Versioned records management using restart era

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10296418-B2
Application number	US-201615001090-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2016
Priority date	Jan 19, 2016
Publication date	May 21, 2019
Grant date	May 21, 2019

Abstract

A versioned records management computing system that uses a restart era in order to promote rapid recovery. A persistent store includes a multi-versioned record collection. The records are also associated with a restart era that corresponds to the era of operation of the computing system after a restart. Upon a recovery, the current restart era changes. An object collection media has an object collection that conforms to an object model such that the object model is used to operate upon the records. The object collection media is operable such that the object collection is durable so as to survive restarts of the system to thereby allow for accelerated recovery.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A versioned records management computing system having a restart era that changes when the versioned records management computing system recovers from a crash, the computing system comprising:
at least one processor;
a persistent store that includes a plurality of items that are each marked with a restart era, wherein any item that was created in the current restart era is marked with the current restart era, the persistent store comprising a multi-versioned record collection comprising a plurality of records collectively corresponding to multiple versions, the plurality of records associated with a restart era; and
an object collection media having thereon an object collection that conforms to an object model such that the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records, the object collection media operable such that the object collection is durable;
the version records management computing system configured to perform at least some atomic operations upon the object collection such that at least in the case of an impending crash, the object collection is durable in a consistent state, and is available for use consistent with the object model in subsequent recovery of the versioned records management computing system, the versioned records management computing system configured to manage visibility of the plurality of records based on the version of each record.

2. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , at least some of the plurality of records each comprising a row.

3. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , at least some of the plurality of records each comprising a column.

4. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the object collection including at least one index for the plurality of records.

5. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the object collection including all of the indices associated with the plurality of records.

6. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the object collection comprising lock-free data structures.

7. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the persistent store comprising persistent main memory.

8. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 7 , the object collection media also comprising the persistent main memory.

9. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the object collection media comprising a durable store.

10. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 9 , the durable store comprising persistent main memory.

11. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 9 , the durable store comprising a volatile cache that is configured to detect an impending crash, and place at least a portion of the contents of the volatile cache into durable memory upon detection of an impending crash.

12. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 11 , the durable memory comprising persistent main memory.

13. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 12 , the portion of the contents of the volatile cache comprising a portion of the volatile cache.

14. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:
a recovery component that is configured to recover from a crash using the persistent store such that each record that was valid and visible at any given time prior to the crash remains valid and visible at that time after the crash, and such that the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records.

15. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 14 , wherein after the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records after recovery, the recovery component in parallel with normal operation promotes at least some of the plurality of records to the current restart era.

16. A method for operating a versioned records management computing system having a restart era that changes when the versioned records management computing system recovers from a crash, the method comprising:
an act of holding a multi-versioned record collection in a persistent store, the multi-versioned record collection comprising a plurality of records collectively corresponding to multiple versions, the plurality of records associated with a restart era; and
an act of holding an object collection on an object collection media, the object collection conforming to an object model such that the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records, the object collection media operable such that the object collection is durable; and
an act of performing at least some atomic operations upon the object collection such that at least in the case of an impending crash, the object collection is durable in a consistent state, and is available for use consistent with the object model in subsequent recovery of the versioned records management computing system.

17. The method for operating a versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 16 , the method further comprising:
an act of recovering from a crash using the persistent store such that each record that was valid and visible at any given time prior to the crash remains valid and visible at that time after the crash, and such that the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records;
an act of using the object model to operate upon the plurality of records after recovery to facilitate normal operation;
during normal operation, an act of evaluating each of at least some of the plurality of records and as a result an act of promoting a restart era of at least some of the evaluated records to the current restart era.

18. A computer program product comprising:
one or more computer-readable hardware storage device having thereon computing executable instructions that structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, configure the computing system to instantiate and/or operate a records management component for use in a versioned records management computing system that comprises a persistent store that includes a multi-versioned record collection comprising a plurality of records collectively corresponding to multiple versions, the plurality of records associated with a restart era; and an object collection media having thereon an object collection that conforms to an object model such that the object model is used to operate upon the plurality of records, the object collection media operable such that the object collection is durable, the records management component configured to perform the following:
an act of performing at least some atomic operations upon the object collection such that at least in the case of an impending crash, the object collection is durable in a consistent state, and is available for use consistent with the object model in subsequent recovery of the versioned records management computing system; and
an act of managing visibility of the plurality of records based on the version of each record.

19. The versioned records management computing system in accordance with claim 1 , the version of a record of the plurality of records being defined by a begin timestamp and an end timestamp, wherein the version of the record is visible at a particular time i

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Larson Per-Ake
• Fitzgerald Robert Patrick
• Diaconu Cristian

Classifications

• G06F11/1474

  in transactions (updating of structured data in databases G06F16/23) · CPC title

• G06F11/1441 Primary

  Resetting or repowering · CPC title

• G06F11/1417 Primary

  Boot up procedures · CPC title

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• G06F11/1471 Primary

  involving logging of persistent data for recovery · CPC title