Interfaces for high availability systems and log shipping

• US 8,615,486 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2011
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wetmore, Alexander R., Burchall, Laurion
• Primary Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US13/271,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20120030178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 707/610, 707/615, 707/628, 707/633, 707/634
• US Class Current: 707/610
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups

Abstract

Architecture for replicating a database through log shipping. A replication service replicates data using one or more new internal application program interfaces (APIs), a replay configuration API which abstracts configuration information for each destination (or target) instance. APIs for log file management as part of the replication process are provided for opening communications for log shipping, tracking success of log shipping and closing out log shipping communications. Log shipping APIs are also provided for log truncation control. A ship control object is provided as a base class which includes an API for other components of the replication service to operate on log files when the log files are placed into a log directory. The ship control API is utilized by the replication service and for interaction with storage system log files.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for managing data, comprising:

a replication component for replicating a source database to a destination database via a transaction log having a log file that comprises data including a location of the source database and the destination database, a location of the log file, a name of the log file, a name of a storage group, and a globally unique identifier (GUID) for the storage group;

a configuration component that includes an internal application programming interface (API) for accessing configuration information for replication of the source database at the destination; and

a microprocessor that executes computer-executable instructions associated with at least one of the replication component or configuration component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the replication process occurs at a storage group level.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component facilitates replay of the transaction log by the replication component at the destination.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component provides the configuration information for replication of a single storage group.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information provided by the configuration component includes class members that have configuration properties related to at least one of the source location, the destination location, the log file location, the storage group name, or the storage group GUID.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component facilitates optimization of lookups in a database of the destination and building of test instances for the database.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transport component for providing an interface for processing of the transaction log.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the transport component manages deletion of the transaction log subsequent to replay of the log at the destination.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the transport component includes an API that informs the replication component that the transaction log at the source can be deleted.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the transport component includes an API that informs the replication component that the transaction log has been replayed at the destination.

11. A computer-implemented method of managing data performed by a computer system executing machine-readable instructions, the method comprising acts of:

monitoring log directories for processing of at least one log file for data replication, the at least one log file comprises data including a location of a source database and a destination database, a location and a name of the at least one log file, a name of a storage group, and a globally unique identifier (GUID) for the storage group;

initiating data replication of data from a source storage system to a destination storage system using a replication service; and

accessing configuration information of the destination storage system via a configuration component that employs an internal replay application programming interface (API) for replay processing of a source log at the destination storage system and for abstracting the configuration information for each replica instance.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the monitoring is performed by initializing a ship control API.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

initializing the ship control API with a log file prefix to monitor;

or initializing the ship control API with a directory to monitor for a log file being generated.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising calling a ship action API when at least one new log is found, and using the ship action API to copy the at least one new log from the source storage system to the destination storage system.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising using a ship action API to replay the at least one log file into a replica database.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing helper functions in the ship control API to scan the log directories for one of a lowest numbered or highest numbered log file.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising opening a log transport session via a ship open API and transporting the at least one log file to the destination storage system.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising replaying the at least one log file at the destination storage system to update a database of the destination storage system.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising signaling the source that replay processing at the destination storage system was successful and managing remaining log files for truncation.

20. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a microprocessor, cause the microprocessor to perform acts of:

monitoring log directories for processing of at least one log file for data replication, the at least one log file comprises data including a location of a source database and a destination database, a location and a name of the at least one log file, a name of a storage group, and a globally unique identifier (GUID) for the storage group;

initiating data replication of data from a source storage system to a destination storage system using a replication service;

accessing configuration information of the destination storage system via a configuration component that employs an internal replay application programming interface (API) for replay processing of a source log at the destination storage system and for abstracting the configuration information for each replica instance; and

configuring the microprocessor to execute instructions in a memory related to the acts of monitoring, initiating, and accessing.