Patent ID: 8170999

Claim:
A data warehouse management system to be operatively coupled to a data processing system having memory for storing a data warehouse, the data warehouse management system providing for general user availability when integrity processing of at least one of rolled-in data and maintenance of rolled-out data are deferred and performed incrementally comprising: a data warehouse administration module, recorded on a computer readable medium, for administration of the data warehouse comprising: a table dividable into partitions for containing rows of at least one of rolled-in and rolled-out data; a distinguishable partition identifier associated with each partition; and a metadata element having an entry corresponding to each partition identifier with attributes signifying whether the associated partition contains rolled-in data or rolled-out data; and an operations management module, recorded on a computer readable medium, having operation mechanisms for performing operations on the data warehouse responsive to the attributes, wherein deferred integrity processing is performed on a partition in response to the attribute signifying that the associated partition contains rolled-in data, and the attribute signifying the rolled-in data is contained in the corresponding partition is de-asserted after integrity processing is completed for the partition, wherein the deferred integrity processing comprises maintenance processing of the rolled-in data being postponed to a later time.