Chapter 6

Distributed
Database Systems
 Outline
Distributed Database Concepts
Data Fragmentation, Replication and Allocation
Types of Distributed Database Systems
Query Processing
Concurrency Control

Distributed Database System 2

 Distributed Database Concepts
 A transaction can be executed by multiple
networked computers in a unified manner.
 A distributed database (DDB) processes unit
of execution (a transaction) in a distributed
manner.
 A distributed database (DDB) can be defined
as :
A distributed database (DDB) is a collection of
multiple logically related database distributed
over a computer network, and a distributed
database management system as a software
system that manages a distributed database
while making the distribution transparent to the
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 …CON’T
Centralized Database Vs. Distributed Database

Centralized DB Distributed DB

Distributed Database System 4

 …CON’T
 Centralized  Distributed
Database Database

Distributed Database System 5

 Data allocation
 is the process of deciding where to allocate/store particular
data item.
 There are 3 data allocation strategies:
1. Centralized: the entire DB is located at a single site.
And computers access through the network. Known as
distributed processing.
2. Partitioned: the DB is split into several disjoint parts
(called partitions, segments or fragments) and stored at
several sites
3. Replicated: copies of one or more partitions are stored
at several sites:
3.1 Selective- combines fragmentation (locality of reference
for those which are less updated) replication and
centralization as appropriate for the data.
3.2 Complete: - database copy is made available in each site.
Distributed Database System 6
Snap shot is one method used here.
 …CON’T
In a distributed database system, the database is
logically stored as single database but physically
fragmented on several computers.
The computers in a distributed system
communicate with each other through various
communication media, such as high speed buses
or telephone line.
A distributed database system has the following
components:
Local DBMS
Distributed DDBMS
Global System Catalog(GSC)
Distributed
Data communication
Database System (DC) 7
 …CON’T
Distributed database system consists of a
collection of sites, each of which maintains a
local database system (Local DBMS) but each
local DBMS also participates in at least one
global transaction where different databases
are integrated together.
Local Transaction: transactions that access
data only in that single site
Global Transaction: transactions that access
data in several sites.
 Parallel DBMS: a DBMS running across multiple
processors and disks that is designed to execute
operations in parallel,
Distributed Database System when ever possible, in order to8
improve performance.
 …CON’T
Three architectures for parallel DBMS:
 Shared Memory- for fast data access for a limited number
of processors.
 Shared Disk- for application inherently centralized
 Shared nothing.- massively parallel

What makes DDBMS different is that

 The various sites are aware of each other
 Each site provides a facility for executing both local and
global transactions.
 The different sites can be connected physically in different
topologies like:
 Fully /networked,
 Partially Connected,
 Tree Network,
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 Star Network and
 …CON’T
The differences between these sites is based on:

Installation Cost: cost of linking sites

physically.
Communication Cost: cost to send and

receive messages and data

Reliability: resistance to failure

Availability: degree to which data can be

accessed despite the failure.

Distributed Database System 10
 …CON’T
The distribution of the database sites
could be:
Large Geographical Area: Long-Haul
Network
relatively slow
less reliable
uses telephone line, microwave, satellite
Small Geographical Area: Local Area
Network
higher speed
lower rate of error
use twisted pair, base band coaxial,
Distributed Database System 11
broadband coaxial, fiber optics
 …CON’T
Distributed database system consists of loosely
joined sites that share no physical component and
database systems that run on each site are
independent of each other.
Those which share physical components are
known as Parallel DBMS.
Transactions may access data at one or more sites
Organization may implement their database
system on a number of separate computer system
rather than a single, centralized mainframe.
Computer Systems may be located at each local
branch office.
Distributed Database System 12
 Functions of a DDBMS
 DDBMS have the following functionality.
Extended Communication Services - to provide
access to remote sites.
Extended Data Dictionary- to store data
distribution details a need for global system
catalog.
Distributed Query Processing - optimization of
query remote data access.
Extended security- access control to a distributed
data
Extended Concurrency Control –maintain
consistency of replicated data.
Extended Recovery
Distributed Database System Services- failures of individual 13
sites and the communication line.
 Issues in DDBMS
 How is data stored in DDBMS?
There are several ways of storing a single relation
in distributed database systems.
Replication:
 System maintains multiple copies of similar data
(identical data)
 Stored in different sites, for faster retrieval and fault
tolerance.
 Duplicate copies of the tables can be kept on each
system (replicated).
 Updates to the tables can become involved (of course the
copies of the tables can be read-only).
 Advantage: Availability, Increased parallelism (if only
reading)-
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Disadvantage: increased overhead of update.
 …CON’T
Replication

