Database System Architecture

Outline

 Definition of DBMS
 Objective of DBMS
 Purpose of Databases
 Limitation of the file system based databases
 View of Data in Databases
 Data Models
 Database Users and Administrators
 Centralized Architectures
 Client-Server Architectures
 Parallel Systems
 Distributed Systems
 Network Types
 Definition of DBMS

 A database management system (DBMS) is:

a collection of interrelated data (Database) and a set of programs to access

those data

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 Objective of DBMS

 Provide a way for efficient data management

 Storage and retrieval of the information

 Manage large bodies of information

 Defining structures for the storage of information

 Providing the mechanisms for the manipulation of the information

 Ensure the safety of the information stored

 Avoid abnormal results when sharing the DB among several users

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 Database Applications

 Banking: all transactions

 Airlines: reservations, schedules
 Universities: registration, grades
 Sales: customers, products, purchases
 Online retailers: order tracking, customized recommendations
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax deductions
 Databases touch all aspects of our lives

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 Purpose of Databases
Limitations of File Systems

 In the early days, database applications were built on top of file systems

 Data is stored in separate files

 Data is manipulated by a set of application programs

 As time goes by, the number of files and application programs increases

 Increasing complexity of database application management

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 Purpose of Databases
Limitations of File Systems

 Drawbacks of using file system to store data

 Data redundancy and inconsistency
 Redundancy: duplication of information in different files
 Inconsistency: the various copies of the same data may be different
 Difficulty in accessing data
 Need to write a new program to carry out each new task
 Data isolation – multiple files and formats
 Because data are scattered in various files, and files may be in different formats,
writing the appropriate information to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult
 Integrity problems
 Data values stored in the database must satisfy certain types of consistency
constraints
 Integrity constraints (e.g. account balance > 0) become part of program code
 Those constraints are forced by the database system developer
 Hard to add new constraints or change existing ones
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 Purpose of Databases
Limitations of File Systems

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 Purpose of Databases
Limitations of File Systems

 Solution: The Database Approach

 Central repository of shared data

 Data is managed by a controlling agent
 Stored a standardized, convenient form

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 Purpose of Databases
Limitations of File Systems

 Drawbacks of using file systems to store data

 Atomicity of updates
 Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with partial
updates carried out
 E.g. transfer of funds from one account to another should either
complete or not happen at all (solved by Transaction Processing)
 Concurrent access by multiple users
 Concurrent accessed needed for performance
 Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
• E.g. two people reading a balance and updating it at the same time
 Security problems
 Not every users of the database should be able to access all the data
Database system offer solutions to all previous problems
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 View of Data in a Database

)‫ الصورة التى سوف نرى بها قاعدة البيانات (حسب طبيعة التعامل‬

 Recall that

A database management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and a

set of programs to access and modify those data.

 A major purpose of a database system is to provide users with an abstract

view of data

 The system hides certain details of how the data are stored and
maintained

‫ النظام يعطي للمستخدم صورة مجردة للبيانات ويخفي عنه التفاصيل التى ال تهمه وال تخصه (مثل عملية تخزين‬
)‫البيانات والتعامل معها‬

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 View of Data in a Database
The need for Data Abstraction

 The objective of data abstraction is to simplify the interaction with the database
from the user perspective

 Most of database users are not computer trained

 However, more complexity from the design perspective

 Complex data structure to represent data

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 View of Data in a Database
Data Abstraction Levels

 Physical Level: describes how the data is actually stored

 Describes low level data structures
 Logical Level: describes what data are stored in the database and what
relationships exist between data
 View Level: describes only part of the entire database to the users.

What to store

How to store

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 View of Data in a Database
Analogy with data types in programming

 Consider high level programming

 Physical Level: block of consecutive storage locations (e.g. bytes)
 The compiler hides this level of details from programmers
 Logical Level: each record is described by a type definition
 Programmers work at this level of abstraction
 Similar to database administrator
 View Level: computer users only see a set of applications without details on data types
 Similar to users of database
 E.g. some database users are not allowed to see the salary of workers for security
reasons.

type customer = record

name: string;
street: string;
city: integer;
end;
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 Data Models

 Definition
 The Data Model: a collection of conceptual tools for describing
 Data
 Data relationship
 Data semantics )‫(دالالت البيانات أو معانيها‬
 Consistency constraints
 A data model provide a way to describe the design of a database at the physical,
logical and view level

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 Data Models

 Definition
 Data models can be classified in four categories
1. Relational model
2. The Entity-Relation model
3. Object-based Data model
4. Other models: network model, hierarchical model

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 Data Models

 The Relational Model: uses a collection of tables to represent both data and
the relationship among those data.

