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Need for complex and expensive software − DDBMS demands complex and
often expensive software to provide data transparency and co-ordination across
the several sites.
Data integrity − The need for updating data in multiple sites pose problems of
data integrity.
The sites use identical DBMS or DBMS from the same vendor.
Each site is aware of all other sites and cooperates with other sites to process
user requests.
A site may not be aware of other sites and so there is limited co-operation in
processing user requests.
Architectural Models
Some of the common architectural models are −
Fully replicated
Partially replicated
Fragmented
Mixed
Fully Replicated
In this design alternative, at each site, one copy of all the database tables is
stored. Since, each site has its own copy of the entire database, queries are
very fast requiring negligible communication cost. On the contrary, the
massive redundancy in data requires huge cost during update operations.
Hence, this is suitable for systems where a large number of queries is
required to be handled whereas the number of database updates is low.
Partially Replicated
Copies of tables or portions of tables are stored at different sites. The
distribution of the tables is done in accordance to the frequency of access.
This takes into consideration the fact that the frequency of accessing the
tables vary considerably from site to site. The number of copies of the
tables (or portions) depends on how frequently the access queries execute
and the site which generate the access queries.
Fragmented
In this design, a table is divided into two or more pieces referred to as
fragments or partitions, and each fragment can be stored at different sites.
This considers the fact that it seldom happens that all data stored in a table
is required at a given site. Moreover, fragmentation increases parallelism
and provides better disaster recovery. Here, there is only one copy of each
fragment in the system, i.e. no redundant data.
Vertical fragmentation
Horizontal fragmentation
Hybrid fragmentation
Mixed Distribution
This is a combination of fragmentation and partial replications. Here, the
tables are initially fragmented in any form (horizontal or vertical), and then
these fragments are partially replicated across the different sites according
to the frequency of accessing the fragments.
Data Replication
Data replication is the process of storing separate copies of the database at
two or more sites. It is a popular fault tolerance technique of distributed
databases.
Reduction in Network Load − Since local copies of data are available, query
processing can be done with reduced network usage, particularly during prime
hours. Data updating can be done at non-prime hours.
Increased Cost and Complexity of Data Updating − Each time a data item
is updated, the update needs to be reflected in all the copies of the data at the
different sites. This requires complex synchronization techniques and protocols.
Undesirable Application – Database coupling − If complex update
mechanisms are not used, removing data inconsistency requires complex co-
ordination at application level. This results in undesirable application – database
coupling.
Snapshot replication
Near-real-time replication
Pull replication
Fragmentation
Fragmentation is the task of dividing a table into a set of smaller tables. The
subsets of the table are called fragments. Fragmentation can be of three
types: horizontal, vertical, and hybrid (combination of horizontal and
vertical). Horizontal fragmentation can further be classified into two
techniques: primary horizontal fragmentation and derived horizontal
fragmentation.
Advantages of Fragmentation
Since data is stored close to the site of usage, efficiency of the database system
is increased.
Local query optimization techniques are sufficient for most queries since data is
locally available.
Since irrelevant data is not available at the sites, security and privacy of the
database system can be maintained.
Disadvantages of Fragmentation
When data from different fragments are required, the access speeds may be
very high.
In case of recursive fragmentations, the job of reconstruction will need
expensive techniques.
Lack of back-up copies of data in different sites may render the database
ineffective in case of failure of a site.
Vertical Fragmentation
In vertical fragmentation, the fields or columns of a table are grouped into
fragments. In order to maintain reconstructiveness, each fragment should
contain the primary key field(s) of the table. Vertical fragmentation can be
used to enforce privacy of data.
For example, let us consider that a University database keeps records of all
registered students in a Student table having the following schema.
STUDENT
Now, the fees details are maintained in the accounts section. In this case,
the designer will fragment the database as follows −
FROM STUDENT;
Horizontal Fragmentation
Horizontal fragmentation groups the tuples of a table in accordance to
values of one or more fields. Horizontal fragmentation should also confirm
to the rule of reconstructiveness. Each horizontal fragment must have all
columns of the original base table.
