Patent ID: 8112443

Claim:
A method for executing a query against a database to retrieve desired data from a database table comprising: (a) receiving a user query for said database at a network processing node in accordance with a user request to retrieve said desired data, wherein the database includes a plurality of remote partitions coupled by a network for storing different portions of said database table based on a partitioning schema, each partition contained within a corresponding remote network processing node and associated with a partition identifier, and a database catalog accessible to each of said remote processing nodes and including information indicating data organization in said database, and retrieving information within said database catalog information associated with said database table containing said desired data and relating to the partitioning schema, wherein said database catalog information associates data of said database table with said remote networked partitions and said retrieved information identifies at least one remote networked partition containing said database table; (b) analyzing the contents of the user query and the retrieved database catalog information to determine a specific remote networked partition from among said plurality of remote networked partitions containing the database table portion with the desired data satisfying said user query and identifying a partition identifier associated with the specific remote networked partition; and (c) executing the user query against said specific remote networked partition, wherein the network processing node receiving the user query includes a plurality of agent modules each associated with a different corresponding remote networked partition to establish over the network a physical connection with, execute queries against and retrieve data from that remote networked partition, and wherein executing the user query includes by determining said associated agent module for said specific remote networked partition based on said partition identifier and directing said determined agent module to execute said user query against, and retrieve said desired data satisfying said user query from, said specific remote networked partition.