Chapter 20: Database System Architectures

Version: Oct 5, 2006

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.
Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use

Database System Architectures

Centralized and Client-Server Systems

Server System Architectures

Parallel Systems Distributed Systems Network Types

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 vie terminals. Often called server systems.

A Centralized Computer System

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

structure is shown below:

Client-Server Systems (Cont.)

Database functionality can be divided into:

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.

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

Server System Architecture

Server systems can be broadly categorized into two kinds:

transaction servers which are widely used in relational database systems, and data servers, used in object-oriented database systems

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

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 Processes may be multithreaded, allowing a single process to execute several user queries concurrently Typically multiple multithreaded server processes More on this later Output modified buffer blocks to disks continually

Lock manager process

Database writer process

Transaction Server Processes (Cont.)

Log writer process

Server processes simply add log records to log record buffer

Log writer process outputs log records to stable storage. Performs periodic checkpoints Monitors other processes, and takes recovery actions if any of the other processes fail

Checkpoint process

Process monitor process

E.g. aborting any transactions being executed by a server process and restarting it

Transaction System Processes (Cont.)

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, databases systems implement mutual exclusion using either Operating system semaphores Atomic instructions such as test-and-set
To avoid overhead of interprocess communication for lock

request/grant, each database process operates directly on the lock table instead of sending requests to lock manager process Lock manager process still used for deadlock detection

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

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 P{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.

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.

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 response time --- the amount of time it takes to complete a single task from the time it is submitted

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: large system elapsed time

speedup = small system elapsed time

Speedup is linear if equation equals N. N-times larger system used to perform N-times larger job Measured by: big system big problem elapsed time

Scaleup: increase the size of both the problem and the system

scaleup = small system small problem elapsed time

Scale up is linear if equation equals 1.

Speedup

Speedup

Scaleup

Scaleup

Batch and Transaction Scaleup

Batch scaleup:

A single large job; typical of most decision support queries and scientific simulation. Use an N-times larger computer on N-times larger problem. 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.

Transaction scaleup:

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 of parallely executing tasks.

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.

Interconnection Architectures

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

Parallel Database Architectures

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).

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.

Examples: 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.

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.
Examples: 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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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 the leaves final decision to a coordinator Each site must follow decision of coordinator, even if there is a failure while waiting for coordinators decision

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

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.

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.

End of Chapter

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

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