Virtual Database Administrator for Targeted Backup Retry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current network backup systems for large database networks face challenges in identifying and addressing backup failures efficiently, as they often require global backup retries, leading to resource wastage and overwhelming administrators with numerous potential errors, without the ability to implement corrective actions specific to the failing database.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a Virtual Database Administrator (VDBA) that monitors backup write events, polls database servers for event logs, identifies failed backups, and instructs specific database servers to retry failed backups, thereby conserving network resources and allowing for targeted corrective actions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a global backup retry is implemented for all databases on a server, then backup reliability is improved, but network resources are wasted and backup time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system segments the retry operation by database instance rather than applying it globally to all databases on a server. The VDBA identifies the specific failed database and instructs the database server to retry only that particular database's backup operation, isolating the retry scope to the minimum necessary unit.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies localized backup retry instructions to specific failed databases rather than uniformly retrying all databases. The VDBA generates targeted retry commands that affect only the particular database instance that experienced failure, leaving other databases unaffected.
2Reliability
If all databases on a server are backed up, then backup completeness is improved, but backup time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup process is segmented at the database instance level. When a failure occurs, only the specific failed database is identified and retried, rather than re-executing backup operations for all databases on the server. This segmentation dramatically reduces the time required for corrective backup actions.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of performing a complete backup of all databases (excessive action), the system performs a partial backup retry limited only to the specific failed database instance. This partial action is sufficient to achieve backup completeness for the affected database while avoiding unnecessary time consumption.
3Loss of information
If backup failure information is provided to administrators, then awareness of backup status is improved, but administrator workload increases due to overwhelming error messages
Solution Approach 1:
The VDBA extracts and isolates only the critical backup failure information from the mass of error messages. Instead of presenting all hundreds of potential errors to administrators, the system extracts and highlights only the specific failed database instances that require attention, filtering out redundant information.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than having administrators sift through overwhelming error messages to identify failures, the system inverts the approach by actively presenting only the relevant failure information to administrators. The VDBA takes the information that administrators need and delivers it directly to them in a manageable format.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual database administrator (VDBA) is implemented in a database server network to monitor back-up write events from the database servers on the network to a network back-up server and correct failed back-up attempts. The VDBA regularly polls the database servers for copies of event logs that include information about back-up attempts. The VDBA parses each of the event logs, searching for the back-up log entries indicating successful or failed back-up writes for particular databases. For failed back-up writes, the VDBA instructs the specific database server to retry the back-up write for the particular database. The back-up retry instructions are specific to the database server and cause a back-up retry limited to the particular database on the server that experienced the failure.