Computer network system for building, synchronising and/or operating a second database from/with a first database, and procedures for it

• US 20060222160A1
• Filed: 03/27/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UBS Ag
• Original Assignee: UBS Ag
• Inventors: Loacker, Hansbeat, Bank, Marcel
• Granted Patent: US 7,580,970 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/221.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

Computer network system for building and/or synchronising a second database from/with a first database, accesses by work units being carried out at least on the first database from at least one application workstation, to generate, change or delete contents of the database, with at least one first server to guide and maintain the first database, said server being connected to the at least one application workstation, at least one second server to guide and maintain the second database, at least one data connection which connects the two servers, a software program module being provided, and being set up and programmed to carry out a comparison between the first and second databases, to obtain a statement about the equality of the information content of the two databases, and starting from the data comparison, an error log file about the errored and/or missing records being produced, and an error detection and processing function correcting the errored and/or missing records.

Claims

1. Computer network system for building and/or synchronising a second database (DB2) from/with a first database (DB1), accesses by work units (UOW) being carried out at least on the first database (DB1) from at least one application workstation, to generate, change or delete contents of the database (DB1), with

at least one first server (S1) to guide and maintain the first database (DB1), said server being connected to at least one application workstation,

at least one second server (S2) to guide and maintain the second database (DB2),

at least one data connection which connects the two servers (S1, S2),

a software program module is provided, and is set up and programmed to carry out a comparison between the first and second databases (DB1, DB2), to obtain a statement for synchronisation and about the equality of the information content of the two databases,

starting from the data comparison, an error log file about the errored and/or missing records is produced, and

an error detection and processing function corrects/adds the errored and/or missing records.

2. Computer network system according to the preceding claim, wherein

a data container with a control table and a data table is provided, and is used to simulate a transaction bracket from the context of the first database in the context of the second database, and errored/missing records from the data comparison are written to this container.

3. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the error detection and processing function is a sub-function of the synchronisation between the two databases, and is based on the error log file and data container, during the synchronisation, all messages are written to the data container and processed from there.

4. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein if an error occurs during synchronisation, the data is identified as errored, and a link from the data container to the error log file is then created and the errors are then displayed/shown.

5. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the software program components error log file, data container, error processing during synchronisation, redelivery and data equalisation are combined into one logical unit, GUIs which provide consolidated reporting of the synchronisation, initial load and data equalisation components being made available.

6. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein a repeat function is provided, to carry out an immediate correction of an identified difference between the first and second databases.

7. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein a redelivery function, which includes a set of functions to select an errored or missing record in the context of the second database (DB2) in a table, to generate a corresponding change and to send it via the synchronisation process back into the context of the second database, is provided.

8. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the redelivery function corrects three possible errors:

A record is absent from the first database (DB1), but present in the second database (DB2),

A record is present in the first database (DB1), but absent from the second database (DB2), or

A record is present in the first database (DB1), but present in the second database (DB2) with the wrong contents.

9. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the data comparison system has three components:

error detection, error analysis and error correction.

10. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein error detection includes withdrawing and processing the data from the two databases, hash values being calculated and compared with each other, if there are differences, the data is fetched from the appropriate databases, the corrupted data from the first and second databases is compared in detail and differences are written to the error log file of synchronisation and the data for it to the data container.

11. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein from the data container, the new data is applied to the corresponding database by carrying out the repeat function.

12. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the accesses by the work units (UOW) to the first database (DB1) take place by means of an encapsulation module program (KM), which is set up and programmed so that the work units (UOW) are passed to it, work units (UOW) which it accepts are decomposed into one or more messages (M1 . . . Mn), the messages (M1 . . . Mn) are entered in the first database (DB1), and the messages (M1 . . . Mn) are sent to the second database (DB2).

13. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the encapsulation module program (KM) is set up and programmed to carry out those accesses by application software programs and other programs which change the first database for them, these programs directing their change commands which are intended for the first database (DB1) to the encapsulation module program (KM), which carries out the actual accesses to the first database (DB1).

14. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller (HS) of the second database (DB2) is set up and programmed to read the messages (M1 . . . Mn) which are sent to it from the input wait queue (Qin), to check whether all the messages (M1 . . . Mn) belonging to one work unit (UOW) have arrived in the input wait queue (Qin), to carry out the appropriate changes in the second database (DB2) when all the messages (M1 . . . Mn) belonging to one work unit (UOW) have arrived in the input wait queue (Qin), and optionally to distribute the corresponding changes or the messages (M1 . . . Mn) which contain them and belong to one work unit (UOW), depending on specified conditions, at least partly to other database or application programs.

15. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the encapsulation module program (KM) is set up and programmed, depending on reaching a predefined parameter, to decompose work units (UOW) coming from a batch processing run into corresponding messages (M1 . . . Mn) and to write them to a transfer-database (Q1), and a monitor software module, which is set up and programmed, after the predefined parameter is reached, to transmit the content of the transfer database (Q1) to the second database (DB2), is provided.

16. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller (HS) of the second database (DB2), for every database or application program which receives data from the first database (DB1), feeds with data a coexistence element program module, which is set up and programmed to synchronise this data for the relevant database or application program specifically, and to carry out changes corresponding to the messages (M1 . . . Mn) belonging to one work unit (UOW) in the input wait queue (Qin) in the second database (DB2) or application program, or in the database which is associated with the relevant application program.

17. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller (HS) is set up and programmed to take the information about which of the coexistence element programs is to be supplied with which contents from tables.

18. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein a software program component by which, in the case of a transaction which is initiated from one application workstation on the first database (DB1), a sister transaction can be called up on the second database (DB2), and vice versa—

in which case, from the point of view of the application workstation, the sister transaction on the side of the second database (DB2) behaves analogously to its counterpart on the side of the first database (DB1)—

is provided.

19. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the functions, services and data which exist at the first database platform are made available in the context of the second database platform, essentially the same source programs being used, and when the sister transactions are activated in the context of the second database platform, the interfaces of/to the application software program(s) are essentially unchanged.

20. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the interfaces of the sister transactions in the second database environment correspond to the original transactions in the first database environment, to be configured whether and how the original transactions in the first database environment or the sister transactions in the second database environment are used.

33. Computer-supported method according to claim 1, wherein the encapsulation module program (KM) is set up and programmed to carry out those accesses by application software programs and other programs which change the first database for them, these programs directing their change commands which are intended for the first database (DB1) to the encapsulation module program (KM), which carries out the actual accesses to the first database (DB1).

34. Computer program carrying medium, with computer program code on it which, if it is executed in a computer, is set up to put into effect the computer-supported method according to claim 1.

35. Computer program product with computer-executable program code which, if it is executed in a computer, is set up to put into effect the computer-supported method according to claim 1.

21. Computer-supported method for building and/or synchronising a second database (DB2) from/with a first database (DB1), accesses by work units (UOW) being carried out at least on the first database (DB1) from at least one application workstation, to generate, change or delete contents of the database (DB1), with guiding and maintaining the first database (DB1) with at least one first server (S1), which is connected to at least one application workstation, guiding and maintaining the second database (DB2) with at least one second server (S2), providing at least one data connection which connects the two servers (S1, S2), providing at least one software program module, to carry out a comparison between the first and second databases (DB1, DB2), to obtain a statement for synchronisation and about the equality of the information content of the two databases, starting from the data comparison, an error log file about the errored and/or missing records being produced, and an error detection and processing function correcting the errored and/or missing records.

22. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein a data container with a control table and a data table is provided, and is used to simulate a transaction bracket from the context of the first database in the context of the second database, and errored records from the data comparison are written to this container.

23. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein the error detection and processing function is a sub-function of the synchronisation between the two databases, and is based on the error log file and data container, during the synchronisation, all messages are written to the data container and processed from there.

24. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein if an error occurs during synchronisation, the data is identified as errored, and a link from the data container to the error log file is then created and the errors are then displayed/shown.

25. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein the software program components error log file, data container, error processing during synchronisation, redelivery and data equalisation are combined into one logical unit, GUIs which provide consolidated reporting of the synchronisation, initial load and data equalisation components being made available.

26. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein a repeat function is provided, to carry out an immediate correction of an identified difference between the first and second databases.

27. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein a redelivery function, which includes a set of functions to select an errored or missing record in the context of the second database (DB2) in a table, to generate a corresponding change and to send it via the synchronisation process back into the context of the second database, is provided.

28. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein the redelivery function corrects three possible errors:

A record is absent from the first database (DB1), but present in the second database (DB2),

A record is present in the first database (DB1), but absent from the second database (DB2), or

A record is present in the first database (DB1), but present in the second database (DB2) with the wrong contents.

29. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein the data comparison system has three components:

error detection, error analysis and error correction.

30. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein error detection includes withdrawing and processing the data from the two databases, hash values being calculated and compared with each other, if there are differences, the data is fetched from the appropriate databases, the corrupted data from the first and second databases is compared in detail and differences are written to the error log file of synchronisation and the data for it to the data container.

31. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein from the data container, the new data is applied to the corresponding database by carrying out the repeat function.

32. Computer-supported method according to claim 21, wherein the accesses by the work units (UOW) to the first database (DB1) take place by means of an encapsulation module program (KM), to which the work units (UOW) are passed, which decomposes work units (UOW) which it accepts into one or more messages (M1 . . . Mn), which enters the messages (M1 . . . Mn) in the first database (DB1), and which sends the messages (M1 . . . Mn) to the second database (DB2).