US Patent 9489423 Query data acquisition and analysis

Described in this disclosure are systems and techniques for acquiring query data which includes an execution plan descriptive of how queries used to access a database are processed. In one implementation, an inquiry analysis system uses a copy of a production system to generate execution plan information. The copy includes tables, relationships, metadata, and so forth, but may omit data in the tables, allowing for a compact installation. By analyzing the query data, usage trends, inefficient queries, unused fields, and so forth may be determined and used for maintenance or performance improvements.