Virtual Database System

• US 20120089570A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Delphix Corporation (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Delphix Corporation (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Zha, Charles Li, Yueh, Jedidiah
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/639
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/256 in federated or virtual databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Information from multiple databases is retrieved and stored on a database storage system. Multiple point-in-time copies are obtained for each database. A point-in-time copy retrieves data changed in the database since the retrieval of a previous point-in-time copy. A virtual database (VDB) is created by creating a set of files in the data storage system. Each file in the set of files created for a VDB is linked to the database blocks on the database storage system associated with a point-in-time copy of the source database. The set of files associated with the VDB are mounted on a database server allowing the database server to read from and write to the set of files. Workflows based on VDBs allow various usage scenarios based on databases to be implemented efficiently, for example, testing and development, backup and recovery, and data warehouse building.

Claims

1. A method for creating a virtual database system, the method comprising:

receiving different point-in-time copies of a source database, the source database comprising a plurality of database blocks;

storing on a storage system, database blocks for a plurality of point-in-time copies of the source database;

creating a virtual database comprising a plurality of database blocks stored in the storage system, the plurality of database blocks comprising at least a first database block received with the first point-in-time copy and a second database block received with a second point-in-time copy; and

providing access to the virtual database from a server allowing the server to read from and write to the database blocks of the virtual database.