CREATE COMP_STD AS
SELECT * FROM STUDENT
Hybrid Fragmentation
In hybrid fragmentation, a combination of horizontal and vertical
fragmentation techniques are used. This is the most flexible fragmentation
technique since it generates fragments with minimal extraneous
information. However, reconstruction of the original table is often an
expensive task.
Location transparency
Fragmentation transparency
Replication transparency
Location Transparency
Location transparency ensures that the user can query on any table(s) or
fragment(s) of a table as if they were stored locally in the user’s site. The
fact that the table or its fragments are stored at remote site in the
distributed database system, should be completely oblivious to the end
user. The address of the remote site(s) and the access mechanisms are
completely hidden.
Fragmentation Transparency
Fragmentation transparency enables users to query upon any table as if it
were unfragmented. Thus, it hides the fact that the table the user is
querying on is actually a fragment or union of some fragments. It also
conceals the fact that the fragments are located at diverse sites.
This is somewhat similar to users of SQL views, where the user may not
know that they are using a view of a table instead of the table itself.
Replication Transparency
Replication transparency ensures that replication of databases are hidden
from the users. It enables users to query upon a table as if only a single
copy of the table exists.
Combination of Transparencies
In any distributed database system, the designer should ensure that all the
stated transparencies are maintained to a considerable extent. The designer
may choose to fragment tables, replicate them and store them at different
sites; all oblivious to the end user. However, complete distribution
transparency is a tough task and requires considerable design efforts.
Authentication
Access rights
Integrity constraints
Authentication
In a distributed database system, authentication is the process through
which only legitimate users can gain access to the data resources.
Access Rights
A user’s access rights refers to the privileges that the user is given
regarding DBMS operations such as the rights to create a table, drop a
table, add/delete/update tuples in a table or query upon the table.
In distributed environments, since there are large number of tables and yet
larger number of users, it is not feasible to assign individual access rights to
users. So, DDBMS defines certain roles. A role is a construct with certain
privileges within a database system. Once the different roles are defined,
the individual users are assigned one of these roles. Often a hierarchy of
roles are defined according to the organization’s hierarchy of authority and
responsibility.
For example, the following SQL statements create a role "Accountant" and
then assigns this role to user "ABC".
COMMIT;
COMMIT;
For example, let us consider that a table "HOSTEL" has three fields - the
hostel number, hostel name and capacity. The hostel number should start
with capital letter "H" and cannot be NULL, and the capacity should not be
more than 150. The following SQL command can be used for data definition
−
H_NAME VARCHAR2(15),
CAPACITY INTEGER,
);
For example, in the above hostel table, the hostel number can be assigned
as the primary key through the following SQL statement (ignoring the
checks) −
H_NAME VARCHAR2(15),
CAPACITY INTEGER
);
For example, let us consider a student table where a student may opt to
live in a hostel. To include this, the primary key of hostel table should be
included as a foreign key in the student table. The following SQL statement
incorporates this −
S_COURSE VARCHAR2(10),
);
Query Processing
Query processing is a set of all activities starting from query placement to
displaying the results of the query. The steps are as shown in the following
diagram −
Relational Algebra
Relational algebra defines the basic set of operations of relational database
model. A sequence of relational algebra operations forms a relational
algebra expression. The result of this expression represents the result of a
database query.
Projection
Selection
Union
Intersection
Minus
Join
Projection
Projection operation displays a subset of fields of a table. This gives a
vertical partition of the table.
STUDENT
If we want to display the names and courses of all students, we will use the
following relational algebra expression −
πName,Course(STUDENT)πName,Course(STUDENT)
Selection
Selection operation displays a subset of tuples of a table that satisfies
certain conditions. This gives a horizontal partition of the table.
