Patent ID: 8180728

Claim:
A method, comprising: maintaining a first set of control blocks in a memory, representing information about a hierarchical database, wherein a first subset of the first set of control blocks corresponds to a first database storage area of a plurality of database storage areas and a second subset of the first set of control blocks corresponds to a second database storage area of the hierarchical database; stopping the first database storage area; unloading data from the first database storage area; reorganizing the first database storage area; generating a second set of control blocks in memory corresponding to the reorganized first database storage area; creating a new data structure in memory; copying into the new data structure pointers to the second subset of the first set of control blocks and pointers to the second set of control blocks; replacing a pre-existing data structure with the new data structure; reloading the unloaded data to the reorganized first database storage area; and starting the reorganized first database storage area, wherein the second database storage area of the hierarchical database remains started while performing the acts of unloading, reorganizing, reloading, and starting.