Patent ID: 8065278

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a request at a computer system, wherein the request comprises a request to restore a selected object from a backup of a database, the database comprises a plurality of objects, and the plurality of objects comprises the selected object; locating information in the backup using a processor of the computer system, wherein the information is associated with the selected object, the locating is performed using database table metadata, the database table metadata was gathered from the database, and the database table metadata was gathered at the time the backup was created; and restoring the selected object using the processor, wherein the restoring is performed using the information associated with the selected object, and the restoring comprises restoring one or more necessary objects, the selected object is one of a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects comprises the one or more necessary objects, one or more of a plurality of data relationships describes a relationship between each of the plurality of objects and another of the plurality of objects, each of the one or more necessary objects is necessary to restore the selected object, by virtue of a relationship between the each of the one or more necessary objects and the selected object, the relationship between the each of the one or more necessary objects and the selected object is described by at least one of the plurality of data relationships, and the restoring restores all such necessary objects.