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

• US 20060222163A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UBS Business Solutions AG (UBS Ag)
• Original Assignee: UBS Ag
• Inventors: Loacker, Hansbeat, Bank, Marcel
• Granted Patent: US 7,577,687 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/221.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

Computer-supported method 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 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 component being provided by which, in the case of a transaction which is initiated from one application workstation on the first database, a sister transaction can be called up on the second database 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 behaves analogously to its counterpart on the side of the first database.

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), 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.

2. 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.

3. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein a sister transaction has one or more software program modules, which contain processing logic instructions and access the system components via primitives.

4. 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.

5. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein for functional synchronisation, modifying or writing sister transactions are used, the same message which has already been processed in the context of the first database being transmitted, wherein the input is preferably not revalidated on the side of the sister transactions.

6. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein changes which are carried out in real time on the side of the first database use the encapsulation module of the first database (DB1) to synchronise changed entries of the first database (DB1) into the second database (DB2), wherein on the side of the second database (DB2), the changed entries are sent to the main coexistence controller, which tracks the coexistence element programs and the corresponding application program elements in the context of the second database platform.

7. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein modifying sister transactions to write to the second database (DB2) and the corresponding application program elements (software components) in the context of the second database platform, incoming messages or transactions being forwarded unchanged and tracked there.

8. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein to prioritise the application software programs to be ported in the case of synchronisation in the direction from the first to the second database, a first type of transactions triggers database-entry-oriented synchronisation;

or a second type of transactions triggers functional synchronisation.

9. 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 (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).

10. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein in the case of database-entry-oriented synchronisation by a transaction of the first database (DB1), changed entries are transmitted by the encapsulation module to the main coexistence controller, wherein the main coexistence controller calls up coexistence utility programs of the coexistence element of the second database environment, to bring the entries and/or changes of the first database (DB1) into the second database environment, and wherein after a change of the second database entries, the main coexistence controller calls up the coexistence element(s) and/or the coexistence utility programs of the application software programs, which contain the adaptation rules from the first to the second database and/or to the application software programs in the second database environment.

11. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein in the case of functional synchronisation, the original input message which was sent to the transaction(s) of the first database is transmitted to the main coexistence controller, the main coexistence controller recognising, because of a message identifier, that an input message is involved, and forwarding the processing directly to that one of the sister transactions of the first database which carries out the same processing.

12. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein changes take place exclusively via a sister encapsulation module in the first database context, the encapsulation module modifying the second database synchronously using database macros, and then sending the same database entries also to the main coexistence controller as are sent to the coexistence elements and/or the coexistence utility programs of the application software programs, so that they can be synchronised.

13. 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 (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).

14. Computer network system according to claim 1, wherein the encapsulation module program (KM) is set up and programmed to test whether it is more efficient, particularly regarding transmission duration and transmission quantity and/or processing cost in the context of the second database (DB2), either to send the changed entries resulting from the application of the work unit (UOW) to the first database (DB1) by means of individual functions (F1 . . . Fn) from the first database (DB1) to the second database (DB2), or to send the changed entries resulting from the application of the work unit (UOW) to the first database (DB1) by means of individual messages (M1 . . . Mn) from the first database (DB1) to the second database (DB2).

15. 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 the steps of 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), and 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).

16. Computer-supported method according claim 15, wherein accesses by the work units (UOW) to the first database (DB1) take place by means of an encapsulation module (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 sends the messages (M1. Mn) to the second database (DB2).

17. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, 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).

18. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein a software program component is provided 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).

19. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, 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-supported method according to claim 15, wherein a sister transaction has one or more software program modules, which contain processing logic instructions and access the system components via primitives.

21. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, 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.

22. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein for functional synchronisation, modifying or writing sister transactions are used, the same message which has already been processed in the context of the first database being transmitted, wherein the input is preferably not revalidated on the side of the sister transactions.

23. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein changes which are carried out in real time on the side of the first database use the encapsulation module of the first database (DB1) to synchronise changed entries of the first database (DB1) into the second database (DB2), wherein on the side of the second database (DB2), the changed entries are sent to the main coexistence controller, which tracks the coexistence element programs and the corresponding application program elements in the context of the second database platform.

24. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein modifying sister transactions to write to the second database (DB2) and the corresponding application program elements (software components) in the context of the second database platform, incoming messages or transactions being forwarded unchanged and tracked there.

25. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein to prioritise the application software programs to be ported in the case of synchronisation in the direction from the first to the second database, a first type of transactions triggers database-entry-oriented synchronisation;

or a second type of transactions triggers functional synchronisation.

26. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein in the case of database-entry-oriented synchronisation by a transaction of the first database (DB1), changed entries are transmitted by the encapsulation module to the main coexistence controller, wherein the main coexistence controller calls up coexistence utility programs of the coexistence element of the second database environment, to bring the entries and/or changes of the first database (DB1) into the second database environment, and wherein after a change of the second database entries, the main coexistence controller calls up the coexistence element(s) and/or the coexistence utility programs of the application software programs, which contain the adaptation rules from the first to the second database and/or to the application software programs in the second database environment.

27. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein in the case of functional synchronisation, the original input message which was sent to the transaction(s) of the first database is transmitted to the main coexistence controller, the main coexistence controller recognising, because of a message identifier, that an input message is involved, and forwarding the processing directly to that one of the sister transactions of the first database which carries out the same processing.

28. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein changes take place exclusively via a sister encapsulation module in the first database context, the encapsulation module modifying the second database synchronously using database macros, and then the encapsulation module sending the same database entries also to the main coexistence controller as are sent to the coexistence elements and/or the coexistence utility programs of the application software programs, so that they can be synchronised.

29. Computer-supported method according to claim 15, wherein the encapsulation module program (KM) is set up and programmed to test whether it is more efficient, particularly regarding transmission duration and transmission quantity and/or processing cost in the context of the second database (DB2), either to send the changed entries resulting from the application of the work unit (UOW) to the first database (DB1) by means of individual functions (F1 . . . Fn) from the first database (DB2) to the second database (DB1), or to send the changed entries resulting from the application of the work unit (UOW) to the first database (DB1) by means of individual messages (M1 . . . Mn) from the first database (DB1) to the second database (DB2).

30. 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 15.

31. 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 15.