Migration Proxy Architecture for Scalable Live Data Upgrades

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing data migration technologies struggle with scalability, particularly in environments with hundreds of deployments each with unique constraints, making online migrations complex and time-consuming, especially in mission-critical systems that cannot tolerate downtime.

Innovation Solution

An online migration framework that provides a scalable solution for live data migration, enabling automation across multiple environments, including cloud and on-premises deployments, with features like a Migration Runner, Migration Proxy, and a data store for metadata tracking, ensuring in-order execution and rollback capabilities.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If offline upgrades are used for data migration, then implementation simplicity is improved, but service availability deteriorates due to required downtime

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveimplementation simplicityVSAvoidservice availability
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically switches between old and new data formats during migration. The migration proxy detects the current migration state and automatically routes read/write operations to the appropriate data format, enabling seamless transition without service interruption. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the system flexible enough to handle both formats concurrently.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

A migration proxy acts as an intermediary layer between the service code and the data store. This proxy abstracts the complexity of dual-format handling from the service logic, automatically managing format selection based on migration state. The intermediary simplifies implementation while maintaining continuous service availability by handling format transitions transparently.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If online data migration is implemented, then service availability is improved, but technical complexity increases due to format compatibility requirements

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveservice availabilityVSAvoidtechnical complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The migration process is segmented into distinct states (pre-migration, in-progress, post-migration), with the migration proxy handling each state independently. This segmentation allows the system to maintain service availability while managing complexity through structured state transitions, as each segment has well-defined behavior and data format requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The migration proxy serves multiple functions: it acts as a read-write lock mechanism, a format router, and a migration state manager. By consolidating these functions into a single universal component, the system achieves service availability without proportionally increasing overall complexity, as the proxy handles multiple concerns through a unified interface.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Adaptability or versatility

If manual migration processes are used across multiple deployments, then adaptability to unique constraints is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to time-consuming manual intervention

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveadaptability to constraintsVSAvoidmigration speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The migration system is self-configuring and self-executing. The migration proxy automatically detects deployment constraints, determines the appropriate migration state, and routes operations without manual intervention. This self-service capability enables rapid automated migration across hundreds of deployments while adapting to unique constraints through automatic configuration detection.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-defining migration states and lock mechanisms that automatically adapt to deployment constraints. The migration proxy is pre-configured with state transition rules and lock protocols that automatically apply to each deployment, enabling fast automated execution while maintaining adaptability through pre-established constraint-handling logic.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4134805B1Framework for live data migration
Publication Date: 2025.09.24 PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES INC
  • EP4134805B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4134805B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4134805B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

Systems and methods including a framework for migration of live data. The method may comprised, by one or more hardware processors executing program instructions, receiving, at a migration proxy of the framework, code for reading data and writing data compatible with each of a plurality of states of a migration of data in a data store, wherein a service is at least intermittently reading data from and writing data to the data store; determining, by a migration runner of the framework, to perform the migration of the data; initiating, by the migration runner, the migration of the data, wherein the migration comprises a plurality of stages; storing, as the migration progresses through the plurality of stages, and at a migration data store of the framework, a current stage of the migration; and during the migration, using the migration proxy to read data from and write data to the data store.