1) ACID Properties in DBMS:

DBMS is the management of data that should remain integrated when any changes are done in
it. It is because if the integrity of the data is affected, whole data will get disturbed and corrupted.
Therefore, to maintain the integrity of the data, there are four properties described in the database
management system, which are known as the ACID properties. The ACID properties are meant
for the transaction that goes through a different group of tasks, and there we come to see the role
of the ACID properties.

In this section, we will learn and understand about the ACID properties. We will learn what these
properties stand for and what does each property is used for. We will also understand the ACID
properties with the help of some examples.

ACID Properties

The expansion of the term ACID defines for:

1) Atomicity

The term atomicity defines that the data remains atomic. It means if any operation is performed
on the data, either it should be performed or executed completely or should not be executed at
all. It further means that the operation should not break in between or execute partially. In the
case of executing operations on the transaction, the operation should be completely executed
and not partially.

Example: If Remo has account A having $30 in his account from which he wishes to send $10 to
Sheero's account, which is B. In account B, a sum of $ 100 is already present. When $10 will be
transferred to account B, the sum will become $110. Now, there will be two operations that will
take place. One is the amount of $10 that Remo wants to transfer will be debited from his account
A, and the same amount will get credited to account B, i.e., into Sheero's account. Now, what
happens - the first operation of debit executes successfully, but the credit operation, however,
fails. Thus, in Remo's account A, the value becomes $20, and to that of Sheero's account, it
remains $100 as it was previously present.

In the above diagram, it can be seen that after crediting $10, the amount is still $100 in account
B. So, it is not an atomic transaction.

The below image shows that both debit and credit operations are done successfully. Thus the
transaction is atomic.
Thus, when the amount loses atomicity, then in the bank systems, this becomes a huge issue,
and so the atomicity is the main focus in the bank systems.

2) Consistency

The word consistency means that the value should remain preserved always. In DBMS, the
integrity of the data should be maintained, which means if a change in the database is made, it
should remain preserved always. In the case of transactions, the integrity of the data is very
essential so that the database remains consistent before and after the transaction. The data
should always be correct.

Example:

In the above figure, there are three accounts, A, B, and C, where A is making a transaction T one
by one to both B & C. There are two operations that take place, i.e., Debit and Credit. Account A
firstly debits $50 to account B, and the amount in account A is read $300 by B before the
transaction. After the successful transaction T, the available amount in B becomes $150. Now, A
debits $20 to account C, and that time, the value read by C is $250 (that is correct as a debit of
$50 has been successfully done to B). The debit and credit operation from account A to C has
been done successfully. We can see that the transaction is done successfully, and the value is
also read correctly. Thus, the data is consistent. In case the value read by B and C is $300, which
means that data is inconsistent because when the debit operation executes, it will not be
consistent.

3) Isolation

The term 'isolation' means separation. In DBMS, Isolation is the property of a database where no
data should affect the other one and may occur concurrently. In short, the operation on one
database should begin when the operation on the first database gets complete. It means if two
operations are being performed on two different databases, they may not affect the value of one
another. In the case of transactions, when two or more transactions occur simultaneously, the
consistency should remain maintained. Any changes that occur in any particular transaction will
not be seen by other transactions until the change is not committed in the memory.

Example: If two operations are concurrently running on two different accounts, then the value of
both accounts should not get affected. The value should remain persistent. As you can see in the
below diagram, account A is making T1 and T2 transactions to account B and C, but both are
executing independently without affecting each other. It is known as Isolation.

4) Durability

Durability ensures the permanency of something. In DBMS, the term durability ensures that the
data after the successful execution of the operation becomes permanent in the database. The
durability of the data should be so perfect that even if the system fails or leads to a crash, the
database still survives. However, if gets lost, it becomes the responsibility of the recovery
manager for ensuring the durability of the database. For committing the values, the COMMIT
command must be used every time we make changes.

Therefore, the ACID property of DBMS plays a vital role in maintaining the consistency and
availability of data in the database.