Syntax in Relational Algebra
σ<Conditions>(<TableName>)σ<Conditions>(<TableName>)
For example, in the Student table, if we want to display the details of all
students who have opted for MCA course, we will use the following
relational algebra expression −
σCourse="BCA"(STUDENT)σCourse="BCA"(STUDENT)
For example, to display names of all female students of the BCA course −
Result←πName(FemaleBCAStudent)Result←πName(FemaleBCAStudent)
Union
If P is a result of an operation and Q is a result of another operation, the
union of P and Q (p∪Qp∪Q) is the set of all tuples that is either in P or in Q
or in both without duplicates.
For example, to display all students who are either in Semester 1 or are in
BCA course −
Sem1Student←σSemester=1(STUDENT)Sem1Student←σSemester=1(STUDENT)
BCAStudent←σCourse="BCA"(STUDENT)BCAStudent←σCourse="BCA"(STUDENT)
Result←Sem1Student∪BCAStudentResult←Sem1Student∪BCAStudent
Intersection
If P is a result of an operation and Q is a result of another operation, the
intersection of P and Q ( p∩Qp∩Q ) is the set of all tuples that are in P and
Q both.
For example, given the following two schemas −
EMPLOYEE
PROJECT
To display the names of all cities where a project is located and also an
employee resides −
CityEmp←πCity(EMPLOYEE)CityEmp←πCity(EMPLOYEE)
CityProject←πCity(PROJECT)CityProject←πCity(PROJECT)
Result←CityEmp∩CityProjectResult←CityEmp∩CityProject
Minus
If P is a result of an operation and Q is a result of another operation, P - Q
is the set of all tuples that are in P and not in Q.
For example, to list all the departments which do not have an ongoing
project (projects with status = ongoing) −
AllDept←πDepartment(EMPLOYEE)AllDept←πDepartment(EMPLOYEE)
ProjectDept←πDepartment(σStatus="ongoing"(PROJECT))ProjectDept←πDepartment
(σStatus="ongoing"(PROJECT))
Result←AllDept−ProjectDeptResult←AllDept−ProjectDept
Join
Join operation combines related tuples of two different tables (results of
queries) into a single table.
CUSTOMER
BRANCH
Examples
Let us consider the following schemas −
EMPLOYEE
PROJECT
WORKS
This query contains one nested sub-query. So, this can be broken down into
two blocks.
Example 2
To display the project ID and status of all projects of employee 'Arun
Kumar', we write the SQL query −
WHERE PID = ( SELECT FROM WORKS WHERE EMPID = ( SELECT EMPID FROM EMPLOYEE
This query contains two nested sub-queries. Thus, can be broken down into
three blocks, as follows −
ArunPID←πPID(σEmpID="ArunEmpID"(WORKS))ArunPID←πPID(σEmpID="ArunEmpID
"(WORKS))
Result←πPID,Status(σPID="ArunPID"(PROJECT))Result←πPID,Status(σPID="ArunPID"(
PROJECT))
Operator type
Available memory
Disk structures
Since the time to process a tuple is very much smaller than the time to
fetch the tuple from the storage, particularly in a distributed system, disk
access is very often considered as the metric for calculating cost of
relational expression.
Computation of Selection
Computation of selection operation depends upon the complexity of the
selection condition and the availability of indexes on the attributes of the
table.
No Index − If the table is unsorted and has no indexes, then the selection
process involves scanning all the disk blocks of the table. Each block is brought
into the memory and each tuple in the block is examined to see whether it
satisfies the selection condition. If the condition is satisfied, it is displayed as
output. This is the costliest approach since each tuple is brought into memory
and each tuple is processed.
B+ Tree Index − Most database systems are built upon the B+ Tree index. If
the selection condition is based upon the field, which is the key of this B+ Tree
index, then this index is used for retrieving results. However, processing
selection statements with complex conditions may involve a larger number of
disk block accesses and in some cases complete scanning of the table.
