Distributed data set indexing

• US 9,977,807 B1
• Filed: 12/11/2017
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Bowman, Brian Payton, Keener, Gordon Lyle, Krueger, Steven E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Al-Hashemi, Sana A
• Application Number:
  US15/838,211
• Time in Patent Office: 162 Days
• Field of Search: 707610, 707613, 707687, 707705, 707790, 707821, 707964
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2219 Large Object storage; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2246 Trees, e.g. B+trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2255 Hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/381 using identifiers, e.g. barcodes, RFIDs for URLs G06F16/9554
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9014 hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/02 Comparing digital values G06F7/06, G06F7/22, G06F7/38 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/20 Comparing separate sets of record carriers arranged in the same sequence to determine whether at least some of the data in one set is identical with that in the other set or sets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

An apparatus including a processor to: receive search criteria including a data value; in response to receiving the search criteria, generate a hash value from the data value of the search criteria, and for each data cell of a super cell, compare the hash value to hash values within a hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record meeting the search criteria, and in response to determining that the data cell includes at least one of such data record, search the data records to identify one or more data records meeting the search criteria; and in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the super cell meeting the search criteria, provide results data indicative of the super cell including at least one of such data record.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a processor of a first node device of multiple node devices, and a storage of the first node device to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

store, at the first node device, a first super cell of multiple super cells into which a data set is divided from a data file maintained by at least one data device, wherein;

the multiple super cells are distributed among the multiple node devices;

each super cell comprises multiple data cells;

each data cell of the multiple data cells comprises multiple data records; and

each data record of the multiple data records comprises a set of data fields at which data values of the data set are stored;

store, for each data cell within the first super cell, a cell index that corresponds to the data cell, wherein the cell index comprises a first hash values vector that corresponds to a first data field of the set of data fields, and that comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the first data field;

receive, at the first node device, from a control device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, query instructions specifying search criteria of a search to be performed of the data set for data records that meet the search criteria, wherein the search criteria comprises at least one data value to be searched for within the first data field;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, generate a first hash value from a first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria, and for each data cell within the first super cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

compare the first hash value to the hash values within the first hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, search the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria; and

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, the processor is caused to perform operations comprising;

generate results data indicative of the first super cell including at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

provide the results data to the control device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a second hash values vector that corresponds to a second data field of the set of data fields, wherein the second hash values vector comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the second data field;

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

generate a second hash value from a second data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria;

compare the second hash value to the hash values within the second hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value, search the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

condition the generation and transmission of results on identification of at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for the first data value and the second data value.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

perform the search corresponding to the first data field on a first thread of execution; and

perform the search corresponding to the second data field on a second thread of execution at least partially in parallel with the performance of the search on the first thread.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is caused to allocate a separate processor core of the processor to each of the first and second threads of execution.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a unique values vector that corresponds to the first data field, wherein the unique values vector comprises a single instance of each data values present within the first data field among the data records of the corresponding data cell, wherein the single instances of each data value are sorted by value; and

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

compare the first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria to the single instances of data values within the unique values vector to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

condition the search of the data records of the data cell on a determination, via the comparison with the first hash values vector and the comparison with the unique values vector that the data cell that includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

parse the query instructions to determine whether the query instructions include task instructions for the performance of a task with data retrieved from one or more data records identified as meeting the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the query instructions do include task instructions for the performance of a task, perform operations comprising;

execute the instructions to perform the task at least partially in parallel with at least one other node device of the multiple node devices; and

generate the results data to include results of the performance of the task as the indication that the super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

store, at the first node device, a first super cell index corresponding to the first super cell, wherein the first super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the multiple data cells of the first super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, compare the at least one data value of the search criteria to the range of values indicated in the first super cell index to determine whether the first super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria; and