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 …CON’T


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 …CON’T
Example (contd.): Horizontal fragmentation
of PROJ relation

– PROJ1: projects with budgets less than 200, 000

– PROJ2: projects with budgets greater than or equal to 200, 000

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 …CON’T


Distributed Database System 18

 …CON’T
Example: Vertical fragmentation of PROJ
relation
PROJ1: information about project budgets
PROJ2: information about project names and
locations

Distributed Database System 19

 …CON’T
Both (hybrid fragmentation)
A system can share the responsibility of storing
particular attributes of a subset of records
in a given relation.
Performed by projection then selection or
selection then projection relational algebra
operators.
Reconstruction is made by combined effect of
Union and natural join operators.

Distributed Database System 20

 …CON’T
Fragmentation is correct if it
fulfils the following
Complete: - a data item must appear in
at least one fragment of a given relation R
(R1, R2…Rn).
Reconstruction:- it must be possible to
reconstruct a relation from the fragments
Disjointness: - a data item should only
be found in a single fragment except for
vertical fragmentation (the primary key is
repeated for reconstruction).
Distributed Database System 21
 Data transparency:
 The degree to which system user may remain
unaware of the details of how and where the data
items are stored in a distributed system.
Distribution transparency Even though there are
many systems they appear as one- seen as a
single, logical entity.
Replication transparency Copies of data floating
around everywhere also seem like just one copy to
the developers and users
Fragmentation transparency A table that is
actually stored in parts everywhere across sites
may seem like just a single table in a single
Location Transparency- the user doesn’t need to
know where
Distributed Databasea data item is physically located.
System 22
 …CON’T
 How does it work?
 Distributed computing can be difficult to implement, particularly for
replicated data that can be updated from many systems.
 In order to operate a distributed database system has to take care of:
 Distributed Query Processing
 Distributed Transaction Management
 Replication Data Management If you are going to have copies of
data on many machines how often does the data get updated if it is
changed in another system? Who is in charge of propagating the
update to the data?
 Distributed Database Recovery If one machine goes down how
does that affect the others.
 Security: Just like any computer network, a distributed system
needs to have a common way to validate users entering from any
computer in the network of servers.
 Common Data-Dictionary Your schema now has to be
distinguished and work in connection to schemas created on many 23
Distributed Database System
systems.
 Homogeneous and Heterogeneous
Distributed Databases
 In a homogeneous distributed Window
database Site 5 Unix
 Are aware of each other and agree to Oracle Site 1
cooperate in processing user requests. Oracle
 Each site surrenders part of its Window
autonomy in terms of right to change Site 4 Communications
schemas or software network
 Appears to the user as a single system
 All sites of the database system Oracle
have identical setup, i.e., same
database system software. Site 3 Site 2
 The underlying operating system Linux Oracle Linux Oracle
may be different.
 For example, all sites run Oracle
or DB2, or Sybase or some other
database system.
 The underlying operating systems
can be a mixture of Linux, Window,
Unix, etc.