Thus, it was a precise introduction of ACID properties in DBMS. We have discussed these
properties in the transaction section also.
 2) DBMS Concurrency Control:
Concurrency Control is the management procedure that is required for controlling concurrent
execution of the operations that take place on a database.

But before knowing about concurrency control, we should know about concurrent execution.

Concurrent Execution in DBMS

o In a multi-user system, multiple users can access and use the same database at one time,
which is known as the concurrent execution of the database. It means that the same
database is executed simultaneously on a multi-user system by different users.
o While working on the database transactions, there occurs the requirement of using the
database by multiple users for performing different operations, and in that case,
concurrent execution of the database is performed.
o The thing is that the simultaneous execution that is performed should be done in an
interleaved manner, and no operation should affect the other executing operations, thus
maintaining the consistency of the database. Thus, on making the concurrent execution
of the transaction operations, there occur several challenging problems that need to be
solved.

Problems with Concurrent Execution

In a database transaction, the two main operations are READ and WRITE operations. So, there
is a need to manage these two operations in the concurrent execution of the transactions as if
these operations are not performed in an interleaved manner, and the data may become
inconsistent. So, the following problems occur with the Concurrent Execution of the operations:

Problem 1: Lost Update Problems (W - W Conflict)

The problem occurs when two different database transactions perform the read/write operations
on the same database items in an interleaved manner (i.e., concurrent execution) that makes the
values of the items incorrect hence making the database inconsistent.

For example:

Consider the below diagram where two transactions TX and TY, are performed on the same
account A where the balance of account A is $300.
 o At time t1, transaction TX reads the value of account A, i.e., $300 (only read).
o At time t2, transaction TX deducts $50 from account A that becomes $250 (only deducted
and not updated/write).
o Alternately, at time t3, transaction TY reads the value of account A that will be $300 only
because TX didn't update the value yet.
o At time t4, transaction TY adds $100 to account A that becomes $400 (only added but not
updated/write).
o At time t6, transaction TX writes the value of account A that will be updated as $250 only,
as TY didn't update the value yet.
o Similarly, at time t7, transaction TY writes the values of account A, so it will write as done
at time t4 that will be $400. It means the value written by TX is lost, i.e., $250 is lost.

Hence data becomes incorrect, and database sets to inconsistent.

Dirty Read Problems (W-R Conflict)

The dirty read problem occurs when one transaction updates an item of the database, and
somehow the transaction fails, and before the data gets rollback, the updated database item is
accessed by another transaction. There comes the Read-Write Conflict between both
transactions.

For example:
Consider two transactions TX and TY in the below diagram performing read/write
operations on account A where the available balance in account A is $300:

o At time t1, transaction TX reads the value of account A, i.e., $300.

o At time t2, transaction TX adds $50 to account A that becomes $350.
o At time t3, transaction TX writes the updated value in account A, i.e., $350.
o Then at time t4, transaction TY reads account A that will be read as $350.
o Then at time t5, transaction TX rollbacks due to server problem, and the value changes
back to $300 (as initially).
o But the value for account A remains $350 for transaction TY as committed, which is the
dirty read and therefore known as the Dirty Read Problem.

Unrepeatable Read Problem (W-R Conflict)

Also known as Inconsistent Retrievals Problem that occurs when in a transaction, two different
values are read for the same database item.

For example:

Consider two transactions, TX and TY, performing the read/write operations on account A,
having an available balance = $300. The diagram is shown below:
 o At time t1, transaction TX reads the value from account A, i.e., $300.
o At time t2, transaction TY reads the value from account A, i.e., $300.
o At time t3, transaction TY updates the value of account A by adding $100 to the available
balance, and then it becomes $400.
o At time t4, transaction TY writes the updated value, i.e., $400.
o After that, at time t5, transaction TX reads the available value of account A, and that will
be read as $400.
o It means that within the same transaction TX, it reads two different values of account A,
i.e., $ 300 initially, and after updation made by transaction T Y, it reads $400. It is an
unrepeatable read and is therefore known as the Unrepeatable read problem.

