Chapter 20: Database System Architectures

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use

Chapter 20: Database System Architectures

Centralized and Client-Server Systems Server System Architectures Parallel Systems Distributed Systems Network Types

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Centralized Systems
Run on a single computer system and

do not interact with other computer systems.

General-purpose computer system:

one to a few CPUs and a number of device controllers that are

connected through a common bus that provides access to shared memory.

Single-user system (e.g., personal computer or workstation):

desk-top unit, single user, usually has only one CPU and one or two hard disks;

the OS may support only one user.

Multi-user system:

more disks, more memory, multiple CPUs, and a multi-user OS.

Serve a large number of users who are connected to the system via terminals Often called server systems.

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A Centralized Computer System

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Client-Server Systems
Server systems satisfy requests generated at m client systems,

whose general structure is shown below:

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Client-Server Systems
Database functionality can be divided into:

(Cont.)

Back-end: manages access structures, query evaluation and optimization, concurrency control and recovery. Front-end: consists of tools such as forms, report-writers, and graphical user interface facilities.

The interface between the front-end and the back-end is:

through SQL or through an Application Program Interface (API).

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Client-Server Systems (Cont.)

Advantages of replacing mainframes with:

networks of workstations or personal computers

connected to back-end server machines:

better functionality for the cost flexibility in locating resources and expanding facilities

better user interfaces easier maintenance

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Server System Architecture

Server systems can be broadly categorized into two kinds:

transaction servers which are :

widely used in relational database systems,

data servers, used in

object-oriented database systems

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Transaction Servers
Also called query server systems or SQL server systems

Clients send requests to the server Transactions are executed at the server Results are shipped back to the client.

Requests are specified in SQL, and communicated to the server through a

remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism.

Transactional RPC allows many RPC calls to form a transaction.
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a C language application program

interface standard from Microsoft for connecting to a server,

sending SQL requests, and receiving results.

JDBC standard is similar to ODBC, for Java

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Transaction Server Process Structure

A typical transaction server consists of :

multiple processes accessing data in shared memory.

Server processes

These receive user queries (transactions),

execute them and send results back allowing a single process to execute several user queries concurrently

Processes may be multithreaded,

Typically multiple multithreaded server processes

Lock manager process

More on this later

Database writer process

Output modified buffer blocks to disks continually

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Transaction Server Processes (Cont.)

Log writer process

Server processes :

simply add log records to log record buffer outputs log records to stable storage.

Log writer process:

Checkpoint process

Performs periodic checkpoints

Process monitor process

Monitors other processes, and :

takes recovery actions if any of the other processes fail E.g. aborting any transactions being executed by a server process and restarting it

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Transaction System Processes (Cont.)

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Transaction System Processes (Cont.)

Shared memory contains shared data

Buffer pool Lock table Log buffer Cached query plans (reused if same query submitted again)

All database processes can access shared memory To ensure that no two processes are accessing :

the same data structure at the same time, mutual exclusion using either: Operating system semaphores Atomic instructions such as test-and-set

databases systems implement:

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Transaction System Processes (Cont.)

To avoid overhead of

interprocess communication for lock request/grant,

each

database process operates directly on the lock table of sending requests to lock manager process

instead

Lock manager process still used for:

deadlock detection

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Data Servers
Used in high-speed LANs, in cases where:

The clients are comparable in processing power to the server The tasks to be executed are compute intensive.

Data are shipped to clients where:

processing is performed, and then shipped results back to the server.

This architecture requires full back-end functionality at the clients.

Used in many object-oriented database systems Issues:

Page-Shipping versus Item-Shipping

Locking Data Caching Lock Caching
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Data Servers (Cont.)

Page-shipping versus item-shipping

Smaller unit of shipping more messages Worth prefetching related items along with requested item Page shipping can be thought of as a form of prefetching

Locking

Overhead of requesting and getting locks from server is high due to message delays Can grant locks on requested and prefetched items;

with page shipping, transaction is granted lock on whole page.

Locks on a prefetched item can be called back by the server,

and returned by client transaction:

if the prefetched item has not been used.

Locks on the page can be deescalated to locks on items in the page :

when there are lock conflicts. Locks on unused items can then be returned to server.
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Data Servers (Cont.)

Data Caching

Data can be cached at client even in between transactions But check that data is up-to-date before it is used (cache coherency) Check can be done when requesting lock on data item

Lock Caching

Locks can be retained by client system even in between transactions Transactions can acquire cached locks locally, without contacting server Server calls back locks from clients: when it receives conflicting lock request. Client returns lock once no local transaction is using it. Similar to deescalation, but across transactions.

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Parallel Systems
Parallel database systems consist of:

multiple processors and

multiple disks

connected by a fast interconnection network.

A coarse-grain parallel machine consists of:

a small number of powerful processors

A massively parallel or fine grain parallel machine utilizes:

thousands of smaller processors.

Two main performance measures:

Throughput:

the number of tasks that can be completed in a given time interval the amount of time it takes to complete a single task from the time it is submitted

response time:

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Speed-Up and Scale-Up

Speedup:

a fixed-sized problem executing on a small system is:

given to a system which is N-times larger.

Measured by:

speedup = small system elapsed time

large system elapsed time

Speedup is linear if equation equals N.

Scaleup:

increase the size of both the problem and the system

N-times larger system used to perform N-times larger job Measured by:

scaleup = small system small problem elapsed time

big system big problem elapsed time

Scale up is linear if equation equals 1.

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Speedup

Speedup
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Scaleup

Scaleup
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Batch and Transaction Scaleup

Batch scaleup:

A single large job;

typical of most database queries and scientific simulation.

on N-times larger problem.