Distributed Database System 24

 …CON’T
 In a heterogeneous
distributed database
Object Unix Relational
 Different sites may use different
Oriented Site 5 Unix
schemas and software (DBMS) Site 1
 Difference in schema is a Hierarchical
Window
major problem for query Site 4 Communications
network
processing
 Difference in software is a Network
Object DBMS
major problem for transaction Oriented Relational
Site 3 Site 2
processing Linux Linux
 Sites may not be aware of each
other and may provide only
limited facilities for cooperation
in transaction processing.
 May need gateways to
Distributed Database System 25
interface one another.
 Why DDBMS/Advantages
 Many existing systems
 Possibly there are many different existing system, with possible different
kinds of systems (Oracle, Informix, others) that need to be used together.
 Data sharing and distributed control:
 User at one site may be able access data that is available at another site.
 Each site can retain some degree of control over local data
 We will have local as well as global database administrator
 Reliability and availability of data
 If one site fails the rest can continue operation as long as transaction does
not demand data from the failed system and the data is not replicated in
other sites
 Speedup of query processing
 If a query involves data from several sites, it may be possible to split the
query into sub-queries that can be executed at several sites which is
parallel processing
 Query can be sent to the least heavily loaded sites
 Expansion (Scalability)
 In a distributed environment you can easily expand by adding more26
machines
Distributed toSystem
Database the network.
 Disadvantages of DDBMS
1. Software Development Cost
 Is difficult to install, thus is costly
2. Greater Potential for Bugs
 Parallel processing may endanger correctness of
algorithms
3. Increased Processing Overhead
 Exchange of message between sites – high
communication latency
 Due to communication jargons
4. Communication problems
5. Increased Complexity and Data Inconsistency
Problems
 Since clients can read and modify closely related data
stored in different database instances concurrently.
Distributed Database System
6. Security Problems: network and replicated data security. 27
Query Processing and Transaction
Management in DDBMS
Query Processing
There are different strategies to process a
specific query, which in turn increase the
performance of the system by minimizing
processing time and cost.
In addition to the cost estimates we have for a
centralized database (disk access, relation
size, etc), we have to consider the following in
distributed query processing:
Cost of data transmission over the huge
network
Gain of parallel processing of a single query
Distributed Database System 28
 …CON’T
 Let the distributed database has three sites (S1, S2, and
S3). And two relations, EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT are
located at S1 and S2 respectively without any
fragmentation. And a query is initiated from S3 to
retrieve employees [First Name (15 byte long), Last name
(15 byte long) and Department name (10 byte long) total
of 40 bytes with the department they are working in.
 Let:
 For EMPLOYEE we have the following information

1. 10,000 records
2. each record is 100 bytes long
 For DEPARTMENT we have the following information

