Distributed Databases and

Client-Server Architectures

Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Outline
1 Distributed Database Concepts
2 Data Fragmentation, Replication and Allocation
3 Types of Distributed Database Systems
4 Query Processing
5 Concurrency Control and Recovery
6 3-Tier Client-Server Architecture

Chapter 25-2
 Distributed Database Concepts
It is a system to process Unit of execution (a transaction) in
a distributed manner. That is, a transaction can be executed
by multiple networked computers in a unified manner.
It can be defined as
A distributed database (DDB) is a collection of multiple
logically related database distributed over a computer
network, and a distributed database management system
as a software system that manages a distributed
database while making the distribution transparent to
the user. A distributed database is a database that is under the control of a central
database management system (DBMS) in which storage devices are not all attached to a
common CPU. It may be stored in multiple computers located in the same physical location, or
may be dispersed over a network of interconnected computers.

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 Distributed Database System
Advantages
1. Management of distributed data with different
levels of transparency: This refers to the physical
placement of data (files, relations, etc.) which is not
known to the user (distribution transparency).
Site 5
Site 1

Site 4 Communications neteork

Site 3 Site 2
 Distributed Database System
Advantages
The EMPLOYEE, PROJECT, and WORKS_ON tables may be
fragmented horizontally and stored with possible replication as shown
below.
EMPLOYEES - All
PROJECTS - All
WORKS_ON - All
EMPLOYEES - New York
Chicago PROJECTS - All
(headquarters) WORKS_ON - New York Employees

EMPLOYEES - San Francisco and LA New York

PROJECTS - San Francisco
WORKS_ON - San Francisco Employees

San Francisco Communications neteork

Los Angeles Atlanta

EMPLOYEES - LA EMPLOYEES - Atlanta
PROJECTS - LA and San Francisco PROJECTS - Atlanta
WORKS_ON - LA Employees WORKS_ON - Atlanta Employees
 Distributed Database System
Advantages
• Distribution and Network transparency: Users do not have to
worry about operational details of the network. There is Location
transparency, which refers to freedom of issuing command from
any location without affecting its working. Then there is Naming
transparency, which allows access to any names object (files,
relations, etc.) from any location.
• Replication transparency: It allows to store copies of a data at
multiple sites as shown in the above diagram. This is done to
minimize access time to the required data.
• Fragmentation transparency: Allows to fragment a relation
horizontally (create a subset of tuples of a relation) or vertically
(create a subset of columns of a relation).
 Distributed Database System
Advantages
2. Increased reliability and availability: Reliability refers to
system live time, that is, system is running efficiently most of the
time. Availability is the probability that the system is
continuously available (usable or accessible) during a time
interval. A distributed database system has multiple nodes
(computers) and if one fails then others are available to do the
job.
3. Improved performance: A distributed DBMS fragments the database
to keep data closer to where it is needed most. This reduces data
management (access and modification) time significantly.
4. Easier expansion (scalability): Allows new nodes (computers) to be
added anytime without chaining the entire configuration.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Data Fragmentation
Split a relation into logically related and correct parts. A
relation can be fragmented in two ways:
Horizontal fragmentation
It is a horizontal subset of a relation which contain those of
tuples which satisfy selection conditions.
Consider the Employee relation with selection condition (DNO
= 5). All tuples satisfy this condition will create a subset which
will be a horizontal fragment of Employee relation.
A selection condition may be composed of several conditions
connected by AND or OR.
Derived horizontal fragmentation: It is the partitioning of a
primary relation to other secondary relations which are related
with Foreign keys.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Vertical fragmentation
It is a subset of a relation which is created by a subset of
columns. Thus a vertical fragment of a relation will contain
values of selected columns. There is no selection condition used
in vertical fragmentation.
Consider the Employee relation. A vertical fragment of can be
created by keeping the values of Name, Bdate, Sex, and
Address.
Because there is no condition for creating a vertical fragment,
each fragment must include the primary key attribute of the
parent relation Employee. In this way all vertical fragments of
a relation are connected.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Representation
Horizontal fragmentation
Each horizontal fragment on a relation can be specified by a sCi
(R) operation in the relational algebra.
Complete horizontal fragmentation
A set of horizontal fragments whose conditions C1, C2, …, Cn
include all the tuples in R- that is, every tuple in R satisfies (C1
OR C2 OR … OR Cn).
Disjoint complete horizontal fragmentation: No tuple in R
satisfies (Ci AND Cj) where i ≠ j.
To reconstruct R from horizontal fragments a UNION is
applied.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Representation
Vertical fragmentation
A vertical fragment on a relation can be specified by a Li(R)
operation in the relational algebra.
Complete vertical fragmentation
A set of vertical fragments whose projection lists L1, L2, …, Ln
include all the attributes in R but share only the primary key of
R. In this case the projection lists satisfy the following two
conditions:
L1  L2  ...  Ln = ATTRS (R)
Li  Lj = PK(R) for any i j, where ATTRS (R) is the set of
attributes of R and PK(R) is the primary key of R.
To reconstruct R from complete vertical fragments a OUTER
UNION is applied.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation

