Method For Database Design

• US 20100114976A1
• Filed: 10/21/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Coddington, Neal A., Castellanos, Maria G.
• Application Number:
  US12/255,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114976A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention include methods and systems for database design. A method includes analyzing tables to generate recommendations for an initial design of a database before the database is constructed.

Claims

1. ) A method, comprising:

analyzing tables with a computer; and

generating, with the computer, recommendations for an initial design of a database before the database is actually built and without using a database management system (DMS) installation.

2. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising:

recommending a clustering key that determines ordering of columns in the tables;

recommending a partitioning key that determines how the tables are divided;

recommending an index to increase access time for queries to the tables.

3. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising, recommending which queries to materialize so results for subsequent and equivalent queries are already stored in memory.

4. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising, automatically creating code to implement a recommendation in the database upon receiving approval from a user to accept the recommendation.

5. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising, generating, with the computer, rationale that explains why a recommendation is provided to assist a user in deciding whether to accept or reject the recommendation.

6. ) A tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions for causing a computer to execute a method, comprising:

analyzing files with records and tables to generate recommendations for an initial design of a database before the database is constructed; and

providing the recommendations to user before the database is installed for operation.

7. ) The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 6 further comprising, analyzing queries collected by a profiling tool to determine candidate physical features while the database is being designed.

8. ) The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 6 further comprising, automatically creating a Data Definition Language (DDL) script that creates a database schema when one of the recommendations is accepted for the database.

9. ) The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the recommendations include both a clustering key and a partitioning key.

10. ) The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the recommendations include a secondary index that is a B-tree that speeds up access to columns when a query is executed on the database after the database is designed and loaded.

11. ) A computer system, comprising:

a memory for storing an algorithm; and

a processor for executing the algorithm to;

analyze files with records and tables to generate recommendations for an initial physical design of a database before the database is created and loaded for operation.

12. ) The computer system of claim 11, wherein the processor further executes the algorithm to generate rationale that explains why a recommendation is generated.

13. ) The computer system of claim 11, wherein the recommendations include clustering keys, partitioning keys, and indexes for the tables.

14. ) The computer system of claim 11, wherein the recommendations are generated without making calls to a database management system (DBMS) optimizer.

15. ) The computer system of claim 11, wherein the recommendations are provided before the records and the tables are loaded in a database and before a database system installation.