Real Time Data Replication

• US 20110066592A1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stecher, John J., Newport, William T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication

Abstract

A combination of synchronous and asynchronous replication of data is used to replicate a local database to a replicated database. The typical tradeoff between synchronous and asynchronous replication is optimized by using hybrid replication, which is to use synchronous replication for inserting new data and asynchronous replication for updating existing data. The combined use of synchronous and asynchronous in this manner provides an efficient replicated database where the replicated database can tolerate some delay in data updates but requires no data loss of new data.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor having a local database;

a replication mechanism that sends transactions to a replicated database using synchronous data replication for transactions that add new data to the replicated database and asynchronous data replication for transactions that update data in the replicated database.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the transaction to add new data to the replicated database is a database INSERT operation and the asynchronous replication transaction to update data in the replicated database is a database UPDATE operation.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the replicated database is associated with another computer system located remotely from the at least one processor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the replicated database holds radar information that is updated using hybrid replication.

5. A computer-implemented method for hybrid replication of a database, the method comprising the steps of:

(A) determining if a database transaction is a transaction that adds new data to the database or updates data on the database;

(B) for a database transaction that updates data in the database, updating the data locally and replicating the data to the replicated database asynchronously;

(C) for a database transaction that adds new data, adding the new data locally and replicating the data to the replicated database synchronously; and

(E) wherein the method steps are implemented in a computer software program stored in computer memory and executed by a computer processor.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the transaction to add new data to the replicated database is a database INSERT operation and the asynchronous replication transaction to update data in the replicated database is a database UPDATE operation.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the replicated database is associated with another computer system located remotely from the at least one processor.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the replicated database holds radar information that is updated using hybrid replication.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of replicating the data synchronously determines if the replication was successful, and if not successful, then retrying the replication “

N”

times.

10. An article of manufacture comprising:

a replication mechanism stored on a computer recordable media that when executed by a computer processor performs the steps of;

(A) determining if a database transaction is a transaction that adds new data to the database or updates data on the database;

(B) for a database transaction that updates data in the database, updating the data locally and replicating the data to the replicated database asynchronously;

(C) for a database transaction that adds new data, adding the new data locally and replicating the data to the replicated database synchronously; and

(D) wherein the method steps are implemented in a computer software program stored in computer memory and executed by a computer processor.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the transaction to add new data to the replicated database is a database INSERT operation and the asynchronous replication transaction to update data in the replicated database is a database UPDATE operation.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the replicated database is associated with another computer system located remotely from the at least one processor.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the replicated database holds radar information that is updated using hybrid replication.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the step of replicating the data synchronously determines if the replication was successful, and if not successful, then retrying the replication “

N”

times.