condition the performance of the operations of the search for each data cell within the first super cell on a determination that the first super cell does include at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, comprising a controller, the controller comprises a controller processor and a controller storage to store other instructions that, when executed by the controller processor, cause the controller processor to perform operations to serve as the control device, the operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device and from a second node device of the multiple node devices, a second super cell index corresponding to a second super cell stored by the second node device, wherein the second super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the at least one data cell of the second super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, compare the data value to the range of values indicated in the second super cell index to determine whether the second super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the second super cell that meets the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the second super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, transmit the query instructions to the second node device to enable the second node device to perform the search within the at least one data cell of the second super cell.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device, the first super cell from a data file maintained by at least one data device;

index, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells by the first data field of the set of fields in a single read pass through each data cell of the multiple data cells, wherein for each data record within the data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations comprising;

retrieve a data value from the first data field;

determine, based on the data value retrieved from the first data field, whether the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value that has not yet retrieved by the processor from the first data field of any data record of the data cell; and

in response to a determination that the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value, add an identifier of the data record to a first unique values index, wherein identifiers of data records within the first unique values index are ordered based on an ordering of the corresponding unique data values in the first data field that is selected to enable use of the first unique values index to perform the search of the data records of the data cell; and

generate, within a super cell index corresponding to the super cell, an indication of a range of the data values of the first data field within the data records of the data cell to enable use of the super cell index to determine whether the at least one data value of the search criteria is present within the first data field of any data record of the data cell.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, a stream of data values of the first super cell from at least one data device;

generate, at the first node device, at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, and according to at least one rule, the multiple data cells of the first super cell from the stream of data values, wherein the at least one rule is selected from group consisting of a rule selected from a group consisting of a minimum data size for a data cell, a maximum data size for a data cell, a minimum quantity of data records for a data cell, a maximum quantity of data records for a data cell, and a specification of the set of data fields; and

index, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells of the first super cell.

11. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the computer-program product including instructions operable to cause a processor of a first node device of multiple node devices to perform operations comprising:

store, at the first node device, a first super cell of multiple super cells into which a data set is divided from a data file maintained by at least one data device, wherein;

the multiple super cells are distributed among the multiple node devices;

each super cell comprises multiple data cells;

each data cell of the multiple data cells comprises multiple data records; and

each data record of the multiple data records comprises a set of data fields at which data values of the data set are stored;

store, for each data cell within the first super cell, a cell index that corresponds to the data cell, wherein the cell index comprises a first hash values vector that corresponds to a first data field of the set of data fields, and that comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the first data field;

receive, at the first node device, from a control device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, query instructions specifying search criteria of a search to be performed of the data set for data records that meet the search criteria, wherein the search criteria comprises at least one data value to be searched for within the first data field;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, generate a first hash value from a first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria, and for each data cell within the first super cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

compare the first hash value to the hash values within the first hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, search the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria; and

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, the processor is caused to perform operations comprising;

generate results data indicative of the first super cell including at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

provide the results data to the control device.

12. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a second hash values vector that corresponds to a second data field of the set of data fields, wherein the second hash values vector comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the second data field;

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

generate a second hash value from a second data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria;

compare the second hash value to the hash values within the second hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value, search the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

condition the generation and transmission of results on identification of at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for the first data value and the second data value.

13. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein:

the processor is caused to perform the search corresponding to the first data field on a first thread of execution; and

the processor is caused to perform the search corresponding to the second data field on a second thread of execution at least partially in parallel with the performance of the search on the first thread.

14. The computer-program product of claim 13, wherein the processor is caused to allocate a separate processor core of the processor to each of the first and second threads of execution.

15. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a unique values vector that corresponds to the first data field, wherein the unique values vector comprises a single instance of each data values present within the first data field among the data records of the corresponding data cell, wherein the single instances of each data value are sorted by value; and

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

compare the first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria to the single instances of data values within the unique values vector to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

condition the search of the data records of the data cell on a determination, via the comparison with the first hash values vector and the comparison with the unique values vector that the data cell that includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

16. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

parse the query instructions to determine whether the query instructions include task instructions for the performance of a task with data retrieved from one or more data records identified as meeting the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the query instructions do include task instructions for the performance of a task, perform operations comprising;

execute the instructions to perform the task at least partially in parallel with at least one other node device of the multiple node devices; and

generate the results data to include results of the performance of the task as the indication that the super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

17. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

store, at the first node device, a first super cell index corresponding to the first super cell, wherein the first super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the multiple data cells of the first super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, compare the at least one data value of the search criteria to the range of values indicated in the first super cell index to determine whether the first super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria; and

condition the performance of the operations of the search for each data cell within the first super cell on a determination that the first super cell does include at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria.

