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SPB 2304 - Database Administration Year III Semester I 2019

This document provides instructions for a university database administration examination. It includes 5 questions covering topics such as database transactions, concurrency control, security, data warehousing, and distributed databases. Question 1 asks students to define a database transaction, describe the output of a sample transaction, and explain the effect of a failed transaction. It also asks about transaction blocking and deadlocking techniques. Question 2 focuses on database design for a hospital prescription system, including ensuring prescriptions are written only by doctors, adding a drug dosage table, and challenges of service-oriented architectures. Question 3 covers transaction processing concepts like two-phase commit, rollbacks, and savepoints. It also asks about online analytical processing (OLAP

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60 views4 pages

SPB 2304 - Database Administration Year III Semester I 2019

This document provides instructions for a university database administration examination. It includes 5 questions covering topics such as database transactions, concurrency control, security, data warehousing, and distributed databases. Question 1 asks students to define a database transaction, describe the output of a sample transaction, and explain the effect of a failed transaction. It also asks about transaction blocking and deadlocking techniques. Question 2 focuses on database design for a hospital prescription system, including ensuring prescriptions are written only by doctors, adding a drug dosage table, and challenges of service-oriented architectures. Question 3 covers transaction processing concepts like two-phase commit, rollbacks, and savepoints. It also asks about online analytical processing (OLAP

Uploaded by

hassan adam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION 2019/2020

YEAR III SEMESTER I EXAMINATION FOR DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF BACHELOR OF


INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
SPB 2304 - Database Administration Year III Semester I 2019

Date: Monday, 9th December 2019 Time: 11.00am – 1.00pm


INSTRUCTIONS: ANSWER QUESTION ONE AND ANY OTHER TWO QUESTIONS

QUESTION ONE (30 MARKS)

a. The following transaction runs in a highly concurrent database application

(for example, sales order processing).

UPDATE customer
SET discount discount+0.03
WHERE customerArea = Kisumu"
COMMIT;
i. Explain the meaning of a database transaction and give two of its functions.
(3marks)
ii. Describe the output of the above transaction. (3 marks)
iii. Assume the UPDATE fails to COMMIT and is unable to fully complete its
execution. Explain the effect this might have on database integrity, assuming
there were no concurrency control mechanisms (3 marks)
b. Using examples explain how database transactions can be
i.Blocked. (2 marks)
ii.Deadlocked (2 marks)

c. Describe two main techniques that can be used to counter or minimise the
impact of deadlocks in a highly concurrent system. (4 marks)
d. Describe an appropriate database security control for each of the following
security threats:
i. SQL injection. (2 marks)
ii. An employee making mistakes while entering data. (2 marks)
iii. A hacker intercepting data sent over the internet. (2 marks)
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e. Using examples from the realm of distributed databases, explain the terms
'replication' and 'fragmentation '. (4 Marks)
f) Discuss three main technical challenges that a database Administrator face (3 Marks)

QUESTION TWO (20 MARKS)

Two tables from a hospital database are as follows: -


Prescription (Prescription-Ref, Prescribed-by-Staff-Ref, Patient-Ref, Medicine-Ref, Quantity,
Frequency, Start-Date, End-Date, Date- Written, Cancelled (Y/N), Cancellation-Authorized-by-
Staff-Ref, Cancellation-Date).
Medicine-Given (Prescription-Ref, Time, Staff-Ref).
NB: The field Frequency in the Prescription table gives the number of times per
day the prescription should be administered.
a) Explain three ways the Database Administrator (DBA) can ensure that prescriptions
are written only by doctors and not by other staff. (6 marks)
b) Nurses need to check that they are not administering an inappropriate dose of
any medicine. A catalogue of permitted drugs and their dosage limits is to be
added to the database. Explain how the three level architecture facilitates
adding this table. (6 marks)
c) Discuss four challenges that a service oriented architecture has on a database
management system. (4marks)
d) Malicious users, such as hackers, can use some of the characteristics of the
SQL language to their advantage.
i. SQL imposes a precedence rule on the use of logical operators: the
AND operator has precedence over the OR operator. Using an
example of your choice, illustrate how this precedence works. (2marks)
ii. Explain how a hacker could take advantage of this precedence rule
during an SQL injection attack. (2marks)

QUESTION THREE (20 MARKS)


You are a data architect bidding for a new contract with a prestigious blue-chip
organization. Part of the selection process is a technical interview. Answer the
following questions from the interview panel.
a. Using your own examples and suitable diagrams, discuss the following transaction
processing concepts:
i. TWO-PHASE COMMIT (2 Marks)
ii. ROLLBACK (2 Marks)
iii. SAVEPOINT (2 Marks)

b. Consider the phrase 'OLAP'. Explain what the term means, the underlying
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concepts involved, any associated benefits or limitations, typical applications
and features along with any additional technical or implementation points
you think appropriate to mention. You should support your discussion with
suitable diagrams and/or examples. (5 Marks)
c. Suppose there are four indexes as follows:
• Indexl (empID)
• Index2 (firstName)
• Index3 (lastName)
• Index4 (salary)
i. Select two indexes from the above list, that if built and available, will
resulting improved performance. Explain you answer (6 marks)
ii. Describe three disadvantages of using indexes (3 marks)

QUESTION FOUR (20 MARKS)

A firm runs a telephone sales service for concert tickets. The service is outsourced to a
number of call centres all of which access the same database. Database integrity must be
maintained and customers' personal details must be kept secure.

a) Explain two reasons why customers' personal details must be kept secure. (2 marks)
b) Identify three ways that unauthorized access to a customer's record might occur.
(3marks)
c) Explain two ways how this (in b above) unauthorized access might be prevented.
(4marks)
d) Explain what is meant by Database Integrity (2marks)
e) Concurrent (simultaneous) access to a data item by more than one transaction
can cause problems. Outline four problems that might be caused by concurrent
access. (4marks)
f) Describe how the locking mechanism works in a database (5marks)

QUESTION FIVE (20 MARKS)

a. Describe the key characteristics of a data warehouse and how it differs in


content, structure and function from an on-line transaction processing (OLTP)
database. You should support your discussion with suitable diagrams and
examples. (10 Marks)
b. i. Discuss two phase commit protocol as used in distributed database
concurrency control (4 Marks)
ii. Using examples discuss the importance of the following components
of a database
I. Recovery management (3 Marks)
II. Security management (3 Marks)

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