Apparatus and method for expanding a shared-nothing system

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

evaluate the addition of a new node to an expanded shared-nothing data store that has original nodes;

create a target table on said new node using a table definition corresponding to a source table on one or more of said original nodes;

form a data redistribution schedule table with specified parameters, the parameters identifying data in said source table for redistribution to said target table;

lock update access to said source table;

redistribute the data in said source table to said target table in accordance with the data redistribution schedule table; and

atomically exchange the source and target tables when the data redistribution is complete.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table identifies the source table with data to be redistributed.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the data redistribution schedule table identifies a redistribution priority for the source table.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table specifies a degree of parallelism characterizing the number of source tables that can be simultaneously redistributed.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table specifies a start time to redistribute a source table.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table specifies a duration time to redistribute a source table.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table displays data redistribution progress.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the data redistribution schedule table indicates data redistribution completion.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to copy existing source table definitions to said target table definition during an initialization stage of said target table.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9 further comprising executable instructions to nullify hash distribution polices during the initialization stage.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to form expansion schema for data redistribution status tracking.

12. A method of expanding a shared-nothing data store, comprising:

evaluating by a node of said expanded shared-nothing data store the addition of a new node to the expanded shared-nothing data store that has original nodes;

creating a target table on said new node using a table definition corresponding to a source table on one or more of said original nodes;

forming a data redistribution schedule table having specified parameters that identify data in said source table for redistribution to said target table;

locking update access to said source table;

redistributing the data in said source table to said target table in accordance with the data redistribution schedule table; and

atomically exchanging the source and target tables when the data redistribution is complete.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the data redistribution schedule parameters identify said one or more source tables with data to be redistributed.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the data redistribution schedule parameters identify redistribution priorities for said one or more source tables.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the data redistribution schedule parameters identify one or more of redistribution start time, completion time, and progress.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising copying existing source data table definitions to said target table definition during an initialization stage of said target table.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein said redistributing comprises redistributing said data using a round robin distribution policy.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising forming expansion schema for status tracking of data redistribution.