 Each table has multiple column and each column has a unique name (Attribute)

 The most widely used as a data model for databases

 Vast majority of current database systems are based on the relational model

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 Data Models

 The Entity-Relationship (E-R) Model: it is based on the perception of a real

word that consists of a collection basic objects called entities and of
relationships among those objects.

 An entity is a “thing” or “object” from the real world that is distinguishable from other
objects.

 E.g. customers account bank branch

 A relationship is an association among several entities

 E.g. the account Ac1234 is held by the customer Mr. Abdullah

 This model is also widely used in database design

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 Database Users

 People who work with a database can be categorized as

 Database users or

 Database administrators

 Users are differentiated by the way they expect to interact with the system

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 Database Administrators

 The Database Administrators (DBA) Coordinates all the activities of the

database system
 The DBA has a good understanding of the enterprise’s information resources
and needs
 The DBA has central control over the system
 Database administrator’s duties include:
 Schema definition, specifying integrity constraints
 Storage structure and access method definition
 Granting user authority to access the database
 Acting as liaison with users )‫(العمل كحلقة وصل مع المستخدمين‬
 Routine maintenance (DB backup, ensuring free space for the database,
etc….)

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 Transaction Management

 A transaction is a collection of operations that performs a single logical

function in a database application
 E.g. Money transfer from an account to another
 Each transaction must satisfy the following properties:
 Atomicity: all-or-none, which means that the transaction successfully
completes if and only if all the tasks of the transaction are successfully
completed
 E.g. in case of a money transfer, the transaction is valid both debit and
credit operation occur.
 Consistency: the final state of the system must be correct and
compatible with the previous status before the transaction is made.
 E.g. after a credit transaction, the balance must be update accordingly
to the operation
 Durability: the value in the database must persist, even in case of a
system failure

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 Database System Structure

 A database system has several sub-system

 Transaction Manager
 Responsible for ensuring that the database remains in a consistent
(correct) state despite system failure.
 Ensures that concurrent transaction execution proceed without
conflicting
 Query Processor
 Compile and executes DDL and DML statement
 Storage Manager
 Provide the interface between the low-level data stored in the database
and the application programs and queries submitted to the system.

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 Application Architectures

 (Most of) Database systems are accessed remotely through a network

 The Client/Server Model
 Client machines, on which remote database users work
 Server machines, on which the database system runs

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 Application Architectures

 Two-Tiered Architecture
 The application is partitioned into a component that resides at the client machine.
 It remotely invokes the database server machine through query languages statements
 E.g. using ODBC, JDBC for interaction between the client and the server
 Three-Tiered Architecture
 The client machine acts as a front-end and does not contain any direct database calls
 The client machine communication with the application server through an interface of
forms (not direct queries)
 The application server communicate with a database system to access data
‫ أنه عند الحاجة لتعديل‬Two-T ‫• مشاكل الـ‬
‫ فإن التعديل سيتم على كل الـ‬function ‫أي‬
(Update) .clients
‫ يجب‬client ‫• والمشكلة األخرى أن جهاز الـ‬
‫أن يكون بإمكانيات كبيرة (وهذا غير‬
‫ ) ألن المخدم‬THREE-T ‫مطلوب في الـ‬
.‫بإمكانات قوية والعمل يكون عليه‬

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 Instances and Schemas

 Instance of a database
 The collection of information stored in the database at a particular moment
is called an instance )‫(صورة من قاعدة البيانات في لحظة معينة‬
 Schema of database
 The overall design of the database is called schema. ‫(تركيب ووصف قاعدة‬
)‫البيانات‬
 Physical Schema
 Describes the data design at the physical level
 Logical Schema
 Describes the data design at the logical level

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