Abstract: When one considers all of the servers at an organization, the exact same operating system and application files will appear on many of them. Thus, there is an opportunity for saving an enormous amount of disk space for the organization as a whole by de-duplicating stored files. The present invention addresses the above needs by providing a method and system for saving at least one copy of a duplicate file in a location on a common storage system accessible to all relevant server computers and then removing the duplicates from the storage allocated to each server. Whenever the operating system on a server whose duplicate file has been removed requires access to the file, then the method redirects the operating system to access the file from the common storage system file location.

Abstract: A system and method for backing up a database, where the system has read threads running simultaneously, write threads, and data buffers. Each read thread repeats the following operations until all the data is backed up: read a block of data from the database, compress the data using a dynamic compression ratio which is initialized and adjusted after every compression, write the data to an available data buffer until the data buffer is full, write to the next available data buffer once the data buffer is full, and determine a new compression ratio. A controller determines the new compression ratio using either a method that monitors the timing of system components and/or a method that monitors CPU consumption.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for providing database transaction log compression, where the transaction log data that is written to the transaction log file is compressed independently from the database data. In accordance with the present invention, the method and system provide for obtaining data to be written to the database transaction log file, compressing the data to be written to the database transaction log file and writing the compressed transaction log data to the database transaction log file.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide methods and apparatuses for performing a near-instantaneous restore of a database. During operation, the system intercepts a database management system restore request to restore a database from a backup file to a data file, wherein the backup file comprises a first number (e.g., N1) of data pages. Next, in response to intercepting the database management system restore request, the system sends information to the database management system indicating that the backup file comprises a second number (e.g., N2) of data pages, wherein the second number of data pages is less than the first number of data pages (e.g., N2<N1). Once the database management system has copied the fewer number of data pages from the backup file to the data file, the database management system may indicate that the restore is complete, and continue processing database requests as if the database management system was back online.

Abstract: Some embodiments provide methods and apparatuses for performing a near-instantaneous restore of a database. During operation, the system intercepts a database management system restore request to restore a database from a backup file to a data file, wherein the backup file comprises a first number (e.g., N1) of data pages. Next, in response to intercepting the database management system restore request, the system sends information to the database management system indicating that the backup file comprises a second number (e.g., N2) of data pages, wherein the second number of data pages is less than the first number of data pages (e.g., N2<N1). Once the database management system has copied the fewer number of data pages from the backup file to the data file, the database management system may indicate that the restore is complete, and continue processing database requests as if the database management system was back online.