1. 100 records
2. each record is 35 bytes long
Distributed Database System 29
 …CON’T
There are three ways of executing this query:
1. Transfer DEPARTMENT and EMPLOYEE to S3 and perform
the join there: needs transfer of
10,000*100+100*35=1,003,500 byte.
2. Transfer the DEPARTMENT to S1, perform the join there
which will have 40*10,000 = 400,000 bytes and transfer
the result to S3. we need
1,000,000+400,000=1,400,000 byte to be transferred
3. Transfer the EMPLOYEE to S2, perform the join there
which will have 40*10,000 = 400,000 bytes and transfer
the result to S3. We need 3,500+400,000=403,500 byte
to be transferred.
 Then one can select the strategy that will reduce the
data transfer cost for this specific query.
 Other steps of optimization may also be included to 30
Distributed Database System
make the processing more efficient by reducing the
 Transaction Management
Transaction is a logical unit of work constituted
by one or more operations executed by a single
user.
 A transaction begins with the user's first
executable query statement and ends when it
is committed or rolled back.
A Distributed Transaction is a transaction
that includes one or more statements that,
individually or as a group, update data on two
or moreSQL distinct
Statement
nodes ofObje a distributed
Databa Domain
database. ct se
[email protected]; dept
SELECT * FROM sales midroc.telecom
Representation of Query in Distributed .et;
Distributed Database System 31
Database
 …CON’T
 There are two types of transaction in DDBMS to access data from other
sites:
1. Remote Transaction: contains only statements that access a single
remote node.
 Remote Query statement is a query that selects information from one
or more remote tables, all of which reside at the same remote node or
site.
 For example, the following query accesses data from the dept table in
the Addis schema (the site) of the remote sales database:
 SELECT * FROM [email protected];
 A remote update statement is an update that modifies data in one or
more tables, all of which are collocated at the same remote node.
 For example, the following query updates the branch table in the Addis
schema of the remote sales database:
UPDATE Addis.dept@ sales.midroc.telecom.et;
SET loc = 'Arada'
WHERE BranchNo = 5;
Distributed Database System 32
 …CON’T
2. Distributed Transaction: contains statements that access
more than one node.
 A distributed query statement retrieves information from two
or more nodes.
 If all statements of a transaction reference only a single
remote node, the transaction is remote, not distributed.
 A database must guarantee that all statements in a
transaction, distributed or non-distributed, either commit or
roll back as a unit.
 For example, the following query accesses data from the
local database as well as the remote sales database:
SELECT ename, dname
FROM Awassa.emp AW, Addis.dept@ sales.midroc.telecom.et
AD
WHERE AW.deptno = AD.deptno;
{Employee data is stored in Awassa and Sales data is stored
33
in Addis,
Distributed Databasethere
Systemis an employee responsible for each sale }
 …CON’T
 Remote query  Remote Update
select update
client_nm [email protected]
from set
[email protected]; stu_id = '242'
 Distributed query where stu_id = '200'
select
 Distributed Update
project_name, student_nm update
[email protected]
from
set
[email protected]
stu_id = '242'
i, student s
Where stu_id = '200'
where
update student
s.stu_id = i.stu_id
Set stu_id = '242‘ where stu_id =
'200‘
Distributed Database System 34
commit
 Concurrency Control
There are various techniques used for
concurrency control in centralized database
systems.
The techniques in distributed database
system are similar with the centralized
approach with additional implementation
requirements or modifications.
The main difference or the change that should
be incorporated is the way the lock manager
is implemented and how it functions.
There are different schemes for concurrency
control in DDBS
Distributed Database System 35
 …CON’T
1) Non-Replicated Scheme
No data is replicated in the system
All sites will maintain a local lock manager (local lock
and unlock)
If site Si needs a lock on data in site Sj it send message
to lock manager of site Sj and the locking will be
handled by site Sj
All the locking and unlocking principles are handled by
the local lock manager in which the data object resides.
Is simple to implement
Need three message transfers
To request a lock
To notify grant of lock
To request unlock
Distributed Database System 36
 …CON’T
2) Single Coordinate Approach
The system choose one single lock manager that
resides in one of the sites (Si)
All locks and unlocks requests are made at site Si
where the lock manager resides(Si)
Is simple to implement
Needs two message transfers
 To request a lock
 To request unlock
Simple deadlock handling
Could be a bottleneck since all processes are handled
at one site
Is vulnerable/at risk if the site with the lock manager
fails
Distributed Database System 37
 …CON’T
There are three varieties of the 2PL (Two phase
locking) protocol in the DDBMS environment.
Implementing the basic 2PL in distributed
systems assumes that data is distributed
across multiple machines.
Centralized 2PL:
A single site responsible for granting and
releasing locks
Each site’s transaction manager communicates
with this centralized lock manager and with its
own local data manager
Has only one lock manager for the entire site.
Distributed Database System 38
 …CON’T
Primary 2PL:
 Each replicated data item is assigned a primary copy;
 the lock manager on that primary copy is responsible for granting
and releasing locks(distributed locking) and updates are
propagated as soon as possible to the slave copies
 Distributes the lock manager to a number of sites

Distributed 2PL:
 Assumes data is completely replicated
 The schedulers (Lock managers) at each site are
responsible in granting and releasing locks as well as
forwarding operations to the local data manager.
 Distributes the lock manager to every site in the DDBS.
 Has communication overhead than the others.

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 END
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