1. A method, comprising: retrieving first configuration metadata associated with a database from a first data source, wherein the database is a federated database capable of integrating multiple data sources; initializing a database management system with the first configuration metadata, wherein the database management system is operable to access data from the first data source; determining whether the data from the first data source identifies at least one additional data source containing additional configuration metadata associated with the database; recursively retrieving the additional configuration metadata from the at least one additional data source until reaching a steady state indicating that all configuration metadata has been retrieved; combining the first configuration metadata and each of the additional configuration metadata into a set of combined configuration metadata; and dynamically reconfiguring the database to integrate data from the at least one additional data sources, wherein dynamically reconfiguring the database comprises: receiving a modification to a configuration file, the configuration file specifying the at least one additional data source comprising additional configuration metadata; retrieving the additional configuration metadata from the at least one data source; and reinitializing the database management system with the additional configuration metadata, wherein the database management system is operable to access data from the at least one additional data source.