Enterprise data movement system and method which maintains and compares edition levels for consistency of replicated data

• US 6,029,178 A
• Filed: 03/31/1998
• Issued: 02/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Informatica LLC (Informatica, Inc. (California))
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Sirjani, Abolfazl, Martin, James L., Seppi, Kevin D., Keeler, Lisa S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Application Number:
  US09/052,223
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/200, 707/201, 707/202, 707/203, 707/204, 714/15
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A system and method for providing consistency of replicated data in a distributed enterprise computing system by maintaining and using edition level values for data objects in both source and target database systems. When the EDM method captures changes made to a source database, the EDM method operates to obtain an edition level value of the source database. The EDM method then creates and stores a change record comprising the captured changed data in a log, wherein the change record includes the edition level value of the source database to which the changes are being made. When a data propagation operation is initiated to one or more target computer systems, the EDM method operates to obtain an edition level value of each of the target computer systems. For each target computer system, the method operates to compare the edition level value comprised in the change record with the edition level value of the target computer system. This comparison determines whether the target and source database edition level values match. If the target and source database edition levels match, the change record is propagated to the target database. If the source database edition level is prior to the target edition level, the change record is not propagated to the target database.

Claims

1. A method for enabling movement of information in an enterprise computing system, the enterprise computing system comprising a plurality of computer systems, the method comprising:

capturing changed data, wherein the changed data comprises changes being made to a source database;

obtaining an edition level value of the source database;

creating and storing a change record comprising the captured changed data in a log, wherein the change record includes an edition level value which identifies the edition level of the source database to which the changes are being made;

initiating a data propagation operation to one or more target computer systems;

obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems;

wherein, for each target computer system, the method further comprises;

comparing the edition level value comprised in the change record with the edition level value of the target computer system, wherein said comparing determines whether the target and source database edition level values match;

propagating the change record to the target database in response to determining that the target and source database edition levels match;

wherein the change record is not propagated in response to determining that the target and source database edition levels are different.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

applying the change record to the target database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

moving said change record to the target computer system; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

transforming said changed data comprised in the change record from a source database format to a target database format; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

transforming said changed data comprised in the change record from a source database format to a target database format;

moving said change record to the target computer system; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the edition level value which identifies an edition level of the source database comprises an edition level value of a source database object;

wherein, for one or more of the target computer systems, the edition level of the target computer system comprises an edition level value of a target database object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems is performed prior to the transformation and move components of said propagating the change record.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems is performed after the transformation and move components of propagating the change record.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each target computer system, said obtaining the edition level value of the target computer systems comprises:

retrieving the edition level value of the target computer system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein, said obtaining the edition level value of the source database comprises:

retrieving the edition level value of the source database from a repository.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

performing a recovery operation on the source database;

changing the edition level of the source database in the repository in response to said performing said recovery operation.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

changing the edition level of the source database in the repository, wherein said changing is performed in response to one or more of;

performing a recovery operation on the source database; and

changing the schema in the source database.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing the edition level value of the target database in the repository, wherein said changing is performed in response to a bulk data move from a source database to a target database.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparing the edition level value comprised in the change record with the edition level value of the target computer system determines whether the source database edition level is prior to the target database edition level.

15. A method for providing consistency of replicated data in a distributed enterprise computing system, the distributed enterprise computing system comprising a plurality of distributed computer systems and including at least one source database and at least one target database, the source database comprising one or more source data objects, and the target database comprising one or more target data objects, the method comprising:

assigning an initial edition level to each source data object;

storing the edition level of the source data object in a data resource profile of the source data object;

updating the edition level of the source data object in response to changes to the source data object;

transferring the edition level of each source data object to each related target data object in response to a bulk move of data from the source data object to the related target data objects, wherein said transferring includes storing the edition level of the target data object in a data resource profile of the target data object;

wherein the edition level of the source data object and the edition level of the target data object are used to provide consistency of replicated data in the distributed enterprise computing system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said assigning an initial edition level of the source data object is performed in response to creating a data resource profile for the source data object in a repository.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said updating of the edition level of the source data object is performed in response to the following source database changes:

changing a schema of the source database;

recovering a source data object from backup.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein said updating of the edition level of the target data object is performed in response to a bulk move of data from the source data object to the target data object.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein said updating the edition level of the source data object is configurable to automatically trigger a bulk move of information to the target data object(s), wherein the bulk move is configurable to automatically update the edition levels of the related target data objects.