Use an N-times larger computer

Transaction scaleup:

Numerous small queries submitted by independent users to a shared database;

typical transaction processing and timesharing systems.

N-times as many users submitting requests (hence, N-times as many requests)

to an N-times larger database, on an N-times larger computer.

Well-suited to parallel execution.

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Factors Limiting Speedup and Scaleup

Speedup and scaleup are often sublinear due to:
Startup costs:

Cost of starting up multiple processes may dominate computation time,

if the degree of parallelism is high.

Interference:

Processes accessing shared resources (e.g.,system bus, disks, or locks)

compete with each other, thus spending time waiting on other processes, rather than performing useful work.

Skew:

Increasing the degree of parallelism

increases the variance in service times of parallely executing tasks. Overall execution time determined by slowest parallel tasks.

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Interconnection Network Architectures

Bus.

System components send data on and receive data from

a single communication bus; Does not scale well with increasing parallelism. Mesh. Components are arranged as nodes in a grid, and each component is connected to all adjacent components Communication links grow with growing number of components, and so scales better. But may require 2n hops to send message to a node (or n with wraparound connections at edge of grid). Hypercube. Components are numbered in binary; components are connected to one another : if their binary representations differ in exactly one bit. n components are connected to log(n) other components and can reach each other via at most log(n) links; reduces communication delays.
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Interconnection Architectures

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Parallel Database Architectures

Shared memory

processors share a common memory

Shared disk

processors share a common disk

Shared nothing

processors share neither a common memory nor common disk

Hierarchical

hybrid of the above architectures

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Parallel Database Architectures

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Shared Memory
Processors and disks have access to a common memory,

typically via a bus

or through an interconnection network.

Extremely efficient communication between processors

data in shared memory can be accessed by any processor

without having to move it using software.

Downside architecture is not scalable beyond 32 or 64 processors

since the bus or the interconnection network becomes a bottleneck

Widely used for lower degrees of parallelism (4 to 8).

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Shared Disk
All processors can directly access all disks

via an interconnection network,

but the processors have private memories.

The memory bus is not a bottleneck Architecture provides a degree of fault-tolerance

if a processor fails, the other processors can take over its tasks

since the database is resident on disks

that are accessible from all processors.

Ex: IBM Sysplex and DEC clusters (now part of Compaq)

running Rdb (now Oracle Rdb) were early commercial users

Downside:

bottleneck now occurs at:

interconnection to the disk subsystem.

Shared-disk systems can scale to a somewhat larger number of processors,

but communication between processors is slower.

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Shared Nothing
Node consists of a processor, memory, and one or more disks. Processors at one node communicate with another processor at another node

using an interconnection network. A node functions as the server for:

the data on the disk or disks the node owns.

Ex: Teradata, Tandem, Oracle-n CUBE Data accessed from local disks (and local memory accesses)

do not pass through interconnection network, thereby minimizing the interference of resource sharing.

Shared-nothing multiprocessors :

can be scaled up to thousands of processors

without interference.

Main drawback: cost of communication and non-local disk access;

sending data involves software interaction at both ends.

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Hierarchical
Combines characteristics of :

shared-memory, shared-disk, and shared-nothing architectures.

Top level is a shared-nothing architecture

nodes connected by an interconnection network, and

do not share disks or memory with each other.

Each node of the system could be:

a shared-memory system with a few processors.

Alternatively, each node could be:

a shared-disk system, and each of the systems sharing a set of disks could be a shared-memory system.

Reduce the complexity of programming such systems by:

distributed virtual-memory architectures Also called non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA)

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Distributed Systems
Data spread over multiple machines

(also referred to as sites or nodes).

Network interconnects the machines Data shared by users on multiple machines

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Distributed Databases
Homogeneous distributed databases

Same software/schema on all sites, data may be partitioned among sites Goal: provide a view of a single database, hiding details of distribution
Heterogeneous distributed databases

Different software/schema on different sites Goal: integrate existing databases to provide useful functionality
Differentiate between local and global transactions

A local transaction accesses data in the single site at which the transaction was initiated. A global transaction either accesses data in a site different from the one at which the transaction was initiated or accesses data in several different sites.

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Trade-offs in Distributed Systems

Sharing data users at one site able to access the data residing at

some other sites.

Autonomy each site is able to retain a degree of control over data

stored locally.
Higher system availability through redundancy data can be

replicated at remote sites, and system can function even if a site fails.
Disadvantage: added complexity required to ensure proper

coordination among sites.

Software development cost. Greater potential for bugs. Increased processing overhead.

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Implementation Issues for Distributed Databases

Atomicity needed even for transactions that update data at multiple sites The two-phase commit protocol (2PC) is used to ensure atomicity

Basic idea: each site executes transaction until just before commit, and

then leaves final decision to a coordinator even if there is a failure while waiting for coordinators decision

Each site must follow decision of coordinator,

2PC is not always appropriate:

other transaction models based on:

persistent messaging, and workflows, are also used.

Distributed concurrency control (and deadlock detection) required

Data items may be replicated to improve data availability Details of above in Chapter 22
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Network Types
Local-area networks (LANs)

composed of processors that are distributed over small geographical areas,

such as a single building or a few adjacent buildings.

Wide-area networks (WANs)

composed of processors distributed over a large geographical area.

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Networks Types

(Cont.)

WANs with continuous connection (e.g. the Internet) are:

needed for implementing distributed database systems

Groupware applications such as Lotus notes:

can work on WANs with discontinuous connection:

Data is replicated. Updates are propagated to replicas periodically. Copies of data may be updated independently. Non-serializable executions can thus result. Resolution is application dependent.

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End of Chapter

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use