Apparatus and method for maintaining databases on application servers

• US 20050050071A1
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Published: 03/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Debrunner, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,873,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning

Abstract

A central database server (10) supports a central database (12) that contains central database content. A first archiving module (30) archives central database content into a content archive (32). A second archiving module (44) archives the content archive (32) and supporting software (18, 46) into an application archive (50). An application server (20) supports a computer code execution environment (60) for executing the application archive (50) to organize the content of the content archive (32) into a database on the application server (20).

Claims

1. An application server supporting a remote database adapted to receive database data pushed into the remote database by a central database server, the application server comprising:

a computer code execution environment adapted to execute self-contained application archive files; and

a database application archive archiving;

a content archive containing content extracted from the central database server,

schema of a central database of the central database server, and

computer code including a database engine adapted to organize the content of the content archive into a database in accordance with said schema contained in said database application archive.

2. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the computer code execution environment is a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) environment; and

the application archive is one of an Enterprise Application Archive (EAR) and a Web archive (WAR).

3. The application server as set forth in claim 2, wherein the content archive is a Java archive (JAR) contained in the application archive.

4. The application server as set forth in claim 3, wherein the schema stored in the application archive are stored in the Java archive (JAR) contained in the application archive.

5. The application server as set forth in claim 3, wherein contents of the Java archive (JAR) include:

content extracted from the central database; and

content extracted from at least one non-database source;

wherein the non-database content is organized by the schema stored in the application archive.

6. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

said schema contained in said application archive is a sub-set of the schema of the central database of the central database server.

7. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein the database engine is adapted to access the content archive using a content archive identifier contained in the application archive.

8. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein the database engine is adapted to access the content archive using a Java database connection (JDBC).

9. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computer code archive further includes:

an application program adapted to access the content archive via the database engine.

10. The application server as set forth in claim 9, wherein the application program is selected from a group consisting of a Java servlet, Java server pages, and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB).

11. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computer code archive includes:

a connection screening module adapted to determine whether the application archive file is a latest version; and

a refresh module operating responsive to the connection screening module determining that a newer version of the application archive file is extant, the refresh module operating to transfer database connections from the content archive to a content archive of the newer version of the application archive file.

12. The application server as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computer code archive includes:

a connection screening module adapted to determine whether the application archive file is a latest version; and

a refresh module operating responsive to the connection screening module determining that a newer version of the application archive file is extant, the refresh module operating to;

block formation of new database connections,

close open database connections,

boot the newer version of the application archive file, and

unblock formation of new database connections.

13. A central database server comprising:

a central database containing central database content;

a first archiving module archiving at least some of the central database content into a content archive; and

a second archiving module archiving the content archive and supporting software into an executable application archive, wherein the executable application archive is adapted to be executed by a remote application server, said executing including executing the supporting software to access the content archive.

14. The central database server as set forth in claim 13, further including:

a staging database that collects central database content, the first archiving module archiving content of the staging database into the content archive.

15. The central database server as set forth in claim 14, wherein the staging database includes:

a data collection module that collects data from sources other than the central database into the staging database.

16. The central database server as set forth in claim 13, wherein:

the first archiving module is adapted to create a Java archive (JAR); and

the second archiving module is adapted to create an Enterprise archive (EAR).

17. The central database server as set forth in claim 13, wherein:

the first archiving module is adapted to create a Java archive (JAR); and

the second archiving module is adapted to create an web archive (WAR).

18. The central database server as set forth in claim 13, wherein the first archiving module additionally archives schema of the central database into the content archive.

19. The central database server as set forth in claim 18, wherein the central database is a relational database and the supporting software includes:

a database engine adapted to process the schema and central database content stored in the content archive as a relational database.

20. The central database server as set forth in claim 19, wherein the central database is a relational database and the supporting software further includes:

at least one application program adapted to access the database engine using at least one Java database connection (JDBC).

