Model-oriented Configuration Management for Relational Database Applications

The ability to manage the evolution of a database application is crucial for a successful database development process. However, existing software configuration management (SCM) approaches for databases in database management systems (DBMSs) are still limited to providing version control functionality for the rollback to a previous state of the database itself. Modifications made to design diagrams such as entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) or to specifications and documentation are not well managed over time by an DBMS. Key limitations of existing versioning approaches for databases include their inadequacy in efficiently representing, storing, and connecting fine-grained, structural changes to both design artifacts and data records. In this paper, we describe McmDB, an SCM-centered relational DBMS, that distinguishes itself from existing systems by its ability to manage design changes in an ERD and its schema constructs, and to maintain consistent configurations among those constructs and versions of data records. The logical connections among design specifications and elements of an ERD are versioned as well.