Database Development

Database Development: Contents

1. Database management systems
2. Relational database management systems
3. Post-relational database models
4. Object database models
5. DBMS internals
6. Storage and physical database design
7. Indexing
8. Transactions and concurrency
9. Replication
10. Security
11. Locking
12. Architecture
13. Applications of databases
    

Database Development: Database management systems

Main article: Database management system

Database Development: Relational database management systems

An RDBMS implements the features of the relational model outlined above. In this context, Date's Information Principle states:

The entire information content of the database is represented in one and only one way. Namely as explicit values in column positions (attributes) and rows in relations (tuples) Therefore, there are no explicit pointers between related tables.

Database Development: Post-relational database models

Several products have been identified as post-relational because the data model incorporates relations but is not constrained by the Information Principle, requiring that all information is represented by data values in relations. Products using a post-relational data model typically employ a model that actually pre-dates the relational model. These might be identified as a directed graph with trees on the nodes.

Examples of models that could be classified as post-relational are PICK aka MultiValue, and MUMPS.

Database Development: Object database models

In recent years, the object-oriented paradigm has been applied to database technology, creating a new programming model known as object databases. These databases attempt to bring the database world and the application programming world closer together, in particular by ensuring that the database uses the same type system as the application program. This aims to avoid the overhead (sometimes referred to as the impedance mismatch) of converting information between its representation in the database (for example as rows in tables) and its representation in the application program (typically as objects). At the same time, object databases attempt to introduce the key ideas of object programming, such as encapsulation and polymorphism, into the world of databases.

A variety of these ways have been tried for storing objects in a database. Some products have approached the problem from the application programming end, by making the objects manipulated by the program persistent. This also typically requires the addition of some kind of query language, since conventional programming languages do not have the ability to find objects based on their information content. Others have attacked the problem from the database end, by defining an object-oriented data model for the database, and defining a database programming language that allows full programming capabilities as well as traditional query facilities.

Database Development: DBMS internals

Database Development: Storage and physical database design

Main article: Database storage structures
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)

Database tables/indexes are typically stored in memory or on hard disk in one of many forms, ordered/unordered flat files, ISAM, heaps, hash buckets or B+ trees. These have various advantages and disadvantages discussed further in the main article on this topic. The most commonly used are B+ trees and ISAM.

Other important design choices relate to the clustering of data by category (such as grouping data by month, or location), creating pre-computed views known as materialized views, partitioning data by range or hash. As well memory management and storage topology can be important design choices for database designers. Just as normalization is used to reduce storage requirements and improve the extensibility of the database, conversely denormalization is often used to reduce join complexity and reduce execution time for queries. [1]

Database Development: Indexing

All of these databases can take advantage of indexing to increase their speed. This technology has advanced tremendously since its early uses in the 1960s and 1970s. The most common kind of index is a sorted list of the contents of some particular table column, with pointers to the row associated with the value. An index allows a set of table rows matching some criterion to be located quickly. Typically, indexes are also stored in the various forms of data-structure mentioned above (such as B-trees, hashes, and linked lists). Usually, a specific technique is chosen by the database designer to increase efficiency in the particular case of the type of index required.

Relational DBMS's have the advantage that indexes can be created or dropped without changing existing applications making use of it. The database chooses between many different strategies based on which one it estimates will run the fastest. In other words, indexes are transparent to the application or end-user querying the database; while they affect performance, any SQL command will run with or without index to compute the result of an SQL statement. The RDBMS will produce a plan of how to execute the query, which is generated by analyzing the run times of the different algorithms and selecting the quickest. Some of the key algorithms that deal with joins are nested loop join, sort-merge join and hash join. Which of these is chosen depends on whether an index exists, what type it is, and its cardinality.

An index speeds up access to data, but it has disadvantages as well. First, every index increases the amount of storage on the hard drive necessary for the database file, and second, the index must be updated each time the data are altered, and this costs time. (Thus an index saves time in the reading of data, but it costs time in entering and altering data. It thus depends on the use to which the data are to be put whether an index is on the whole a net plus or minus in the quest for efficiency.)

A special case of an index is a primary index, or primary key, which is distinguished in that the primary index must ensure a unique reference to a record. Often, for this purpose one simply uses a running index number (ID number). Primary indexes play a significant role in relational databases, and they can speed up access to data considerably.

Database Development: Transactions and concurrency

In addition to their data model, most practical databases ("transactional databases") attempt to enforce a database transaction . Ideally, the database software should enforce the ACID rules, summarized here:

Atomicity: Either all the tasks in a transaction must be done, or none of them. The transaction must be completed, or else it must be undone (rolled back).
Consistency: Every transaction must preserve the integrity constraints — the declared consistency rules — of the database. It cannot place the data in a contradictory state.
Isolation: Two simultaneous transactions cannot interfere with one another. Intermediate results within a transaction are not visible to other transactions.
Durability: Completed transactions cannot be aborted later or their results discarded. They must persist through (for instance) restarts of the DBMS after crashes
In practice, many DBMSs allow most of these rules to be selectively relaxed for better performance.