Hash Index − If hash indexes are used and its key field is used in the selection
condition, then retrieving tuples using the hash index becomes a simple
process. A hash index uses a hash function to find the address of a bucket
where the key value corresponding to the hash value is stored. In order to find
a key value in the index, the hash function is executed and the bucket address
is found. The key values in the bucket are searched. If a match is found, the
actual tuple is fetched from the disk block into the memory.
Computation of Joins
When we want to join two tables, say P and Q, each tuple in P has to be
compared with each tuple in Q to test if the join condition is satisfied. If the
condition is satisfied, the corresponding tuples are concatenated,
eliminating duplicate fields and appended to the result relation.
Consequently, this is the most expensive operation.
Nested-loop Approach
This is the conventional join approach. It can be illustrated through the
following pseudocode (Tables P and Q, with tuples tuple_p and tuple_q and
joining attribute a) −
End If
Next tuple_q
Next tuple-p
Sort-merge Approach
In this approach, the two tables are individually sorted based upon the
joining attribute and then the sorted tables are merged. External sorting
techniques are adopted since the number of records is very high and cannot
be accommodated in the memory. Once the individual tables are sorted,
one page each of the sorted tables are brought to the memory, merged
based upon the joining attribute and the joined tuples are written out.
Hash-join Approach
This approach comprises of two phases: partitioning phase and probing
phase. In partitioning phase, the tables P and Q are broken into two sets of
disjoint partitions. A common hash function is decided upon. This hash
function is used to assign tuples to partitions. In the probing phase, tuples
in a partition of P are compared with the tuples of corresponding partition of
Q. If they match, then they are written out.
Increase parallelism.
EMPLOYEE
DEPARTMENT
DNo DName Location
Example 1
Let us consider the query as the following.
πEmpID(σEName="ArunKumar"(EMPLOYEE))πEmpID(σEName="ArunKumar"(EMPLOYEE
))
Example 2
Let us consider another query involving a join.
πEName,Salary(σDName="Marketing"(DEPARTMENT))⋈DNo=DeptNo(EMPLOYEE)
πEName,Salary(σDName="Marketing"(DEPARTMENT))⋈DNo=DeptNo(EMPLOYE
E)
Following is the query tree for the above query.
Step 2 − Query Plan Generation
After the query tree is generated, a query plan is made. A query plan is an
extended query tree that includes access paths for all operations in the
query tree. Access paths specify how the relational operations in the tree
should be performed. For example, a selection operation can have an
access path that gives details about the use of B+ tree index for selection.
Besides, a query plan also states how the intermediate tables should be
passed from one operator to the next, how temporary tables should be used
and how operations should be pipelined/combined.
Perform select and project operations before join operations. This is done by
moving the select and project operations down the query tree. This reduces the
number of tuples available for join.
Perform the most restrictive select/project operations at first before the other
operations.
The tables required in a global query have fragments distributed across multiple
sites. The local databases have information only about local data. The
controlling site uses the global data dictionary to gather information about the
distribution and reconstructs the global view from the fragments.
If there is no replication, the global optimizer runs local queries at the sites
where the fragments are stored. If there is replication, the global optimizer
selects the site based upon communication cost, workload, and server speed.
The global optimizer generates a distributed execution plan so that least amount
of data transfer occurs across the sites. The plan states the location of the
fragments, order in which query steps needs to be executed and the processes
involved in transferring intermediate results.
The local queries are optimized by the local database servers. Finally, the local
query results are merged together through union operation in case of horizontal
fragments and join operation for vertical fragments.
For example, let us consider that the following Project schema is
horizontally fragmented according to City, the cities being New Delhi,
Kolkata and Hyderabad.
PROJECT
In order to get the overall result, we need to union the results of the three
queries as follows −
σstatus="ongoing"(NewD−PROJECT)∪σstatus="ongoing"(kol−PROJECT)∪σstatus="o
ngoing"(Hyd−PROJECT)σstatus="ongoing"(NewD−PROJECT)∪σstatus="ongoing"(
kol−PROJECT)∪σstatus="ongoing"(Hyd−PROJECT)
Query trading.
