Chapter 7:

Distributed Databases and

Client-Server Architectures

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 1

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 2

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 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 3

Distributed Database System
 Advantages
 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).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 4

Distributed Database System
 Advantages (transparency, contd.)
 The EMPLOYEE, PROJECT, and WORKS_ON
tables may be fragmented horizontally and stored
with possible replication as shown below.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 5

Distributed Database System
 Advantages (transparency, contd.)
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 6

Distributed Database System
 Advantages (transparency, contd.)
 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).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 7

Distributed Database System
 Other Advantages
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 8

Distributed Database System
 Other Advantages (contd.)
 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.
 Easier expansion (scalability):
 Allows new nodes (computers) to be added anytime
without chaining the entire configuration.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 9

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
 Vertical Fragmentation

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 10

Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 11

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 12

Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
 Representation
 Horizontal fragmentation
 Each horizontal fragment on a relation can be specified by a
Ci (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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 13

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 14

Data Fragmentation, Replication and
Allocation
 Representation
 Mixed (Hybrid) fragmentation
 A combination of Vertical fragmentation and
Horizontal fragmentation.
 This is achieved by SELECT-PROJECT operations
which is represented by Li(Ci (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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 15

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 16

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 17

Types of Distributed Database Systems
 Homogeneous
 All sites of the database
system have identical Window
setup, i.e., same database Site 5 Unix
system software. Oracle Site 1
Oracle
 The underlying operating Window
system may be different. Site 4 Communications
 For example, all sites run network
Oracle or DB2, or Sybase
or some other database Oracle
system.
Site 3 Site 2
 The underlying operating Linux Oracle Linux Oracle
systems can be a mixture
of Linux, Window, Unix,
etc.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 18

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. Unix Relational Object
Oriented Site 5 Unix
Site 1
Hierarchical
Window
Site 4 Communications
network

Network
Object DBMS
Oriented Site 3 Site 2 Relational
Linux Linux
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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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 20

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 = 3,500 bytes. Dname Dnumber Mgrssn Mgrstartdate
 Q: For each employee, retrieve employee name and
department name Where the employee works.
 Q: Fname,Lname,Dname (Employee Dno = Dnumber Department)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 21

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.

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Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
 Strategies:
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.
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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 23

Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
 Strategies:
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.
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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 24

Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
 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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 25

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:
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. 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 26

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:
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. 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 27

Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
 Now suppose the result site is 2. 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 28

Query Processing in Distributed
Databases
 Semijoin:
 Objective is to reduce the number of tuples in a relation
before transferring it to another site.
 Example execution of Q or Q’:
1. Project the join attributes of Department at site 2, and
transfer them to site 1. For Q, 4 * 100 = 400 bytes are
transferred and for Q’, 9 * 100 = 900 bytes are transferred.
2. Join the transferred file with the Employee relation at site
1, and transfer the required attributes from the resulting file
to site 2. For Q, 34 * 10,000 = 340,000 bytes are
transferred and for Q’, 39 * 100 = 3900 bytes are
transferred.
3. Execute the query by joining the transferred file with
Department and present the result to the user at site 2.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 29

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
 Failure of individual sites
 Communication link failure
 Distributed commit
 Distributed deadlock

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Concurrency Control and Recovery
 Details
 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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Concurrency Control and Recovery
 Details (contd.)
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 32

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
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 33
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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 34

Concurrency Control and Recovery
 Transaction Management
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 35

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 36

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 37

Concurrency Control and Recovery
 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 38

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
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 39
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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 40

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 41

Sum up
 Distributed Database Concepts
 Data Fragmentation, Replication and Allocation
 Types of Distributed Database Systems
 Query Processing
 Concurrency Control and Recovery
 3-Tier Client-Server Architecture

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 25- 42