Mixed (Hybrid) fragmentation

A combination of Vertical fragmentation and Horizontal
fragmentation.
This is achieved by SELECT-PROJECT operations which is
represented by Li(sCi (R)).
If C = True (Select all tuples) and L ≠ ATTRS(R), we get a
vertical fragment, and if C ≠ True and L ≠ ATTRS(R), we get a
mixed fragment.
If C = True and L = ATTRS(R), then R can be considered a
fragment.
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Fragmentation schema
A definition of a set of fragments (horizontal or vertical or
horizontal and vertical) that includes all attributes and tuples
in the database that satisfies the condition that the whole
database can be reconstructed from the fragments by applying
some sequence of UNION (or OUTER JOIN) and UNION
operations.

Allocation schema
It describes the distribution of fragments to sites of distributed
databases. It can be fully or partially replicated or can be
partitioned.
 Data Fragmentation

 Division of relation r into fragments r1, r2, …, rn which contain sufficient

information to reconstruct relation r.
 Horizontal fragmentation: each tuple of r is assigned to one or more
fragments
 Vertical fragmentation: the schema for relation r is split into several smaller
schemas
– All schemas must contain a common candidate key (or superkey) to ensure
lossless join property.
– A special attribute, the tuple-id attribute may be added to each schema to
serve as a candidate key.
 Example : relation account with following schema
 Account = (account_number, branch_name , balance )
Horizontal Fragmentation of account Relation

account_number branch_name balance

A-305 Hillside 500

A-226 Hillside 336
A-155 Hillside 62

account1 = sbranch_name=“Hillside” (account )

account_number branch_name balance

A-177 Valleyview 205

A-402 Valleyview 10000
A-408 Valleyview 1123
A-639 Valleyview 750

account2 = sbranch_name=“Valleyview” (account )

 Vertical Fragmentation of employee_info Relation

branch_name customer_name tuple_id

Hillside Lowman 1
Hillside Camp 2
Valleyview Camp 3
Valleyview Kahn 4
Hillside Kahn 5
Valleyview Kahn 6
Valleyview Green 7
deposit1 = branch_name, customer_name, tuple_id (employee_info )
account_number balance tuple_id

A-305 500 1
A-226 336 2
A-177 205 3
A-402 10000 4
A-155 62 5
A-408 1123 6
A-639 750 7
deposit2 = account_number, balance, tuple_id (employee_info )
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
Data Replication
Database is replicated to all sites. In full replication the entire
database is replicated and in partial replication some selected
part is replicated to some of the sites. Data replication is
achieved through a replication schema.