The algorithm starts with the buyer assigning sub-queries to the seller sites.
The optimal plan is created from local optimized query plans proposed by
the sellers combined with the communication cost for reconstructing the
final result. Once the global optimal plan is formulated, the query is
executed.
Use semi-join operation to qualify tuples that are to be joined. This reduces the
amount of data transfer which in turn reduces communication cost.
Transactions
A transaction is a program including a collection of database operations,
executed as a logical unit of data processing. The operations performed in a
transaction include one or more of database operations like insert, delete,
update or retrieve data. It is an atomic process that is either performed into
completion entirely or is not performed at all. A transaction involving only
data retrieval without any data update is called read-only transaction.
Each high level operation can be divided into a number of low level tasks or
operations. For example, a data update operation can be divided into three
tasks −
rollback − A signal to specify that the transaction has been unsuccessful and so
all temporary changes in the database are undone. A committed transaction
cannot be rolled back.
Transaction States
A transaction may go through a subset of five states, active, partially
committed, committed, failed and aborted.
Active − The initial state where the transaction enters is the active state. The
transaction remains in this state while it is executing read, write or other
operations.
Partially Committed − The transaction enters this state after the last
statement of the transaction has been executed.
Failed − The transaction goes from partially committed state or active state to
failed state when it is discovered that normal execution can no longer proceed
or system checks fail.
Aborted − This is the state after the transaction has been rolled back after
failure and the database has been restored to its state that was before the
transaction began.
The following state transition diagram depicts the states in the transaction
and the low level transaction operations that causes change in states.
Desirable Properties of Transactions
Any transaction must maintain the ACID properties, viz. Atomicity,
Consistency, Isolation, and Durability.
Types of Schedules
There are two types of schedules −
Conflicts in Schedules
In a schedule comprising of multiple transactions, a conflict occurs when
two active transactions perform non-compatible operations. Two operations
are said to be in conflict, when all of the following three conditions exists
simultaneously −
Equivalence of Schedules
Equivalence of two schedules can be of the following types −
Access Rule − When two transactions try to access the same data item
simultaneously, for conflicting operations, priority is given to the older
transaction. This causes the younger transaction to wait for the older
transaction to commit first.
In this approach, a transaction’s life cycle is divided into the following three
phases −
Rule 1 − Given two transactions T i and Tj, if Ti is reading the data item
which Tj is writing, then Ti’s execution phase cannot overlap with T j’s
commit phase. Tj can commit only after Ti has finished execution.
Rule 2 − Given two transactions Ti and Tj, if Ti is writing the data item that
Tjis reading, then Ti’s commit phase cannot overlap with Tj’s execution
phase. Tjcan start executing only after Ti has already committed.
Rule 3 − Given two transactions Ti and Tj, if Ti is writing the data item
which Tj is also writing, then Ti’s commit phase cannot overlap with T j’s
commit phase. Tj can start to commit only after Ti has already committed.
Depending upon the number of sites who can detect lock conflicts,
distributed two-phase locking approaches can be of three types −
Conflict Graphs
Another method is to create conflict graphs. For this transaction classes are
defined. A transaction class contains two set of data items called read set
and write set. A transaction belongs to a particular class if the transaction’s
read set is a subset of the class’ read set and the transaction’s write set is a
subset of the class’ write set. In the read phase, each transaction issues its
read requests for the data items in its read set. In the write phase, each
transaction issues its write requests.
Deadlock prevention.
Deadlock avoidance.
Deadlock Prevention
The deadlock prevention approach does not allow any transaction to acquire
locks that will lead to deadlocks. The convention is that when more than
one transactions request for locking the same data item, only one of them
is granted the lock.
Deadlock Avoidance
The deadlock avoidance approach handles deadlocks before they occur. It
analyzes the transactions and the locks to determine whether or not waiting
leads to a deadlock.
