Granted Patent B1

US 9,053,100 · App. 13/650,005 · Granted Jun 9, 2015

Inventors: Raghupathi Malige (San Jose, CA); Daniel Fillingham (Santa Clara, CA); Meher Shah (Union City, CA)

Assignee: Symantec Corporation

G06F17/30G06F17/30595

Abstract

Claims (43)

1. A computer-implemented method for compressing database objects, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying a database object within a relational database;

determining that the database object meets a compression criterion that is not met by at least one additional database object within the relational database;

identifying a location of the database object within a database file of the relational database by querying a catalog table of the relational database that stores extent information for the database object, the extent information identifying the database file and an offset within the database file at which at least a portion of the database object is located;

compressing a portion of the database file at the location of the database object without compressing all of the database file.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein compressing the portion of the database file at the location of the database object comprises compressing the portion of the database file while leaving an additional portion of the database file that corresponds to the additional database object uncompressed.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets a compression criterion comprises determining that an age of the database object exceeds a predetermined threshold.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets the compression criterion comprises at least one of:

determining that the database object comprises a table;

determining that the database object comprises a composite index that indexes a plurality of columns.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets the compression criterion comprises determining that the database object comprises a read-only database object.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets the compression criterion comprises determining that a write frequency to the database object falls below a predetermined threshold.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets the compression criterion comprises determining that a size of the database object exceeds a predetermined threshold.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the database object comprises identifying at least one of:

an index;

a table;

a set of rows.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the database object meets the compression criterion comprises determining that the database object comprises a file stored within the relational database.

10. A system for compressing databases, the system comprising:

an identification module programmed to identify a database object within a relational database;

a determination module programmed to determine that the database object meets a compression criterion that is not met by at least one additional database object within the relational database;

a location module programmed to identify a location of the database object within a database file of the relational database by querying a catalog table of the relational database that stores extent information for the database object, the extent information identifying the database file and an offset within the database file at which at least a portion of the database object is located;

a compression module programmed to compress a portion of the database file at the location of the database object without compressing all of the database file;

at least one processor configured to execute the identification module, the determination module, the location module, and the compression module.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the compression module is programmed to compress the portion of the database file at the location of the database object by compressing the portion of the database file while leaving an additional portion of the database file that corresponds to the additional database object uncompressed.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the determination module is programmed to determine that the database object meets a compression criterion by determining that an age of the database object exceeds a predetermined threshold.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the determination module is programmed to determine that the database object meets the compression criterion by at least one of:

determining that the database object comprises a table;

determining that the database object comprises a composite index that indexes a plurality of columns.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the determination module is programmed to determine that the database object meets the compression criterion by determining that the database object comprises a read-only database object.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the determination module is programmed to determine that the database object meets the compression criterion by determining that a write frequency to the database object falls below a predetermined threshold.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the determination module is programmed to determine that the database object meets the compression criterion by determining that a size of the database object exceeds a predetermined threshold.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the identification module is programmed to identify the database object by identifying at least one of:

an index;

a table;

a set of rows.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

identify a database object within a relational database;

determine that the database object meets a compression criterion that is not met by at least one additional database object within the relational database;

identify a location of the database object within a database file of the relational database by querying a catalog table of the relational database that stores extent information for the database object, the extent information identifying the database file and an offset within the database file at which at least a portion of the database object is located;

compress a portion of the database file at the location of the database object without compressing all of the database file.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein compressing the portion of the database file at the location of the database object comprises compressing the portion of the database file while leaving an additional portion of the database file that corresponds to the additional database object uncompressed.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein determining that the database object meets a compression criterion comprises determining that an age of the database object exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Assignments (8)