21. An instance of a distributed database, the instance comprising:

a database engine;

data content and schema providing a logical description of the data content, the data content and schema being arranged as one of;

database server files, and

an archive file;

wherein the database engine is adapted to provide;

read/write access to the data content conditional upon the data content and schema being arranged as database server files, and

read-only access to the data content conditional upon the data content and schema being arranged as an archive file.

22. The instance as set forth in claim 21, wherein the data content and schema are arranged as an archive file, the instance further including:

an executable archive archiving the database engine and the data content and schema as unitary archive for network distribution.

23. The instance as set forth in claim 22, wherein the executable archive is an enterprise application archive (EAR).

24. The instance as set forth in claim 22, wherein the executable archive is a web archive (WAR).

25. The instance as set forth in claim 21, wherein the data content and schema are arranged as an archive file, and the database engine is adapted to switch database connections from the archive file to an updated archive file responsive to distribution of said updated archive file to a server supporting said instance.

26. The instance as set forth in claim 21, wherein the data content and schema are arranged as an archive file, and the database engine is adapted to:

detect an updated archive file,

block opening of new connections to the archive file responsive to the detecting, and

switch existing open connections from the archive file to the updated archive file conditional upon completion of open connections having an isolation level above a threshold isolation level.

27. A method for distributing database content, the method comprising:

archiving at least some content of a central database residing on a central database server as a content archive file;

archiving the content archive and supporting software as a distribution archive file; and

distributing the distribution archive file to a plurality of application servers other than the central database server, the application servers each having an operating environment adapted to execute the distribution archive file.

28. The method as set forth in claim 27, wherein the archiving of at least some content includes:

archiving at least some schema of the central database in the content archive file, the supporting software being adapted to reference the archived schema when accessing content archived in the content archive.

29. The method as set forth in claim 27, wherein the archiving of at least some content includes:

archiving at least some content of the central database as a Java archive (JAR).

30. The method as set forth in claim 29, wherein the archiving of the content archive and supporting software as a distribution archive file includes:

archiving the content archive and supporting software as one of an enterprise application archive (EAR) and a web archive (WAR).

31. The method as set forth in claim 27, further including:

repeating the archiving of at least some content, the archiving of the content archive and supporting software, and the distributing to effect an updating of the application servers.

32. A method for maintaining an edge database on an application server, the method comprising:

receiving a database archive file at the application server, the database archive file containing;

a content archive file archiving at least some content of a central database, and

supporting software including at least a database engine adapted to access the content archive file contained in the database archive file; and

deploying the database archive file on the application server to effect a database instance providing read-only access to the at least some content of the central database.

33. The method as set forth in claim 32, further including:

receiving an update database archive file containing;

an update content archive file archiving at least some updated content of a central database, and

the supporting software; and

switching database connections of the database instance to the update content archive file without terminating execution of the database instance.

34. The method as set forth in claim 33, further including:

subsequent to a termination of the database instance, deploying the update database archive file on the application server to effect a new database instance providing read-only access to the at least some updated content of the central database.

35. The method as set forth in claim 33, wherein the switching of database connections includes:

delaying the switching until transactions accessing the database instance and having an isolation level above a threshold isolation level are committed or rolled back.

36. The method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the receiving of a database archive file includes:

receiving an Enterprise archive (EAR) containing;

a Java archive (JAR) archiving at least some content of the central database, and

supporting software including at least the database engine.

37. The method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the receiving of a database archive file includes:

receiving a web archive (WAR) containing;

a Java archive (JAR) archiving at least some content of the central database, and

supporting software including at least the database engine.

38. The method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the content archive file is a Java archive (JAR), the database archive file is one of an Enterprise archive (EAR) and a web archive (WAR), and the deploying of the database archive file on the application server to effect a database instance includes:

executing the database engine, the database engine directly accessing the JAR without converting contents of the JAR to another data format.

39. The method as set forth in claim 38, wherein the executing of the database engine includes:

establishing a Java database connection (JDBC) to content of the JAR.