DATA ACCESS METHOD AND CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT DATABASE SYSTEM

• US 20110191375A1
• Filed: 12/16/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: YANG, ZHEN, YU, YUE, GAO, PENG, SHI, SHAW-BEN
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

A computer implemented method for accessing data begins with receipt of a data access request. In response to determining that the requested data needs to be acquired in real time from an original data source, the processor acquires and stores that data. In response to determining that the data cannot be acquired in real time from the data source, the processor acquires the data from a configuration management database in which the requested data was previously stored.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for accessing data from a configuration management database, the computer implemented method comprising:

a processor receiving a data access request;

the processor, in response to determining that requested data must be acquired in real time by accessing a data source that initialized the requested data, acquiring the requested data from the data source in real time and storing the requested data as acquired data;

the processor, in response to determining that the requested data cannot be acquired in real time from the data source, acquiring the requested data as previously stored in a configuration management database; and

the processor providing the acquired data.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

the processor, in response to determining that the requested data does not need to be acquired in real time by accessing the data source, acquiring the requested data as previously stored.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

the processor calculating a confidence level of the acquired and previously-stored data, wherein the confidence level describes a trustworthiness state of the previously-stored data.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the acquired and previously-stored data is a copy of the requested data that was most recently acquired from the data source.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

the processor optimizing a synchronization period of an updating process for updating the stored data according to the confidence level.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

the processor determining whether it is necessary to access the data source to acquire the data in real time according to the type of the data requested by the data access request.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the confidence level is provided by a marker indicative of a value of the confidence level.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein storing the acquired data further comprises:

the processor storing a time at which the data is acquired; and

the processor calculating the confidence level according to history records of the stored data.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein calculating the confidence level comprises the processor:

calculating a standard dispersion

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein calculating the confidence level further comprises the processor:

adjusting the standard dispersion to be

11. A configuration management database system, comprising:

a database for storing configuration management data; and

an access control device for controlling data access operations of the configuration management database system,

wherein the access control device comprises;

a communication interface for receiving a data access request; and

a processor;

for data that is necessary to be acquired in real time by accessing the data source, acquiring the data from the data source in real time and storing the acquired data;

for, if the data cannot be acquired in real time from the data source, acquiring the data stored previously; and

for providing the acquired data.

12. The configuration management database system according to claim 11, wherein the access control device further comprises:

acquisition hardware for, for data that is not necessary to be acquired in real time by accessing the data source, acquiring the data stored previously.

13. The configuration management database system according to claim 11, wherein the access control device further comprises:

calculation hardware for calculating a confidence level of acquired and previously-stored data, wherein the confidence level describes a trustworthiness state of the previously-stored data.

14. The configuration management database system according to claim 13, wherein the acquired and previously-stored data is a copy of requested data that was most recently acquired from the data source.

15. The configuration management database system according to claim 14, wherein the access control device further comprises:

optimization hardware for optimizing a synchronization period of an updating process for updating the stored data according to the confidence level.

16. The configuration management database system according to claim 11, wherein it is determined whether it is necessary to access the data source to acquire the data in real time according to the type of the data requested by the data access request.

17. The configuration management database system according to claim 14, wherein storing the acquired data further comprises storing a time at which the data is acquired, and wherein the calculation hardware, for calculating the confidence level of the data stored previously, calculates the confidence level according to history records of the stored data.

18. The configuration management database system according to claim 17, wherein calculating the confidence level comprises:

calculating a standard dispersion

19. The configuration management database system according to claim 18, wherein calculating the confidence level further comprises:

adjusting the standard dispersion to be

20. A computer program product for accessing data, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to receive a data access request;

second program instructions to, in response to determining that requested data must be acquired in real time by accessing a data source that created the requested data, acquire the requested data from the data source in real time and store the acquired data;

third program instructions to, in response to determining that the requested data cannot be acquired in real time from the data source, acquire the requested data that was previously stored in a configuration management database; and

fourth program instructions to provide the acquired data; and

wherein the first, second, third, and fourth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media.