Patent ID: 9251184
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method of managing database schema changes in a database management system comprising: identifying and marking one or more database objects for deletion from the database management system, in response to a destructive database schema change indicating permanent deletion, wherein the one or more marked database objects are accessible by applications referencing the one or more marked database objects, and metadata associated with the one or more database objects indicates that the one or more database objects are marked for deletion; identifying accesses to the one or more marked database objects by one or more applications referencing the one or more marked database objects, storing information pertaining to the identified accesses, and processing the identified accesses by the one or more applications without deletion of the one or more marked database objects; modifying the identified accesses by the one or more applications so that the one or more applications no longer reference the one or more marked database objects; evaluating the stored information to determine a frequency with which the one or more marked database objects are referenced by the identified accesses over a select time period; and implementing the destructive database schema change by permanent deletion of the one or more marked database objects in response to an indication that the frequency with which the one or more marked database objects are referenced is below a threshold value for the select time period.