Data Distribution (Data Allocation)

This is relevant only in the case of partial replication or
partition. The selected portion of the database is distributed to
the database sites.
 Types of Distributed Database Systems
Homogeneous
All sites of the database system have identical setup, i.e., same database system
software. The underlying operating system may be different. For example, all
sites run Oracle or DB2, or Sybase or some other database system. The
underlying operating systems can be a mixture of Linux, Window, Unix, etc.
The clients thus have to use identical client software.
Window
Site 5 Unix
Oracle Site 1
Oracle
Window
Site 4 Communications
neteork

Oracle
Site 3 Site 2
Linux Oracle Linux Oracle
 Types of Distributed Database Systems
Heterogeneous
Federated: Each site may run different database system but the data access is managed
through a single conceptual schema. This implies that the degree of local autonomy is
minimum. Each site must adhere to a centralized access policy. There may be a global
schema.
Multidatabase: There is no one conceptual global schema. For data access a schema is
constructed dynamically as needed by the application software.

Object Unix Relational

Oriented Site 5 Unix
Site 1
Hierarchical
Window
Site 4 Communications
network

Network
Object DBMS
Oriented Site 3 Site 2 Relational
Linux Linux
 Types of Distributed Database Systems

Federated Database Management Systems Issues

• Differences in data models: Relational, Objected

oriented, hierarchical, network, etc.
• Differences in constraints: Each site may have their
own data accessing and processing constraints.
• Differences in query language: Some site may use
SQL, some may use SQL-89, some may use SQL-92,
and so on.
Query Processing in Distributed Databases
Issues
Cost of transferring data (files and results) over the network.
This cost is usually high so some optimization is necessary.
Example relations: Employee at site 1 and Department at Site 2
Employee at site 1. 10, 000 rows. Row size = 100 bytes. Table size = 106 bytes.
Fname Minit Lname SSN Bdate Address Sex Salary Superssn Dno

Department at Site 2. 100 rows. Row size = 35 bytes. Table size = 3500 bytes.
Dname Dnumber Mgrssn Mgrstartdate

Q: For each employee, retrieve employee name and department

nameWhere the employee works.

Q: Fname,Lname,Dname (Employee Dno = Dnumber Department)

Query Processing in Distributed Databases
Result
The result of this query will have 10,000 tuples, assuming that every
employee is related to a department.
Suppose each result tuple is 40 bytes long. The query is submitted at
site 3 and the result is sent to this site.
Problem: Employee and Department relations are not present at site 3.

Stretagies:
1. Transfer Employee and Department to site 3. Total transfer bytes
= 1,000,000 + 3500 = 1,003,500 bytes.
2. Transfer Employee to site 2, execute join at site 2 and send the
result to site 3. Query result size = 40 * 10,000 = 400,000 bytes.
Total transfer size = 400,000 + 1,000,000 = 1,400,000 bytes.
 Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
Stretagies:
3. Transfer Department relation to site 1, execute the join at site 1,
and send the result to site 3. Total bytes transferred = 400,000 +
3500 = 403,500 bytes.
Optimization criteria: minimizing data transfer.
Preferred approach: strategy 3.

Consider the query

Q’: For each department, retrieve the department name and the
name of the department manager

Relational Algebra expression:

Fname,Lname,Dname (Employee Mgrssn = SSN Department)

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Query Processing in Distributed Databases

The result of this query will have 100 tuples, assuming that every
department has a manager, the execution strategies are:

Stretagies:
1. Transfer Employee and Department to the result site and perorm
the join at site 3. Total bytes transferred = 1,000,000 + 3500 =
1,003,500 bytes.
2. Transfer Employee to site 2, execute join at site 2 and send the
result to site 3. Query result size = 40 * 100 = 4000 bytes. Total
transfer size = 4000 + 1,000,000 = 1,004,000 bytes.
3. Transfer Department relation to site 1, execute join at site 1 and
send the result to site 3. Total transfer size = 4000 + 3500 = 7500
bytes.
Query Processing in Distributed Databases

Preferred strategy: Chose strategy 3.