20. A memory media which stores program instructions for enabling movement of information in a distributed enterprise computing system, the distributed enterprise computing system comprising a plurality of distributed computer systems, wherein the program instructions implement:

capturing changed data, wherein the changed data comprises changes being made to a source database;

obtaining an edition level value of the source database;

creating and storing a change record comprising the captured changed data in a log, wherein the change record includes an edition level value which identifies the edition level of the source database to which the changes are being made;

initiating a data propagation operation to one or more target computer systems;

obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems;

wherein, for each target computer system, the program instructions further implement;

comparing the edition level value comprised in the change record with the edition level value of the target computer system, wherein said comparing determines whether the target and source database edition level values match;

propagating the change record to the target database in response to determining that the target and source database edition levels match;

wherein the change record is not propagated in response to determining that the target and source database edition levels are different.

21. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

applying the change record to the target database.

22. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

moving said change record to the target computer system; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

23. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

transforming said changed data comprised in the change record from a source database format to a target database format; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

24. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said propagating the change record comprises:

transforming said changed data comprised in the change record from a source database format to a target database format;

moving said change record to the target computer system; and

applying the change record to the target database after said moving.

25. The memory media of claim 20, wherein the edition level value which identifies an edition level of the source database comprises an edition level value of a source database object;

wherein, for one or more of the target computer systems, the edition level of the target computer system comprises an edition level value of a target database object.

26. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems is performed prior to the transformation and move components of said propagating the change record.

27. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said obtaining an edition level value of each of the one or more target computer systems is performed after the transformation and move components of propagating the change record.

28. The memory media of claim 20, wherein, for each target computer system, said obtaining the edition level value of the target computer systems comprises:

retrieving the edition level value of the target computer system.

29. The memory media of claim 20, wherein, said obtaining the edition level value of the source database includes program instructions that implement:

retrieving the edition level value of the source database from a repository.

30. The memory media of claim 29, wherein the program instructions further implement:

performing a recovery operation on the source database;

changing the edition level of the source database in the repository in response to said performing said recovery operation.

31. The memory media of claim 29, wherein the program instructions further implement:

changing the edition level of the source database in the repository, wherein said changing is performed in response to one or more of;

performing a recovery operation on the source database; and

changing the schema in the source database.

32. The memory media of claim 20, wherein the program instructions further implement:

changing the edition level value of the target database in the repository, wherein said changing is performed in response to a bulk data move from a source database to a target database.

33. The memory media of claim 20, wherein said comparing the edition level value comprised in the change record with the edition level value of the target computer system determines whether the source database edition level is prior to the target database edition level.

34. A memory media which stores program instructions for providing consistency of replicated data in a distributed enterprise computing system, the distributed enterprise computing system comprising a plurality of distributed computer systems and including at least one source database and at least one target database, the source database comprising one or more source data objects, and the target database comprising one or more target data objects, wherein the program instructions implement:

assigning an initial edition level to each source data object;

storing the edition level of the source data object in a data resource profile of the source data object;

updating the edition level of the source data object in response to changes to the source data object;

transferring the edition level of each source data object to each related target data object in response to a bulk move of data from the source data object to the related target data objects, wherein said transferring includes storing the edition level of the target data object in a data resource profile of the target data object;

wherein the edition level of the source data object and the edition level of the target data object are used to provide consistency of replicated data in the distributed enterprise computing system.

35. The memory media of claim 34, wherein said assigning an initial edition level of the source data object is performed in response to creating a data resource profile for the source data object in a repository.

36. The memory media of claim 34, wherein said updating of the edition level of the source data object is performed in response to the following source database changes:

changing a schema of the source database;

recovering a source data object from backup.

37. The memory media of claim 34, wherein said updating of the edition level of the target data object is performed in response to a bulk move of data from the source data object to the target data object.

38. The memory media of claim 34, wherein said updating the edition level of the source data object is configurable to automatically trigger a bulk move of information to the target data object(s), wherein the bulk move is configurable to automatically update the edition levels of the related target data objects.