Database Management System
A multi-user, elastic, on-demand, distributed relational database management system. The database is fragmented into distributed objects called atoms. Any change to a copy of an atom at one location is replicated to all other locations containing a copy of that atom. Transactional managers operate to satisfy the properties of atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability.
1 . A database management system for a logical database comprised of data records organized into tables to be accessed from multiple transactional nodes that process transactions related to the logical data base, said system comprising:
A) means for defining a set of atoms for storing in an atom a portion of metadata or data whereby a set of atoms contains all data and metadata,
B) an archival node that stores all instances of the atoms in a de-serialized form in permanent storage thereby to constitute a single store for the entire data base,
C) means for transferring atoms among the transactional and archival nodes as serialized messages wherein each transactional node comprises:
i) means for responding to queries from users by establishing a sequence of low-level commands for identifying atoms that are relevant to the query,
ii) means for responding to the low-level commands by obtaining only those copies of existing atoms that are relevant to the query being processed thereat whereby a copy of a given atom might exist at some other node or only at an archival node, and
iii) means for replicating any copy of a changed atom to the archival node and each transactional node in which a copy of that atom resides whereby changes are made to atoms in other nodes on a peer-to-peer basis and whereby any transactional node only contains those atoms that pertain to the queries being made users accessing the data base through that transactional node.