Abstract: Approaches described herein may be used for provisioning of databases that requires a bulk transfer of data within a distributed computing environment, such as a grid. The approaches do not require the manual intervention of a DBA to, for example, transfer a tablespace between the file systems of operating systems. Instead, the tablespaces may be provisioned automatically and dynamically by a grid computing system whenever it determines the need to dynamically provision a database. In addition, as copies of tablespaces are provisioned, synchronization mechanisms can also be automatically provisioned to keep the tablespaces and their copies in sync.

Abstract: Approaches described herein may be used for provisioning of databases that requires a bulk transfer of data within a distributed computing environment, such as a grid. The approaches do not require the manual intervention of a DBA to, for example, transfer a tablespace between the file systems of operating systems. Instead, the tablespaces may be provisioned automatically and dynamically by a grid computing system whenever it determines the need to dynamically provision a database. In addition, as copies of tablespaces are provisioned, synchronization mechanisms can also be automatically provisioned to keep the tablespaces and their copies in sync.

Abstract: Approaches described herein may be used for provisioning of databases that requires a bulk transfer of data within a distributed computing environment, such as a grid. The approaches do not require the manual intervention of a DBA to, for example, transfer a tablespace between the file systems of operating systems. Instead, the tablespaces may be provisioned automatically and dynamically by a grid computing system whenever it determines the need to dynamically provision a database. In addition, as copies of tablespaces are provisioned, synchronization mechanisms can also be automatically provisioned to keep the tablespaces and their copies in sync.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for sharing information in a wide variety of contexts. An information sharing system is described that allows both an explicit capture process and an implicit capture process to add information items to a staging area. Further, the information sharing system supports both implicit and explicit consumption of information items that are stored in said staging area. A rules engine is provided to allow users to create and register rules that customize the behavior of the capture processes, the consuming processes, and propagation processes that propagate information from the staging areas to designated destinations. Techniques are also described for achieving exactly-once handling of sequence of items, where the items are maintained in volatile memory. Techniques are also provided for recording DDL operations, and for asynchronously performing operations based on the previously-performed DDL operations.

Abstract: To export source tablespaces, an auxiliary database system is created and started with a minimum configuration. Copies of versions of the source tablespaces are restored from database backups to the auxiliary database system. A copy of a version of a tablespace is referred to herein as a tablespace instance. The tablespace instances restored from database backups are recovered to a particular point-in-time. A script is then generated. The script can be executed by a database server of the destination database to import the tablespace instances.

Abstract: Approaches are used for efficiently and effectively managing the dynamic allocation of resources of multi-node database systems between services provided by the multi-node database server. A service is a category of work that is hosted on the database server. The approaches manage allocation of resources at different levels. For services that use a particular database, the performance realized by the services is monitored. Resources assigned to the database are allocated between these services to ensure performance goals for each are met. Resources assigned to a cluster of nodes are allocated between the databases to ensure that performance goals for all the services that use the databases are met. Resources assigned to a farm of clusters are assigned amongst clusters based on service level agreements and back-end policies. The approach uses a hierarchy of directors to manage resources at the different levels.

Abstract: To export source tablespaces, an auxiliary database system is created and started with a minimum configuration. Copies of versions of the source tablespaces are restored from database backups to the auxiliary database system. A copy of a version of a tablespace is referred to herein as a tablespace instance. The tablespace instances restored from database backups are recovered to a particular point-in-time. A script is then generated. The script can be executed by a database server of the destination database to import the tablespace instances.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for managing electronic items by storing, within a file group repository, metadata that identifies (a) a plurality of file groups, (b) for each file group, a set of one or more file group versions for the file group, and (c) for each file group version of each file group, a set of one or more items that belong to the version of the file group. Once the metadata has been established, queries may be executed against the metadata to request identification of items that belong to a particular version of a particular file group. This file group framework may be used in a variety of contexts, including the management of a centralized tablespace repository, and periodic purging of versions of file collections, where the files within the collections may be spread across multiple repositories.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for sharing information in a wide variety of contexts. An information sharing system is described that allows both an explicit capture process and an implicit capture process to add information items to a staging area. Further, the information sharing system supports both implicit and explicit consumption of information items that are stored in said staging area. A rules engine is provided to allow users to create and register rules that customize the behavior of the capture processes, the consuming processes, and propagation processes that propagate information from the staging areas to designated destinations. Techniques are also described for achieving exactly-once handling of sequence of items, where the items are maintained in volatile memory. Techniques are also provided for recording DDL operations, and for asynchronously performing operations based on the previously-performed DDL operations.