There are two algorithms for this purpose, namely wait-die and wound-
wait. Let us assume that there are two transactions, T1 and T2, where T1
tries to lock a data item which is already locked by T2. The algorithms are
as follows −
Since there are no precautions while granting lock requests, some of the
transactions may be deadlocked. To detect deadlocks, the lock manager
periodically checks if the wait-forgraph has cycles. If the system is
deadlocked, the lock manager chooses a victim transaction from each cycle.
The victim is aborted and rolled back; and then restarted later. Some of the
methods used for victim selection are −
Transaction Location
Transactions in a distributed database system are processed in multiple
sites and use data items in multiple sites. The amount of data processing is
not uniformly distributed among these sites. The time period of processing
also varies. Thus the same transaction may be active at some sites and
inactive at others. When two conflicting transactions are located in a site, it
may happen that one of them is in inactive state. This condition does not
arise in a centralized system. This concern is called transaction location
issue.
Transaction Control
Transaction control is concerned with designating and controlling the sites
required for processing a transaction in a distributed database system.
There are many options regarding the choice of where to process the
transaction and how to designate the center of control, like −
The site where the transaction enters is designated as the controlling site.
The controlling site sends messages to the sites where the data items are
located to lock the items. Then it waits for confirmation. When all the sites
have confirmed that they have locked the data items, transaction starts. If
any site or communication link fails, the transaction has to wait until they
have been repaired.
In case of site or link failure, a transaction has to wait for a long time so that the
sites recover. Meanwhile, in the running sites, the items are locked. This may
prevent other transactions from executing.
If the controlling site fails, it cannot communicate with the other sites. These
sites continue to keep the locked data items in their locked state, thus resulting
in blocking.
Distributed Wound-Die
Distributed Wait-Wait
Begin T1:
End T1;
If the data table has two replicas in Site A and Site B, T1 needs to spawn
two children T1A and T1B corresponding to the two sites. The expanded
transaction T1 will be −
Begin T1:
Begin T1A :
End T1A;
Begin T2A :
End T2A;
End T1;
Transaction application phase − Upon entering this phase, the slave site
where transaction has entered broadcasts a request to all slaves for executing
the transaction. On receiving the requests, the peer slaves execute the
transaction and send an “ACK” to the requesting slave on completion. After the
requesting slave has received “ACK” messages from all its peers, it sends a
“DONE” message to the master site. The master understands that the
transaction has been completed and removes it from the pending queue.
Distributed Voting Algorithm
This comprises of ‘N’ peer sites, all of whom must “OK” a transaction before
it starts executing. Following are the two phases of this algorithm −
Soft Failure
Soft failure is the type of failure that causes the loss in volatile memory of
the computer and not in the persistent storage. Here, the information
stored in the non-persistent storage like main memory, buffers, caches or
registers, is lost. They are also known as system crash. The various types of
soft failures are as follows −
Power failure.
Hard Failure
A hard failure is the type of failure that causes loss of data in the persistent
or non-volatile storage like disk. Disk failure may cause corruption of data
in some disk blocks or failure of the total disk. The causes of a hard failure
are −
Power failure.
Faults in media.
Read-write malfunction.
Recovery from disk failures can be short, if there is a new, formatted, and
ready-to-use disk on reserve. Otherwise, duration includes the time it takes
to get a purchase order, buy the disk, and prepare it.
Network Failure
Network failures are prevalent in distributed or network databases. These
comprises of the errors induced in the database system due to the
distributed nature of the data and transferring data over the network. The
causes of network failure are as follows −
Network congestion.
Site failures.
Network partitioning.
Commit Protocols
Any database system should guarantee that the desirable properties of a
transaction are maintained even after failures. If a failure occurs during the
execution of a transaction, it may happen that all the changes brought
about by the transaction are not committed. This makes the database
inconsistent. Commit protocols prevent this scenario using either
transaction undo (rollback) or transaction redo (roll forward).