18. The computer-program product of claim 17, wherein the first node device comprises a controller that comprises a controller processor and a controller storage to store other instructions that, when executed by the controller processor, cause the controller processor to perform operations to serve as the control device, the operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device and from a second node device of the multiple node devices, a second super cell index corresponding to a second super cell stored by the second node device, wherein the second super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the at least one data cell of the second super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, compare the data value to the range of values indicated in the second super cell index to determine whether the second super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the second super cell that meets the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the second super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, transmit the query instructions to the second node device to enable the second node device to perform the search within the at least one data cell of the second super cell.

19. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device, the first super cell from a data file maintained by at least one data device;

index, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells by the first data field of the set of fields in a single read pass through each data cell of the multiple data cells, wherein for each data record within the data cell, the processor is caused to perform operations comprising;

retrieve a data value from the first data field;

determine, based on the data value retrieved from the first data field, whether the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value that has not yet retrieved by the processor from the first data field of any data record of the data cell; and

in response to a determination that the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value, add an identifier of the data record to a first unique values index, wherein identifiers of data records within the first unique values index are ordered based on an ordering of the corresponding unique data values in the first data field that is selected to enable use of the first unique values index to perform the search of the data records of the data cell; and

generate, within a super cell index corresponding to the super cell, an indication of a range of the data values of the first data field within the data records of the data cell to enable use of the super cell index to determine whether the at least one data value of the search criteria is present within the first data field of any data record of the data cell.

20. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:

receive, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, a stream of data values of the first super cell from at least one data device;

generate, at the first node device, at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, and according to at least one rule, the multiple data cells of the first super cell from the stream of data values, wherein the at least one rule is selected from group consisting of a rule selected from a group consisting of a minimum data size for a data cell, a maximum data size for a data cell, a minimum quantity of data records for a data cell, a maximum quantity of data records for a data cell, and a specification of the set of data fields; and

index, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells of the first super cell.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing, at a first node device of multiple node devices, a first super cell of multiple super cells into which a data set is divided from a data file maintained by at least one data device, wherein;

the multiple super cells are distributed among the multiple node devices;

each super cell comprises multiple data cells;

each data cell of the multiple data cells comprises multiple data records; and

each data record of the multiple data records comprises a set of data fields at which data values of the data set are stored;

storing, for each data cell within the first super cell, a cell index that corresponds to the data cell, wherein the cell index comprises a first hash values vector that corresponds to a first data field of the set of data fields, and that comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the first data field;

receiving, at the first node device, from a control device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, query instructions specifying search criteria of a search to be performed of the data set for data records that meet the search criteria, wherein the search criteria comprises at least one data value to be searched for within the first data field;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, generating a first hash value from a first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria, and for each data cell within the first super cell, performing operations of the search, the operations comprising;

comparing the first hash value to the hash values within the first hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, searching the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria; and

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, performing operations comprising;

generating results data indicative of the first super cell including at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

providing the results data to the control device.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a second hash values vector that corresponds to a second data field of the set of data fields, wherein the second hash values vector comprises hash values generated from each unique value among the data values stored within the second data field; and

the method comprises;

in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the performing operations of the search, the operations comprising;

generating a second hash value from a second data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria;

comparing the second hash value to the hash values within the second hash values vector in the corresponding cell index to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

in response to a determination that the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value, searching the data records of the data cell to identify one or more data records that meet the search criteria for at least the first data value and the second data value; and

conditioning the generation and transmission of results on identification of at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for the first data value and the second data value.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, comprising:

