Techniques for guided access to an external distributed file system from a database management system

摘要

Techniques for guided access to an external distributed file system (DFS) from a database management system (DBMS) are provided. A user access a graphical user interface (GUI) to interactively define a search on an external DFS. The search and any filtering conditions are processed on the external DFS and results are imported to the DBMS and mapped to a table in the DBMS for manipulation and access by the user within the DBMS.

主权项

1. A method implemented and programmed within a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and processed by one or more processors, the processors configured to execute the method, comprising the steps of:
presenting a graphical user interface (GUI) within a parallel database management system (DBMS) to a user; using the GUI, the user identifies a file from an external distributed file system (DFS), external to the DBMS; acquiring, via the GUI, and from the user first columns to select from the file and a mapping of the first columns to data types present in the DBMS; obtaining, via the GUI, and from the user filtering conditions for matching data in the first columns of the file; and generating a user-defined function (UDF) for selections of the user made via the GUI and estimating whether the DFS or DBMS is more likely to execute the UDF more quickly and selecting either the DFS or the DBMS for executing the UDF based on the estimating and accounting for a DFS size for the DFS and DBMS size for the DBMS, and wherein the user can provide hints as where to where the UDF is to be executed or the user can require where the UDF is executed.