Commit Point
The point of time at which the decision is made whether to commit or abort
a transaction, is known as commit point. Following are the properties of a
commit point.
At this point, the modifications brought about by the database can be seen by
the other transactions. All transactions can have a consistent view of the
database.
At this point, all the operations of transaction have been successfully executed
and their effects have been recorded in transaction log.
Transaction Undo
The process of undoing all the changes made to a database by a transaction
is called transaction undo or transaction rollback. This is mostly applied in
case of soft failure.
Transaction Redo
The process of reapplying the changes made to a database by a transaction
is called transaction redo or transaction roll forward. This is mostly applied
for recovery from a hard failure.
Transaction Log
A transaction log is a sequential file that keeps track of transaction
operations on database items. As the log is sequential in nature, it is
processed sequentially either from the beginning or from the end.
A transaction log is usually kept on the disk, so that it is not affected by soft
failures. Additionally, the log is periodically backed up to an archival storage
like magnetic tape to protect it from disk failures as well.
A transaction that has a transaction start record and a transaction failed record
but not a transaction abort record, is a failed transaction – maintained in failed
list.
A transaction that has a transaction start record and a transaction abort record
is an aborted transaction – maintained in abort list.
Transactions which are in active list and failed list are undone and written on the
abort list.
In case of deferred update mode, the recovery manager takes the following
actions −
Transactions which are in the active list and failed list are written onto the abort
list. No undo operations are required since the changes have not been written
to the disk yet.
The transactions in the commit list and before-commit list are redone and
written onto the commit list in the transaction log.
The transactions in the active list and failed list are undone and written onto the
abort list in the transaction log.
Checkpointing
Checkpoint is a point of time at which a record is written onto the
database from the buffers. As a consequence, in case of a system crash,
the recovery manager does not have to redo the transactions that have
been committed before checkpoint. Periodical checkpointing shortens the
recovery process.
The two types of checkpointing techniques are −
Consistent checkpointing
Fuzzy checkpointing
Consistent Checkpointing
Consistent checkpointing creates a consistent image of the database at
checkpoint. During recovery, only those transactions which are on the right
side of the last checkpoint are undone or redone. The transactions to the
left side of the last consistent checkpoint are already committed and
needn’t be processed again. The actions taken for checkpointing are −
Fuzzy Checkpointing
In fuzzy checkpointing, at the time of checkpoint, all the active transactions
are written in the log. In case of power failure, the recovery manager
processes only those transactions that were active during checkpoint and
later. The transactions that have been committed before checkpoint are
written to the disk and hence need not be redone.
Example of Checkpointing
Let us consider that in system the time of checkpointing is tcheck and the
time of system crash is tfail. Let there be four transactions T a, Tb, Tc and
Td such that −
Td starts after checkpoint and was active at the time of system crash.
UNDO all faulty transactions and transactions that may be affected by the faulty
transactions.
REDO all transactions that are not faulty but have been undone due to the faulty
transactions.
Steps for the UNDO operation are −
If the faulty transaction has done INSERT, the recovery manager deletes the
data item(s) inserted.
If the faulty transaction has done DELETE, the recovery manager inserts the
deleted data item(s) from the log.
If the faulty transaction has done UPDATE, the recovery manager eliminates the
value by writing the before-update value from the log.
If the transaction has done INSERT, the recovery manager generates an insert
from the log.
If the transaction has done DELETE, the recovery manager generates a delete
from the log.
If the transaction has done UPDATE, the recovery manager generates an update
from the log.
One-phase commit
Two-phase commit
Three-phase commit
Distributed One-phase Commit
Distributed one-phase commit is the simplest commit protocol. Let us
consider that there is a controlling site and a number of slave sites where
the transaction is being executed. The steps in distributed commit are −
After each slave has locally completed its transaction, it sends a “DONE”
message to the controlling site.
The slaves wait for “Commit” or “Abort” message from the controlling site. This
waiting time is called window of vulnerability.