Abstract: Techniques for sharing information in a wide variety of contexts allows both an explicit capture process and an implicit capture process to add information items to a staging area. An information sharing system supports both implicit and explicit consumption of information items that are stored in the staging area. A rules engine allows users to create and register rules that customize the behavior of the capture processes, the consuming processes, and propagation processes that propagate information from the staging areas to designated destinations. Exactly-once handling of sequence of items is achieved for items maintained in volatile memory. DDL operations are recorded, and operations are asynchronously performed based on the previously-performed DDL operations.

Abstract: Approaches described herein may be used for provisioning of databases that requires a bulk transfer of data within a distributed computing environment, such as a grid. The approaches do not require the manual intervention of a DBA to, for example, transfer a tablespace between the file systems of operating systems. Instead, the tablespaces may be provisioned automatically and dynamically by a grid computing system whenever it determines the need to dynamically provision a database. In addition, as copies of tablespaces are provisioned, synchronization mechanisms can also be automatically provisioned to keep the tablespaces and their copies in sync.

Abstract: Approaches are used for efficiently and effectively managing the dynamic allocation of resources of multi-node database systems between services provided by the multi-node database server. A service is a category of work that is hosted on the database server. The approaches manage allocation of resources at different levels. For services that use a particular database, the performance realized by the services is monitored. Resources assigned to the database are allocated between these services to ensure performance goals for each are met. Resources assigned to a cluster of nodes are allocated between the databases to ensure that performance goals for all the services that use the databases are met. Resources assigned to a farm of clusters are assigned amongst clusters based on service level agreements and back-end policies. The approach uses a hierarchy of directors to manage resources at the different levels.

Abstract: A lightweight row transfer protocol is described that can be easily handled by thin clients, such as JAVA™ applications using CORBA. The lightweight row transfer protocol serves to reduce bandwidth requirements by applying compression techniques to reduce the number of column lengths in a “result set” of rows that are transmitted from one computer to another.

Abstract: Mass deployment of snapshots is fostered by allowing collections of snapshots, called refresh groups, to be defined by a template. The template allows for a parameterized snapshot definition query or other DDL text to be defined, so that user-specific or site-specific values can be substituted into parameters to create different objects. Furthermore, off-line instantiation of snapshots is provided, so that the data for an entire suite of front office applications can be stored. on a floppy disk, magnetic disk, CD ROM, or other transportable computer-readable medium.

Abstract: Replication for front office automation involves the use of snapshots that are instantiated on laptops, in which refreshing the snapshots is driven from a master site with a high-performance protocol. All of the necessary snapshot metadata for performing the snapshot refreshes is stored at the master site, so that the laptop only needs to send a single refresh request. In response to the refresh request, the master site reconciles the differences between the master tables and the laptop's snapshots and transmits the differences to the laptop, reducing the necessary network traffic for updating a snapshot to a single round trip.

Abstract: Mass deployment of snapshots is fostered by allowing collections of snapshots, called refresh groups, to be defined by a template. The template allows for a parameterized snapshot definition query or other DDL text to be defined, so that user-specific or site-specific values can be substituted into parameters to create different objects. Furthermore, off-line instantiation of snapshots is provided, so that the data for an entire suite of front office applications can be stored on a floppy disk, magnetic disk, CD ROM, or other transportable computer-readable medium.

Abstract: Replication for front office automation involves the use of snapshots that are instantiated on laptops, in which refreshing the snapshots is driven from a master site with a high-performance protocol. All of the necessary snapshot metadata for performing the snapshot refreshes is stored at the master site, so that the laptop only needs to send a single refresh request. In response to the refresh request, the master site reconciles the differences between the master tables and the laptop's snapshots and transmits the differences to the laptop, reducing the necessary network traffic for updating a snapshot to a single round trip.

Abstract: Communication costs are reduced in a distributed system that supports data replication with conflict detection by sending small values or nulls as replacements for field values that are not strictly used for replication or conflict detection. Specifically, nulls are propagated for new values of unmodified fields, old values of fields in unmodified groups of linked fields, and old values of fields for which conflict detection has been disabled. Flag values that indicate which actual old and new values were sent may be generated and propagated along with the replicated data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing an administrative function on an object, replicated at a plurality of sites, suspends or "quiesces" replication activities at the granularity of an object group. Each object resides in an object group, and each object group has a status flag that indicates whether replication activities are quiesced. In response to detecting a request to perform an administrative function on an object, replication activities are suspended for the object group. Previous transactions are propagated to other sites. When each site has propagated all the previous transactions, the administrative function is performed and replication activities for the object group are resumed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus employs primary key values stored in a master table to drive a fast refresh mechanism for a snapshot defined on the master table. A primary key is a set of columns in the master table having a combined value that uniquely identifies each row in the master table. When rows of the master table are modified, the primary key values of the modified rows are recorded in a master log. In response to a fresh command, differences between the master table and snapshot are reconciled based on primary key values stored in the master table, the master log, and the snapshot.