second file system;

wherein said set of one or more files store data for a database; and

after transporting said set of one or more files to said second file system, said database server provisioning said database as a database managed by said database server.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the set of files is a tablespace, wherein the step of provisioning includes:

attaching said tablespace to said database.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said set of one or more files includes metadata describing database objects and commands for inserting data into the database objects, wherein the step of provisioning includes importing said data into said database by executing commands.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said set of one or more files includes backup files created by a recovery manager, wherein the step of provisioning includes causing said recovery manager to create said database from said backup files.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein an archive log stores data recording changes to said database made after creating the backup files, wherein the step of provisioning further includes changing said database to reflect changes recorded in said archive log.

40. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 18.

41. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 19.

42. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 20.

43. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 21.

44. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 22.