Techniques for data retention

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10176235-B2
Application number	US-201414542357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2014
Priority date	Nov 15, 2013
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

Managing data in a multitenant environment having a relational database and a non-relational database. A set of one or more policies for data retention corresponding to data stored in the relational database environment is received. The policies for data retention are defined on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment. The policies are deployed to data in the relational database on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment. Data to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database is identified. The data to be copied in the non-relational database is stored while maintaining tenant isolation so that data belonging to the respective tenants is not accessible by other tenants when stored in the non-relational database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of managing data in a multitenant environment having a relational database and a non-relational database, the method comprising:
receiving, with one or more server computing systems that provide the multitenant environment, a set of one or more policies for field history data retention corresponding to data stored in a history table in the relational database environment, wherein the policies for data retention are defined on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment, wherein the one or more policies for data retention define what data is to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database, how to copy the data, how long to retain the data in the relational database after the copy and how long to retain the data in the non-relational database after the copy;
deploying, with the one or more computing systems that provide the multitenant environment, the policies to data in the relational database on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment;
identifying, with the one or more computing systems that provide the multitenant environment and according to the policies, data to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database, wherein the data to be copied comprises at least field history information indicating changes made to one or more fields in the relational database and the non-relational database provides a field history archive;
storing the data to be copied in the non-relational database while maintaining tenant isolation so that data belonging to the respective tenants is not accessible by other tenants when stored in the non-relational database utilizing a two-stage archival operation where each of the two stages are independently scheduled and executed, the first stage to copy rows from the relational database to the non-relational database and the second stage to delete rows from the relational database that have been copied to the non-relational database; and
providing access to the data from the non-relational database via a user interface that accesses both the relational database and the non-relational database, wherein searching of the data stored in the non-relational database comprises transforming a query in a relational database language to multiple parallel scans of the non-relational database to retrieve result data and merging results of the multiple parallel scans to present the result data.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
enabling deletion of the data stored in the non-relational database from the relational database; and
causing the data stored in the non-relational database to be deleted from the relational database according to tenant-specific deletion policies.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the copying the data from the relational database to the non-relational database comprises:
receiving a key prefix to identify the data to be copied;
splitting the data to be copied into at least a first batch and a second batch;
copying a first batch of data from the relational database to the non-relational database;
automatically, in response to copying the first batch, enqueuing a second batch of data to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions to cause one or more processors to manage data in a multitenant environment having a relational database and a non-relational database, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, to:
receive, with one or more server computing systems that provide the multitenant environment, a set of one or more policies for field history data retention corresponding to data stored in a history table in the relational database environment, wherein the policies for data retention are defined on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment, wherein the one or more policies for data retention define what data is to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database, how to copy the data, how long to retain the data in the relational database after the copy and how long to retain the data in the non-relational database after the copy;
deploying, with the one or more computing systems that provide the multitenant environment, the policies to data in the relational database on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment;
identify, with the one or more computing systems that provide the multitenant environment and according to the policies, data to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database, wherein the data to be copied comprises at least field history information indicating changes made to one or more fields in the relational database and the non-relational database provides a field history archive;
store the data to be copied in the non-relational database while maintaining tenant isolation so that data belonging to the respective tenants is not accessible by other tenants when stored in the non-relational database utilizing a two-stage archival operation where each of the two stages are independently scheduled and executed, the first stage to copy rows from the relational database to the non-relational database and the second stage to delete rows from the relational database that have been copied to the non-relational database; and
provide access to the data from the non-relational database via a user interface that accesses both the relational database and the non-relational database, wherein searching of the data stored in the non-relational database comprises transforming a query in a relational database language to multiple parallel scans of the non-relational database to retrieve result data and merging results of the multiple parallel scans to present the result data.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
enable deletion of the data stored in the non-relational database from the relational database; and
cause the data stored in the non-relational database to be deleted from the relational database according to tenant-specific deletion policies.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to copy the data from the relational database to the non-relational database comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a key prefix to identify the data to be copied;
split the data to be copied into at least a first batch and a second batch;
copy a first batch of data from the relational database to the non-relational database;
automatically, in response to copying the first batch, enqueue a second batch of data to be copied from the relational database to the non-relational database.

7. A system for managing data in a multitenant environment having a relational database and a non-relational database, the system comprising:
a server computing device to provide services to one or more remote client computing devices;
a database management environment to support services provided by the server computing device, the database management environment to receive a set of one or more policies for field history data retention corresponding to data stored in a history table in the relational database environment, wherein the policies for data retention are defined on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment, to deploy the policies to data in the relational database on a tenant-by-tenant basis within the multitenant environment, wherein the one or more policies for data retention define what data is to be copied

Assignees

• Salesforce Com Inc

Inventors

• Bruce Jonathan Mark
• Levine Eli
• Toens Simon

Classifications

• G06F16/256

  in federated or virtual databases · CPC title

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• G06F16/258

  Data format conversion from or to a database · CPC title

• G06F16/284 Primary

  Relational databases · CPC title

• G06F16/25 Primary

  Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems · CPC title