performing the search corresponding to the first data field on a first thread of execution; and

performing the search corresponding to the second data field on a second thread of execution at least partially in parallel with the performance of the search on the first thread.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, comprising allocating a separate processor core of a processor to each of the first and second threads of execution.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein:

each of the cell indexes corresponding to the data cells within the first super cell comprises a unique values vector that corresponds to the first data field, wherein the unique values vector comprises a single instance of each data values present within the first data field among the data records of the corresponding data cell, wherein the single instances of each data value are sorted by value; and

the method comprises, in response to identifying at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value, and for each data cell within the at least one data cell, the perform operations of the search, the operations comprising;

comparing the first data value of the at least one data value of the search criteria to the single instances of data values within the unique values vector to determine whether the data cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria for at least the first data value; and

conditioning the search of the data records of the data cell on a determination, via the comparison with the first hash values vector and the comparison with the unique values vector that the data cell that includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising:

parsing the query instructions to determine whether the query instructions include task instructions for the performance of a task with data retrieved from one or more data records identified as meeting the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the query instructions do include task instructions for the performance of a task, performing operations comprising;

executing the instructions to perform the task at least partially in parallel with at least one other node device of the multiple node devices; and

generating the results data to include results of the performance of the task as the indication that the super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising:

storing, at the first node device, a first super cell index corresponding to the first super cell, wherein the first super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the multiple data cells of the first super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, comparing the at least one data value of the search criteria to the range of values indicated in the first super cell index to determine whether the first super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria; and

conditioning the performance of the operations of the search for each data cell within the first super cell on a determination that the first super cell does include at least one data record within at least one data cell of the first super cell that meets the search criteria.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the first node device comprises a controller that comprises a controller processor and a controller storage to store other instructions that, when executed by the controller processor, cause the controller processor to perform operations to serve as the control device, the operations comprising:

receiving, at the first node device and from a second node device of the multiple node devices, a second super cell index corresponding to a second super cell stored by the second node device, wherein the second super cell index comprises an indication of a range of values stored within the first data field within the at least one data cell of the second super cell;

in response to the receipt of the query instructions, comparing the data value to the range of values indicated in the second super cell index to determine whether the second super cell includes at least one data record within at least one data cell of the second super cell that meets the search criteria; and

in response to a determination that the second super cell includes at least one data record that meets the search criteria, transmitting the query instructions to the second node device to enable the second node device to perform the search within the at least one data cell of the second super cell.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising:

receiving, at the first node device, the first super cell from a data file maintained by at least one data device;

indexing, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells by the first data field of the set of fields in a single read pass through each data cell of the multiple data cells, wherein for each data record within the data cell, the method comprises;

retrieving a data value from the first data field;

determining, based on the data value retrieved from the first data field, whether the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value that has not yet retrieved by a processor of the first node device from the first data field of any data record of the data cell; and

in response to a determination that the first data field of the data record stores a unique data value, adding an identifier of the data record to a first unique values index, wherein identifiers of data records within the first unique values index are ordered based on an ordering of the corresponding unique data values in the first data field that is selected to enable use of the first unique values index to perform the search of the data records of the data cell; and

generating, within a super cell index corresponding to the super cell, an indication of a range of the data values of the first data field within the data records of the data cell to enable use of the super cell index to determine whether the at least one data value of the search criteria is present within the first data field of any data record of the data cell.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising:

receiving, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, a stream of data values of the first super cell from at least one data device;

generating, at the first node device, at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, and according to at least one rule, the multiple data cells of the first super cell from the stream of data values, wherein the at least one rule is selected from group consisting of a rule selected from a group consisting of a minimum data size for a data cell, a maximum data size for a data cell, a minimum quantity of data records for a data cell, a maximum quantity of data records for a data cell, and a specification of the set of data fields; and

indexing, at the first node device, and at least partially in parallel with other node devices of the multiple node devices, the multiple data records within each data cell of the multiple data cells of the first super cell.