When the controlling site receives “DONE” message from each slave, it makes a
decision to commit or abort. This is called the commit point. Then, it sends this
message to all the slaves.
On receiving this message, a slave either commits or aborts and then sends an
acknowledgement message to the controlling site.
After each slave has locally completed its transaction, it sends a “DONE”
message to the controlling site. When the controlling site has received “DONE”
message from all slaves, it sends a “Prepare” message to the slaves.
The slaves vote on whether they still want to commit or not. If a slave wants to
commit, it sends a “Ready” message.
A slave that does not want to commit sends a “Not Ready” message. This may
happen when the slave has conflicting concurrent transactions or there is a
timeout.
After the controlling site has received “Ready” message from all the slaves −
o When the controlling site receives “Commit ACK” message from all the
slaves, it considers the transaction as committed.
After the controlling site has received the first “Not Ready” message from any
slave −
o The slaves abort the transaction and send a “Abort ACK” message to the
controlling site.
o When the controlling site receives “Abort ACK” message from all the
slaves, it considers the transaction as aborted.
The steps are same as two-phase commit except that “Commit ACK”/”Abort
ACK” message is not required.
Threats in a Database
Availability loss − Availability loss refers to non-availability of database
objects by legitimate users.
Measures of Control
The measures of control can be broadly divided into the following categories
−
Flow Control − Distributed systems encompass a lot of data flow from one site
to another and also within a site. Flow control prevents data from being
transferred in such a way that it can be accessed by unauthorized agents. A
flow policy lists out the channels through which information can flow. It also
defines security classes for data as well as transactions.
Data Encryption − Data encryption refers to coding data when sensitive data is
to be communicated over public channels. Even if an unauthorized agent gains
access of the data, he cannot understand it since it is in an incomprehensible
format.
What is Cryptography?
Cryptography is the science of encoding information before sending via
unreliable communication paths so that only an authorized receiver can
decode and use it.
The coded message is called cipher text and the original message is
called plain text. The process of converting plain text to cipher text by the
sender is called encoding or encryption. The process of converting cipher
text to plain text by the receiver is called decoding or decryption.
A randomly generated, preferably long secret key known only by the sender and
the receiver.
The most popular public key cryptography algorithms are RSA algorithm
and Diffie– Hellman algorithm. This method is very secure to send private
messages. However, the problem is, it involves a lot of computations and so
proves to be inefficient for long messages.
Digital Signatures
A Digital Signature (DS) is an authentication technique based on public key
cryptography used in e-commerce applications. It associates a unique mark
to an individual within the body of his message. This helps others to
authenticate valid senders of messages.
The sender takes a message, calculates the message digest of the message and
signs it digest with a private key.
The sender then appends the signed digest along with the plaintext message.
The receiver then takes the plaintext message and runs it through the same
message digest algorithm.
If the results of step 4 and step 5 match, then the receiver knows that the
message has integrity and authentic.
Passive eavesdroppers − They monitor the messages and get hold of private
information.
Active attackers − They not only monitor the messages but also corrupt data
by inserting new data or modifying existing data.
Communications Security
In a distributed database, a lot of data communication takes place owing to
the diversified location of data, users and transactions. So, it demands
secure communication between users and databases and between the
different database environments.
Data Security
In distributed systems, it is imperative to adopt measure to secure data
apart from communications. The data security measures are −
Validated input − In this security measure, the user application checks for
each input before it can be used for updating the database. An un-validated
input can cause a wide range of exploits like buffer overrun, command injection,
cross-site scripting and corruption in data.
Data Auditing
A database security system needs to detect and monitor security violations,
in order to ascertain the security measures it should adopt. It is often very
difficult to detect breach of security at the time of occurrences. One method
to identify security violations is to examine audit logs. Audit logs contain
information such as −
All the above information gives an insight of the activities in the database. A
periodical analysis of the log helps to identify any unnatural activity along
with its site and time of occurrence. This log is ideally stored in a separate
server so that it is inaccessible to attackers.