Methods and apparatus for tracking and reconciling database commands

• US 20070112864A1
• Filed: 11/04/2005
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ben-Natan, Ron
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27

Abstract

A method for automatic reconciliation of database change requests associates administrative database commands with the change request via a context event command. A database monitoring system identifies a context event command that indicates that a particular context, or session, is beginning. The context event command is a tag command, and includes parameters specifying a context label indicative of a change request. Prior to entering a particular change request, the DBA issues the context event command with the context label as a parameter. The context label is an identifier of the change request to be associated with the set of operations, or commands, resulting from the particular change request. The database monitoring system logs and associates subsequently received commands with the context label in a database access log which is employed for later reconciliation of the operations with the corresponding change request.

Claims

1. A method for tracking database access patterns comprising:

receiving commands pertaining to changes in the database;

identifying, a tag command instructive of a log tagging for subsequently received commands;

extracting a tag identifier from the identified tag command;

capturing successively received commands; and

associating the received commands with the extracted tag identifier.

2. A method for automatic reconciliation of change requests comprising:

receiving database requests;

identifying, in one of the intercepted database requests, a tag command indicative of a session context applicable to subsequently received database requests;

extracting a context label from the identified tag command;

capturing successively received database requests; and

associating the captured database request with the extracted context label.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the database requests include at least one of:

commands operable to effect metadata or data changes; and

data traffic requests operable to effect updates and retrievals of stored database entities.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the context label is operable to identify a session corresponding to a change request.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving a plurality of commands corresponding to the same change request, the plurality of commands defining a session of commands; and

associating each of the commands in the plurality of received commands with the same context label.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein associating further comprises appending the context label to successively captured records indicative of successive database requests.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the tag command is included in a database syntax of commands receivable as database requests by a database server, further comprising:

receiving the tag command at a command interpreter in the database server; and

discarding the tag command in a benign manner as a null operation.

8. The method of claim 7 receiving an end tag command to terminate the association of the context label with successively received commands.

9. The method of claim 8 reconciling the captured commands with a change request corresponding to the extracted context label.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein capturing the database requests further comprises intercepting, in a nonintrusive manner, commands pertaining to metadata changes in the database.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving the database commands is performed in a nonintrusive manner via intercepting the commands from an interface to the database server.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein associating further comprises concatenating the captured command with the context label.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising repeating the identification of the tag command and applying the extracted context label to a respective set of successively received command such that each of the sets corresponds to one of the context labels, each context label corresponding to a change request.

14. A method for automatic reconciliation of change requests with database operations comprising:

reading, from audited requests maintained by the DBMS, an ordered set of attempted database commands;

identifying a tag command corresponding to a change request, the tag command perceived as a null operation by the database;

retrieving a change request identifier from the identified tag command;

logging subsequently received commands corresponding to the change request; and

associating the change request identifier to subsequent logged commands.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

reconciling the tagged entries by correlating the change request identifier with a corresponding change request; and

flagging logged commands for which a corresponding change request identifier is unavailable.

16. A database monitor operable for monitoring data access requests for automatic reconciliation of change requests comprising:

an interface for receiving data access requests, the database monitor operable to identify, in one of the received data access requests, a tag command indicative of a session context applicable to subsequently received database requests, and further operable to extract a context label from the identified tag command; and

a database access log responsive to the database monitor operable to capture successively received database requests, and further operable to store an association of the captured database request with the extracted context label, the context label operable to identify a session corresponding to a change request.

17. The database monitor of claim 16 wherein the interface is further operable to intercept at least one of:

commands operable to effect administrative metadata changes pertaining to metadata changes in the database; and

data traffic requests operable to effect updates and retrievals of stored database entities.

18. The database monitor of claim 17 wherein the interface is an interface to a network connection operable to receive the data access requests independently of the database server.

19. The database monitor of claim 17 wherein the interface receives a plurality of commands corresponding to the same change request, the plurality of commands defining a session of commands, the database monitor further operable to associate each of the commands in the set of captured commands with the same context label.

20. The database monitor of claim 19 wherein the database access log is operable to append the context label to successively captured records indicative of successive database requests.

21. The database monitor of claim 20 wherein the tag command is included in a database syntax of commands receivable as database requests by a database server operable to:

receive the tag command at a command interpreter in the database server; and

discard the tag command in a benign manner as a null operation.

22. A computer program product having a computer readable medium operable to store computer program logic embodied in computer program code encoded thereon, the computer program code receivable by a processor for executing computer program instructions for automatic reconciliation of change requests comprising:

computer program code for recording database requests receivable by DBMS tables;

computer program code for identifying, in one of the recorded database requests, a tag command indicative of a session context applicable to subsequently received database requests;

computer program code for extracting a context label from the identified tag command;

computer program code for capturing successively received database requests;

computer program code for scrutinizing the received database requests for operations pertaining to administrative changes;

associating the captured database request with the extracted context label.

computer program code for reconciling the tagged entries by correlating the change request identifier with a corresponding change request; and

computer program code for flagging administrative metadata changes for which a corresponding change request identifier is unavailable.

23. A database monitor operable for nonintrusive monitoring of administrative metadata commands for automatic reconciliation of change requests comprising:

means for intercepting administrative database commands pertaining to metadata changes in the database;

means for identifying, a tag command instructive of a log tagging for subsequently received commands;

means for extracting a tag identifier from the identified tag command;

means for capturing successively received commands;

means for associating the captured commands with the extracted tag identifier by concatenating the captured command with the context label; and

means for reconciling the tagged entries by correlating the change request identifier with a corresponding change request.