APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING AND RECOVERING FROM DATABASE ERRORS

A database recovery system and method that associates integrity states with predetermined database elements, each representing one or more conditions of a characteristic of interest of the associated database elements. The system repairs or replaces the database elements having associated integrity states that are less preferred so as to improve their condition and advance their associated integrity state to a more preferred integrity state. The database elements are preferably user-selected, and may be any physical or logical portion of the database, such as data records, partitions and replicas. In an hierarchically-arranged object-oriented database, the database elements may be, for example, objects, attributes or properties of objects as well as data. The database recovery system automatically repairs database elements, preferably using available processes and tools, to advance the associated integrity state from a less-preferred to a more-preferred integrity state. The database recovery system includes a state identification unit for determining the conditions of each of the database elements, and to set the associated integrity state accordingly, and an element recovery unit for improving the conditions of the database elements so as to advance the plurality of associated integrity states to a more preferred integrity state. Preferably, the characteristic may be database element validity, and the conditions include whether the database elements have been damaged or repaired. The recovery processes include an external repair tool configured to repair damaged database elements; and replacement processes such as backup retrieval processes and replica synchronization processes, for replacing particular database elements having an associated first integrity state with a copy of the particular database elements having associated second integrity state, wherein the second integrity state is a more preferred integrity state than the first integrity state.