6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein traversing the hierarchy is performed in accordance with a relation-join query associated with a class of the root object.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the new lifecycle state for the root object is a delete stage and the method further comprises: traversing the hierarchy from the root object, depth first, avoiding cycles; and at each leaf object of the hierarchy: determining that a lifecycle state for the leaf object is a deleted stage, and issuing a partitioning maintenance command for the database for the leaf object.