SYSTEM AND METHOD TO DETERMINE DATABASE SCHEMA IMPACT

• US 20110078113A1
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Global Network Services Deutschland GmbH (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Franz, Joern Amand
• Granted Patent: US 8,667,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/213 with details for schema evolution support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

Database management systems associate a user identifier with an application and monitor access by the application to a database replication. Any changes to a schema associated with the database replication or different instances of the database are identified based on the monitoring. Identified changes are verified and a usage parameter of the database or database replication is analyzed to determine usage data, which can be stored in a database usage repository. A determination regarding the expected impact of an identified change is determined from the usage data.

Claims

1. A method of database management, the method comprising:

associating a user identifier with an application, wherein the user identifier enables monitoring access by the application to a database replication;

identifying a change to a schema associated with the database replication based on said monitoring;

verifying the identified change;

analyzing a usage parameter of the database replication to determine usage data;

storing the usage data to a database usage repository; and

determining from the usage data an expected impact of the identified change.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the expected impact to a threshold impact; and

informing a client application regarding a result of said comparing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage parameter includes structured query language usage data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifier is unique to the application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said verifying includes performing repeated verification of schema changes by comparing database data for the database replication to stored database metadata.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling said verifying to occur a number N times per day.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing includes structured query language tracking.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating an alarm for a client application, wherein said generating is responsive to the expected impact exceeding the threshold impact.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the database replication is enabled for a production environment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the database replication is enabled for a test environment.

11. A method of managing a database system, the method comprising:

identifying a schema change comprising a difference between a schema for a data model repository and a schema for a database replication;

comparing a stored structured query language (SQL) statement against the identified schema change;

for a database error encountered during said comparing, determining an application or service development impact; and

comparing a stored usage parameter to the identified schema change.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

combining the stored usage parameter with column data.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

based on said combining, preparing a report of applications or services that require review for runtime compatibility.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the stored usage parameter includes schema information.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the stored usage parameter includes table information.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the stored usage parameter includes column data.

17. A computer readable media embedded with instructions for database management, the instructions including instructions for:

a usage module for analyzing database usage and updating a database usage repository with information indicative of the database usage;

a schema change monitor for identifying and verifying schema changes;

an impact module for determining an impact of an identified schema change based on said database usage; and

an alarm generator for alerting client applications regarding the change impact.

18. The computer readable media of claim 17, wherein said schema change monitor identifies and verifies schema changes within different instances of a single database.

19. The computer readable media of claim 17, wherein said schema change monitor identifies and verifies schema changes between a database and a database replication.

20. The computer readable media of claim 17, wherein said analyzing database usage includes tracking of structured query language (SQL) statements.

21. The computer readable media of claim 20, wherein the SQL statements are identified by database side tracking of SQL statements on a per-user ID basis.

22. The computer readable media of claim 21, wherein the identified SQL statements are identified by network packet analysis.

23. The computer readable media of claim 21, wherein the identified SQL statements are identified by source code analysis.