Thus, in order to maintain consistency in the database and avoid such problems that take place
in concurrent execution, management is needed, and that is where the concept of Concurrency
Control comes into role.

Concurrency Control

Concurrency Control is the working concept that is required for controlling and managing the
concurrent execution of database operations and thus avoiding the inconsistencies in the
database. Thus, for maintaining the concurrency of the database, we have the concurrency
control protocols.
Concurrency Control Protocols

The concurrency control protocols ensure the atomicity, consistency, isolation,

durability and serializability of the concurrent execution of the database transactions. Therefore,
these protocols are categorized as:

o Lock Based Concurrency Control Protocol

o Time Stamp Concurrency Control Protocol
o Validation Based Concurrency Control Protocol

3) Lock-Based Protocol:
In this type of protocol, any transaction cannot read or write data until it acquires an appropriate
lock on it. There are two types of lock:

1. Shared lock:

o It is also known as a Read-only lock. In a shared lock, the data item can only read by the
transaction.
o It can be shared between the transactions because when the transaction holds a lock,
then it can't update the data on the data item.

2. Exclusive lock:

o In the exclusive lock, the data item can be both reads as well as written by the transaction.
o This lock is exclusive, and in this lock, multiple transactions do not modify the same data
simultaneously.

There are four types of lock protocols available:

1. Simplistic lock protocol

It is the simplest way of locking the data while transaction. Simplistic lock-based protocols allow
all the transactions to get the lock on the data before insert or delete or update on it. It will unlock
the data item after completing the transaction.

2. Pre-claiming Lock Protocol

o Pre-claiming Lock Protocols evaluate the transaction to list all the data items on which
they need locks.
o Before initiating an execution of the transaction, it requests DBMS for all the lock on all
those data items.
 o If all the locks are granted then this protocol allows the transaction to begin. When the
transaction is completed then it releases all the lock.
o If all the locks are not granted then this protocol allows the transaction to rolls back and
waits until all the locks are granted.

3. Two-phase locking (2PL)

o The two-phase locking protocol divides the execution phase of the transaction into three
parts.
o In the first part, when the execution of the transaction starts, it seeks permission for the
lock it requires.
o In the second part, the transaction acquires all the locks. The third phase is started as
soon as the transaction releases its first lock.
o In the third phase, the transaction cannot demand any new locks. It only releases the
acquired locks.
There are two phases of 2PL:

Growing phase: In the growing phase, a new lock on the data item may be acquired by the
transaction, but none can be released.

Shrinking phase: In the shrinking phase, existing lock held by the transaction may be released,
but no new locks can be acquired.

In the below example, if lock conversion is allowed then the following phase can happen:

1. Upgrading of lock (from S(a) to X (a)) is allowed in growing phase.

2. Downgrading of lock (from X(a) to S(a)) must be done in shrinking phase.

Example:

The following way shows how unlocking and locking work with 2-PL.

Transaction T1:

o Growing phase: from step 1-3

o Shrinking phase: from step 5-7
o Lock point: at 3

Transaction T2:
 o Growing phase: from step 2-6
o Shrinking phase: from step 8-9
o Lock point: at 6

4. Strict Two-phase locking (Strict-2PL)

o The first phase of Strict-2PL is similar to 2PL. In the first phase, after acquiring all the
locks, the transaction continues to execute normally.
o The only difference between 2PL and strict 2PL is that Strict-2PL does not release a lock
after using it.
o Strict-2PL waits until the whole transaction to commit, and then it releases all the locks at
a time.
o Strict-2PL protocol does not have shrinking phase of lock release.

It does not have cascading abort as 2PL does.

4) Deadlock in DBMS
A deadlock is a condition where two or more transactions are waiting indefinitely for one another
to give up locks. Deadlock is said to be one of the most feared complications in DBMS as no task
ever gets finished and is in waiting state forever.

For example: In the student table, transaction T1 holds a lock on some rows and needs to update
some rows in the grade table. Simultaneously, transaction T2 holds locks on some rows in the
grade table and needs to update the rows in the Student table held by Transaction T1.

