Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus of distributing data in portioned databases operating on a shared-nothing architecture. The invention provides two independent streams of data, where a first stream sends table data, and the second stream sends LOB data, to a receiving partition. The receiving partition re-couples the LOB data with the table data. Using two independent streams to distribute LOB data can increase data redistribution since large amounts of input/output is not performed to handle the sending of LOB data in a coupled fashion.

Abstract: An apparatus and method to streamline updates to an index in a shared-nothing architecture. The apparatus may include an association module, a consolidation module, and a processing module. The association module may associate index update requests with an index. The index update requests may be configured to update the index in response to a redistribution of data in a data table. The consolidation module may compile the index update requests prior to processing and consolidate the index update requests into a smaller number of simplified index update requests to achieve substantially the same result. The processing module may then independently process the simplified index update requests and update the index accordingly.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus of distributing data in portioned databases operating on a shared-nothing architecture. The invention provides two independent streams of data, where a first stream sends table data, and the second stream sends LOB data, to a receiving partition. The receiving partition re-couples the LOB data with the table data. Using two independent streams to distribute LOB data can increase data redistribution since large amounts of input/output is not performed to handle the sending of LOB data in a coupled fashion.

Abstract: An apparatus and method to streamline updates to an index in a shared-nothing architecture. The apparatus may include an association module, a consolidation module, and a processing module. The association module may associate index update requests with an index. The index update requests may be configured to update the index in response to a redistribution of data in a data table. The consolidation module may compile the index update requests prior to processing and consolidate the index update requests into a smaller number of simplified index update requests to achieve substantially the same result. The processing module may then independently process the simplified index update requests and update the index accordingly.

Abstract: An apparatus and method to to decouple large object (“LOB”) data processing from main-line data processing in a shared-nothing architecture. The method may include relocating rows in a database table from a source partition to a target partition, where each row stores a source descriptor identifying a LOB associated with the row. The source descriptors may be read, and space sufficient to store each LOB in a target repository may be allocated accordingly. Source descriptors may be extracted from the rows, and sorted according to the location of the LOBs in the source repository to provide an ordered retrieval sequence. Each LOB may be retrieved from the source repository according to the retrieval sequence, and stored in its allocated space. The source descriptor stored in each row in the target partition may then be replaced with a target descriptor to identify the location of the respective LOB in the target repository.