Patent ID: 8924441

Claim:
A method of performing snap imaging of a database table that includes a plurality of data objects and associated metadata indicating a storage location for each of the data objects, where at least some of the data objects are associated with respective temperature values, the method comprising: creating a snap image of the database table by copying only the metadata associated with the plurality of data objects of the database table, whereby a physical copy of the database table is not created; and thereafter anticipating subsequent database writes to certain data objects of the plurality of the database objects of the database table by: comparing the temperature value associated with one or more of the data objects with a threshold value; creating based on the snap image of the database table, an anticipatory copy of at least some of the data objects of the database table for which the associated temperature value exceeds the threshold value, as data objects likely to be updated; and not creating an anticipatory copy of at least one of the data objects of the database table for which the associated temperature value does not exceed the threshold value; and writing data to the anticipatory copy of the at least one data object in response to a write request to write the data to the database table.