Now, the main problem arises. Now Transaction T1 is waiting for T2 to release its lock and
similarly, transaction T2 is waiting for T1 to release its lock. All activities come to a halt state and
remain at a standstill. It will remain in a standstill until the DBMS detects the deadlock and aborts
one of the transactions.

Deadlock Avoidance

o When a database is stuck in a deadlock state, then it is better to avoid the database rather
than aborting or restating the database. This is a waste of time and resource.
o Deadlock avoidance mechanism is used to detect any deadlock situation in advance. A
method like "wait for graph" is used for detecting the deadlock situation but this method is
suitable only for the smaller database. For the larger database, deadlock prevention
method can be used.

Deadlock Detection

In a database, when a transaction waits indefinitely to obtain a lock, then the DBMS should detect
whether the transaction is involved in a deadlock or not. The lock manager maintains a Wait for
the graph to detect the deadlock cycle in the database.

Wait for Graph

o This is the suitable method for deadlock detection. In this method, a graph is created
based on the transaction and their lock. If the created graph has a cycle or closed loop,
then there is a deadlock.
o The wait for the graph is maintained by the system for every transaction which is waiting
for some data held by the others. The system keeps checking the graph if there is any
cycle in the graph.
The wait for a graph for the above scenario is shown below:

Deadlock Prevention

o Deadlock prevention method is suitable for a large database. If the resources are allocated
in such a way that deadlock never occurs, then the deadlock can be prevented.
o The Database management system analyzes the operations of the transaction whether
they can create a deadlock situation or not. If they do, then the DBMS never allowed that
transaction to be executed.

Wait-Die scheme

In this scheme, if a transaction requests for a resource which is already held with a conflicting
lock by another transaction then the DBMS simply checks the timestamp of both transactions. It
allows the older transaction to wait until the resource is available for execution.

Let's assume there are two transactions Ti and Tj and let TS(T) is a timestamp of any transaction
T. If T2 holds a lock by some other transaction and T1 is requesting for resources held by T2 then
the following actions are performed by DBMS:

1. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is the older transaction and Tj has held some resource, then
Ti is allowed to wait until the data-item is available for execution. That means if the older
transaction is waiting for a resource which is locked by the younger transaction, then the
older transaction is allowed to wait for resource until it is available.
2. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is older transaction and has held some resource and if Tj is
waiting for it, then Tj is killed and restarted later with the random delay but with the same
timestamp.
Wound wait scheme
o In wound wait scheme, if the older transaction requests for a resource which is held by
the younger transaction, then older transaction forces younger one to kill the transaction
and release the resource. After the minute delay, the younger transaction is restarted but
with the same timestamp.
o If the older transaction has held a resource which is requested by the Younger transaction,
then the younger transaction is asked to wait until older releases it.

5) States of Transaction
In a database, the transaction can be in one of the following states -

Active state
o The active state is the first state of every transaction. In this state, the transaction is being
executed.
o For example: Insertion or deletion or updating a record is done here. But all the records
are still not saved to the database.

Partially committed
o In the partially committed state, a transaction executes its final operation, but the data is
still not saved to the database.
o In the total mark calculation example, a final display of the total marks step is executed in
this state.

Committed

A transaction is said to be in a committed state if it executes all its operations successfully. In this
state, all the effects are now permanently saved on the database system.
Failed state
o If any of the checks made by the database recovery system fails, then the transaction is
said to be in the failed state.
o In the example of total mark calculation, if the database is not able to fire a query to fetch
the marks, then the transaction will fail to execute.

Aborted
o If any of the checks fail and the transaction has reached a failed state then the database
recovery system will make sure that the database is in its previous consistent state. If not
then it will abort or roll back the transaction to bring the database into a consistent state.
o If the transaction fails in the middle of the transaction then before executing the
transaction, all the executed transactions are rolled back to its consistent state.
o After aborting the transaction, the database recovery module will select one of the two
operations:
1. Re-start the transaction
2. Kill the transaction