Now suppose the result site is 2. Possible strategies:

Possible strategies :
1. Transfer Employee relation to site 2, execute the query and present
the result to the user at site 2. Total transfer size = 1,000,000 bytes
for both queries Q and Q’.
2. Transfer Department relation to site 1, execute join at site 1 and
send the result back to site 2. Total transfer size for Q = 400,000 +
3500 = 403,500 bytes and for Q’ = 4000 + 3500 = 7500 bytes.
 Concurrency Control and Recovery
Distributed Databases encounter a number of concurrency control and
recovery problems which are not present in centralized databases.
Some of them are listed below.

 Dealing with multiple copies of data items: The concurrency

control must maintain global consistency. Likewise the recovery
mechanism must recover all copies and maintain consistency after
recovery.
 Failure of individual sites: Database availability must not be
affected due to the failure of one or two sites and the recovery
scheme must recover them before they are available for use.
Concurrency Control and Recovery

 Communication link failure: This failure may create network

partition which would affect database availability even though all
database sites may be running.
 Distributed commit: A transaction may be fragmented and they
may be executed by a number of sites. This require a two or three-
phase commit approach for transaction commit.
 Distributed deadlock: Since transactions are processed at multiple
sites, two or more sites may get involved in deadlock. This must be
resolved in a distributed manner.
Concurrency Control and Recovery
Distributed Concurrency control based on a distributed copy of a data
item

Primary site technique: A single site is designated as a primary site

which serves as a coordinator for transaction management.

Primary site
Site 5
Site 1

Site 4 Communications neteork

Site 3 Site 2

Chapter 25-
Concurrency Control and Recovery
Transaction management: Concurrency control and commit are
managed by this site. In two phase locking, this site manages locking
and releasing data items. If all transactions follow two-phase policy at
all sites, then serializability is guaranteed.
Advantages: An extension to the centralized two phase locking so
implementation and management is simple. Data items are locked only
at one site but they can be accessed at any site.
Disadvantages: All transaction management activities go to primary
site which is likely to overload the site. If the primary site fails, the
entire system is inaccessible.
To aid recovery a backup site is designated which behaves as a shadow
of primary site. In case of primary site failure, backup site can act as
primary site.

Chapter 25-
Concurrency Control and Recovery
Primary Copy Technique: In this approach, instead of a site, a data
item partition is designated as primary copy. To lock a data item just
the primary copy of the data item is locked.
Advantages: Since primary copies are distributed at various sites, a
single site is not overloaded with locking and unlocking requests.
Disadvantages: Identification of a primary copy is complex. A
distributed directory must be maintained, possibly at all sites.

Chapter 25-
Concurrency Control and Recovery

Recovery from a coordinator failure

In both approaches a coordinator site or copy may become unavailable.
This will require the selection of a new coordinator.
Primary site approach with no backup site: Aborts and restarts all
active transactions at all sites. Elects a new coordinator and initiates
transaction processing.
Primary site approach with backup site: Suspends all active
transactions, designates the backup site as the primary site and
identifies a new back up site. Primary site receives all transaction
management information to resume processing.
Primary and backup sites fail or no backup site: Use election process
to select a new coordinator site.

Chapter 25-
 Client-Server Database Architecture
It consists of clients running client software, a set of servers which
provide all database functionalities and a reliable communication
infrastructure.

Server 1 Client 1

Client 2

Server 2 Client 3

Server n Client n

Chapter 25-
 Client-Server Database Architecture

Clients reach server for desired service, but server does reach clients.

 The server software is responsible for local data management at a

site, much like centralized DBMS software.
 The client software is responsible for most of the distribution
function.
 The communication software manages communication among
clients and servers.

Chapter 25-
 Client-Server Database Architecture

The processing of a SQL queries goes as follows:

 Client parses a user query and decomposes it into a number of

independent sub-queries. Each subquery is sent to appropriate site
for execution.
 Each server processes its query and sends the result to the client.
 The client combines the results of subqueries and produces the
final result.

Chapter 25-
 NAVATHE –CHAPTER-Distributed Database
1.What are the main reasons for and potential advantages of distributed databases?
2.When are voting and election used in distributed database.

MORE QUESTIONS WILL FOLLOW..