Chapter six

Distributed Databases
and
Client-Server Architectures

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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

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1. Distributed Database Concepts
 A transaction can be executed by multiple networked
computers in a unified manner.
 A distributed database (DDB) processes Unit of execution (a
transaction) in a distributed manner.
 A distributed database (DDB) can be defined as :
– 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.
– The physical placement of data (files, relations, etc.) which
is not known to the user (distribution transparency).

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• The EMPLOYEE, PROJECT, and WORKS_ON tables
may be fragmented horizontally and stored with possible
replication as shown below.

Remark:
• Each site has a DBMS
– Fragments (replicated or unique).
– Linked by network.
– Can handle local users.
– Participates in at least one global
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requests.
 Advantages of DDB :
i. 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.
ii. 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.
iii. Fragmentation transparency:
• Allows to fragment a relation horizontally (create a subset
of rows of a relation) or vertically (create a subset of
columns of a relation).
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iv. 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.
v. 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.
vi. Easier expansion (scalability):
 Allows new nodes (computers) to be added anytime without
changing the entire configuration.
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 Disadvantages of Distributed Database

i. Complexity- The data replication , failure recovery , network

management …make the system more complex than the central
DBMSs
ii. Cost- Since DDBMS needs more people and more hardware ,
maintaining and running the system can be more expensive than
the centralized system .
iii.Problem of connecting Dissimilar Machine- Additional layers
of operation system software are needed to translate and
coordinate the flow of data between machines.
iv.Data integrity and security problem - Because data maintained
by distributed systems can be accessed at locations in the
network, controlling the integrity of a database can be difficult.

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 2. Data Replication and Fragmentation: Distributed data storage
 There are two approaches to store the relation in the distributed
database : Replication and Fragmentation
I. Data Replication
 The system maintain several identical copies of the relation & store
each copy at a different site
 In general it enhance the performance of read operation and
increase the availability of data to read only transaction. However,
update transactions incur greater overhead
II. Data Fragmentation
– Split a relation into logically related and correct parts.
– The main reasons for fragmenting a relation are
•Efficiency- data that is not needed by the local applications is not
stored
•Parallelism – a transaction can be divided into several subqueries that
operate on fragments which will increase the degree of concurrency
– but reconstruction of the whole relation will require accessing data from all
sites containing part of the relation 8
• A relation can be fragmented in two ways:
 Horizontal fragmentation
• It is a horizontal subset of a relation which contain those
of rows which satisfy selection conditions.
• Consider the Employee relation with selection condition
(DNO = 5). All rows 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.
 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.

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 – 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.
 Representation
 There are three rules that must be followed during fragmentation
 Completeness – if a relation r is decomposed into fragments
r1, r2… rn , each data item that can be found in r must appear
in at least one fragment
 Reconstruction – it must be possible to define a relation
operation that will reconstruct the relation r from fragments
 Disjointness –if a data item di appears in fragment ri , then it
shouldn’t appear in any other fragment

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 3. Types of Distributed Database Systems

• Homogeneous Window
– All sites of the database Site 5 Unix
Oracle Site 1
system have identical Oracle
setup, i.e., same database Window
system software. Site 4 Communications
– The system may have network
little or no local
autonomy Oracle
– The underlying operating Site 3 Site 2
systems can be a mixture Linux Oracle Linux Oracle
of Linux, Window, Unix,
etc.

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• Heterogeneous
– At least one of the database must be from different vendor : two variants
– 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
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Linux Linux
 4. 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: suppose there are three sites. Where the relation Employee at site 1,
Department at Site 2 and no relation at site 3
– Employee at site 1. 10,000 rows. Row size = 100 bytes. Table size = 10 6
bytes.
– Department at Site 2. 100 rows. Row size = 35 bytes. Table size = 3,500
bytes.
– And a query is initiated from S3 to retrieve employees [First Name (15 byte long),
Last name (15 byte long) and Department name (10 byte long) total of 40 bytes]
• Q: For each employee, retrieve employee Fname, Lname, and department
name
• Q: Fname,Lname,Dname (Employee Dno = Dnumber Department)

Fname Minit Lname SSN Bdate Address Sex Salary Superssn Dno

Dname Dnumber Mgrssn Mgrstartdate 13

 Assumption
– The result of this query will have 10,000 rows, assuming
that every employee is related to a department.
– Suppose each result row 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.

• what is your best strategy that can optimize data

transportation cost?

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• Strategies : Minimizing data transfer.
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.
• Transferring employees data from site 1 to site 2: 1,000,000 bytes
• Query result size = 40 * 10,000 = 400,000 bytes.
• Total transfer size = 1,000,000 + 400,000 = 1,400,000 bytes.
3. Transfer Department relation to site 1, execute the join at site
1, and send the result to site 3.
• Data Transfer from site 2 to site 1: 3500 bytes
• Query result size = 40 * 10,000 = 400,000 bytes
• Total bytes transferred = 3500+ 400,000 = 403,500
bytes.
– Preferred approach: strategy 3.
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Example 2 : Consider the query
– Q’: For each department, retrieve the department name ,Fname and LName of
the department manager
• Relational Algebra expression:
–  Fname,Lname,Dname (Employee Department)
Mgrssn = SSN
• The result of this query will have 100 tuples, assuming that every department has
a manager, the execution strategies are:
1. Transfer Employee and Department to the result site and perform 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.
• Site 1-- Site 2: 1,000,000
• Site2-- site3: 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.
Preferred strategy: Choose strategy 3.

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Example 3: Now suppose the result is needed at site2. 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
– Q’ = 4000 + 3500 = 7500 bytes.

 Preferred strategy: Choose strategy 2.

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5. 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.

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– 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.

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5. 1 Distributed Concurrency control
i. 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

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• 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. 21
ii. 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.

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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.

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iii. Concurrency control based on voting:
– There is no primary copy of coordinator.
– Send lock request to sites that have data item.
– If majority of sites grant lock then the requesting transaction
gets the data item.
– Locking information (grant or denied) is sent to all these
sites.
– To avoid unacceptably long wait, a time-out period is defined.
If the requesting transaction does not get any vote
information then the transaction is aborted.

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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

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 three-tier client/server architecture.

Many Web applications use an architecture called the three-tier

architecture, which adds an intermediate layer between the client
and the database server. This intermediate layer called the Web
server. This server plays an intermediary role by storing
business rules(constraints) that are used to access data from the
database server.
It can also improve database security by checking a client's credentials
before forwarding a request to the database server. The intermediate
server accepts requests from the client, processes the request and sends
database commands to the database server, and then acts as a conduit
for passing (partially) processed data from the database server to the
clients

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• 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.
• 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. 27