Hosting multiple logical databases contained in physical database

• US 8,364,722 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2010
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Talius, Tomas
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DEBBIE M
• Application Number:
  US12/689,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20110179008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/217 Database tuning G06F16/2282 takes precedence; database performance monitoring G06F11/3409

Abstract

Architecture that defines a logical database that shares physical resources with a containing physical database. The architecture isolates the relational engine system metadata parts of a database in horizontal scopes to form separate namespaces, and shares the underlying storage engine system metadata. Sharing physical database resources enables efficient input/output (I/O) utilization and instantaneous database creation and growth. In addition, logical databases can be backed up as a single transactionally consistent unit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented database management system having at least one processor configured to execute computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:

a scoping component configured to create scopes of logical database units from relational engine metadata, the scoping component further configured to respectively isolate relational engine metadata parts corresponding to the scopes of the logical database units; and

a mapping component configured to map the logical database units to storage engine metadata to facilitate a sharing of the storage engine metadata among the logical database units, wherein the storage engine metadata remains unchanged during an isolation of the relational engine metadata parts, and wherein multiple instances of the relational engine metadata map into a single instance of the storage engine metadata.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the logical database units include tables that are mapped to data structure information of the storage engine metadata.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the logical database units are isolated in horizontal scopes that form isolated respective namespaces.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping component facilitates access to stored data structures of the storage engine metadata.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the logical database units are defined as tables having rows associated with an identifier.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the logical database units are created automatically and are mapped many-to-one to the storage engine metadata.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage engine metadata includes data structure information, allocation unit information, and file information for recovery to which a logical database unit is mapped.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a backup component that backs up a logical database unit as a single transactionally consistent unit.

9. A computer-implemented database management system having at least one processor configured to execute computer-executable components, the computer-executable components comprising:

a scoping component configured to automatically create logical database partitions from relational engine metadata, the scoping component further configured to respectively isolate relational engine metadata parts corresponding to the logical database partitions; and

a mapping component configured to map the logical database partitions to physical database resources to facilitate a sharing of the physical database resources among the logical database partitions, wherein the physical database resources remain unchanged during an isolation of the relational engine metadata parts, and wherein multiple instances of the relational engine metadata map into a single instance of the physical database resources.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the logical database partitions include tables, and wherein the mapping component is further configured to map to a data structure of the physical database resources.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the logical database partitions form a separate namespace.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the logical database partitions are created dynamically.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the physical resources are storage engine metadata that includes data structure information, allocation unit information, and file information.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a backup component that backs up each of the logical database partitions as a single transactionally consistent unit.

15. A computer-implemented database management method, comprising:

automatically creating logical database scopes from relational engine metadata;

respectively isolating relational engine metadata parts corresponding to the logical database scopes;

mapping the logical database scopes to physical database resources, wherein the physical database resources remain unchanged during an isolation of the relational engine metadata parts, and wherein multiple instances of the relational engine metadata map into a single instance of the physical database resources; and

sharing the physical database resources among the logical database scopes.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising mapping tables of the relational engine metadata to data structures of the physical database resources.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing a scope parameter to a metadata interface and metadata views.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising performing the creating, mapping, and sharing in a structured query language server.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising horizontally creating the logical database scopes by prefixing relational tables with a scope identifier as a leading key.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising backing up each of the logical database scopes as a single transactionally consistent unit.