Concurrency control is a method used to ensure that transactions are executed in a safe manner and follow the ACID rules. The DBMS must be able to ensure that only serializable, recoverable schedules are allowed, and that no actions of committed transactions are lost while undoing aborted transactions.

Database Development: Replication

Replication of databases is closely related to transactions. If a database can log its individual actions, it is possible to create a duplicate of the data in real time. The duplicate can be used to improve performance or availability of the whole database system. Common replication concepts include:

Master/Slave Replication: All write requests are performed on the master and then replicated to the slaves

Quorum: The result of Read and Write requests are calculated by querying a "majority" of replicas.

Multimaster: Two or more replicas sync each other via a transaction identifier.
Parallel synchronous replication of databases enables transactions to be replicated on multiple servers simultaneously, which provides a method for backup and security as well as data availability.

Database Development: Security

Database security denotes the system, processes, and procedures that protect a database from unintended activity.

Security is usually enforced through access control, auditing, and encryption.

Access control ensures and restricts who can connect and what can be done to the database.

Auditing logs what action or change has been performed, when and by whom.
Encryption: Since security has become a major issue in recent years, many commercial database vendors provide built-in encryption mechanism. Data is encoded natively into the tables and deciphered "on the fly" when a query comes in. Connections can also be secured and encrypted if required using DSA, MD5, SSL or legacy encryption standard.
Enforcing security is one of the major tasks of the DBA.

In the United Kingdom, legislation protecting the public from unauthorized disclosure of personal information held on databases falls under the Office of the Information Commissioner. United Kingdom based organizations holding personal data in electronic format (databases for example) are required to register with the Data Commissioner.[2]

Database Development: Locking

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)

Locking is how the database handles multiple concurrent operations. This is how concurrency and some form of basic integrity is managed within the database system. Such locks can be applied on a row level, or on other levels like page (a basic data block), extend (multiple array of pages) or even an entire table. This helps maintain the integrity of the data by ensuring that only one process at a time can modify the same data.

Unlike a basic filesystem files or folders, where only one lock at the time can be set, restricting the usage to one process only. A database can set and hold mutiple locks at the same time on the different level of the physical data structure. How locks are set, last is determined by the database engine locking scheme based on the submitted SQL or transactions by the users. Generally speaking, no activity on the database should be translated by no or very light locking.

For most DBMS systems existing on the market, locks are generally shared or exclusive. Exclusive locks mean that no other lock can acquire the current data object as long as the exclusive lock lasts. Exclusive locks are usually set while the database needs to change data, like during an UPDATE or DELETE operation.

Shared locks can take ownership one from the other of the current data structure. Shared locks are usually used while the database is reading data, during a SELECT operation. The number, nature of locks and time the lock holds a data block can have a huge impact on the database performances. Bad locking can lead to disastrous performance response (usually the result of poor SQL requests, or inadequate database physical structure)

Default locking behavior is enforced by the isolation level of the dataserver. Changing the isolation level will affect how shared or exclusive locks must be set on the data for the entire database system. Default isolation is generally 1, where data can not be read while it is modified, forbidding to return "ghost data" to end user.

At some point intensive or inappropriate exclusive locking, can lead to the "dead lock" situation between two locks. Where none of the locks can be released because they try to acquire resources mutually from each other. The Database has a fail safe mechanism and will automatically "sacrifice" one of the locks releasing the resource. Doing so processes or transactions involved in the "dead lock" will be rolled back.

Databases can also be locked for other reasons, like access restrictions for given levels of user. Databases are also locked for routine database maintenance, which prevents changes being made during the maintenance. See "Locking tables and databases" (section in some documentation / explanation from IBM) for more detail.)

Database Development: Architecture

Depending on the intended use, there are a number of database architectures in use. Many databases use a combination of strategies. On-line Transaction Processing systems (OLTP) often use a row-oriented datastore architecture, while data-warehouse and other retrieval-focused applications like Google's BigTable, or bibliographic database(library catalogue) systems may use a Column-oriented DBMS architecture.

Document-Oriented, XML, Knowledgebases, as well as frame databases and rdf-stores (aka Triple-Stores), may also use a combination of these architectures in their implementation.

Finally it should be noted that not all database have or need a database 'schema' (so called schema-less databases).

Also there are other types of database which cannot be classified as relational databases

Database Development: Applications of databases

Databases are used in many applications, spanning virtually the entire range of computer software. Databases are the preferred method of storage for large multiuser applications, where coordination between many users is needed. Even individual users find them convenient, and many electronic mail programs and personal organizers are based on standard database technology. Software database drivers are available for most database platforms so that application software can use a common Application Programming Interface to retrieve the information stored in a database. Two commonly used database APIs are JDBC and ODBC.