Chapter 1: Introduction

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
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 Database Management System (DBMS)
 Definition: It’s a Collection of interrelated data and a set
of programs to access those data.
 Collection of data usually referred to as a database which
contains information relevant to an enterprise.
 The primary goal of a DBMS is to provide a way to store
and retrieve database information that is both convenient
and efficient.
 Designed to manage large volumes of information.
 Defining structures for storage of information and
providing mechanisms for manipulation of information.
 Databases touch all aspects of our lives

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  Database Applications:
 Banking and Finance: Custmors, Accounts, loans,
transactions
 Airlines: reservations, schedules
 Universities: Student information, course
registration, grades
 Sales: customers, products, purchases
 Online retailers: order tracking, customized
recommendations
 Manufacturing: production, inventory, orders, supply
chain
 Human resources: employee records, salaries, tax
deductions
 Databases can be very large.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Purpose of DataBase Systems
 Data redundancy and inconsistency
 Multiple file formats, duplication of information in
different files
 Difficulty in accessing data
 Need to write a new program to carry out each new
task
 Data isolation — multiple files and formats
 Integrity problems
 Integrity constraints (e.g., account balance > 0)
become “buried” in program code rather than being
stated explicitly
 Hard to add new constraints or change existing
ones
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Purpose of DataBase Systems (Cont.)
 Atomicity of updates
 Failures may leave database in an inconsistent state with
partial updates carried out
 Example: Transfer of funds from one account to another
should either complete or not happen at all
 Concurrent access by multiple users
 Concurrent access needed for performance
 Uncontrolled concurrent accesses can lead to inconsistencies
– Example: Two people reading a balance (say 100) and
updating it by withdrawing money (say 50 each) at the
same time
 Security problems
 Hard to provide user access to some, but not all, data
Database systems offer solutions to all the above problems

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View of Data

• Data Abstraction
• Instances and Schemas
• Data Models

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  A database system is a collection of interrelated data
and a set of programs that allow users to access and
modify these data.
 A major purpose of a database system is to provide
users with an abstract view of the data.
 That is, the system hides certain details of how the data
are stored and maintained.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Abstraction

An architecture for a database system

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 Levels of Abstraction
 Physical level: The lowest level of abstraction describes how the data is
actually.
 Logical level: describes what data are stored in database, and the
relationships exists among the data.
 The logical level thus describes the entire database in terms of a small number
of relatively simple structures.
 View level: The highest level of abstraction describes only part of the entire
database.
 Even though the logical level uses simpler structures, complexity remains
because of the variety of information stored in a large database.
 Many users of the database system do not need all this information; instead,
they need to access only a part of the database.
 The view level of abstraction exists to simplify their interaction with the system.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Instances and Schemas
 Instance – the actual content of the database at a particular point
in time.
 Schema -The overall design of the database is called the
database schema.
 Schemas are changed infrequently.
 These can be understood by analogy to a program written in
programming language.
 A database schema corresponds to the variable declarations.
 Analogous to type information of a variable in a program
 Physical schema: database design at the physical level
 Logical schema: database design at the logical level

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Models
 Data Model: A collection of conceptual tools for describing
 Data
 Data relationships
 Data semantics
 Consistency Constraints
 A way to describe the design of a database at a physical, logical,
and view levels.
 Relational model
 Entity-Relationship data model (mainly for database design)
 Object-based data models (Object-oriented and Object-relational)
 Semi structured data model (XML)
 Other older models:
 Network model
 Hierarchical model

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Model
 The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent

both data and the relationships among those data.

 Example of tabular data in the relational model
Columns

Rows

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 A Sample Relational Database

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 Database Languages

 Data-Definition Language to specify the database schema and

a Data-Manipulation Language to express database queries
and updates.

 Not two separate languages, parts of SQL (Structured Query

Language).

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Manipulation Language (DML)
 Language for accessing and manipulating the data organized by the
appropriate data model
 DML also known as query language
 The types of access are:
 Retrieval of information stored in the database
 Insertion of new information into the database
 Deletion of information from the database
 Modification of information stored in the database
 There are Two classes of DML
 Procedural – user specifies what data is required and how to get
those data.
 Declarative (nonprocedural) – user specifies what data is required
without specifying how to get those data.
 SQL is the most widely used query language.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Definition Language (DDL)
 Specify a database schema by a set of definitions expressed by a
special language called a data-definition language (DDL).
 The DDL is also used to specify additional properties of the data.
Specification notation for defining the database schema
Example: create table instructor (
ID char(5),
name varchar(20),
dept_name varchar(20),
salary numeric(8,2))
Database systems implement integrity constraints.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Values stored in the Database must satisfy certain
consistency constraints.
Domain Constraints:
It is a most elementary form of integrity constraint.
A domain of possible values must be associated with every
attribute (for example, integer types, character types, date/time
types).
They are tested easily by the system whenever a new data item is
entered into the database.
Referential Integrity.
Assertions.
Authorization.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 SQL
 SQL: widely used non-procedural language
 Example: Find the name of the instructor with ID 22222
select name
from instructor
where [Link] = ‘22222’
 Example: Find the ID and building of instructors in the Physics dept.
select [Link], [Link]
from instructor, department
where instructor.dept_name = department.dept_name and
department.dept_name = ‘Physics’

 Application programs generally access databases through one of

 Language extensions to allow embedded SQL
 Application program interface (e.g., ODBC/JDBC) which allow SQL
queries to be sent to a database

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 Database Design

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Design – Introduction-
Design process
 Database systems are designed to manage large bodies of
information.

 They are part of the operation of some enterprise whose end

product may be information from the database.

 The initial phase of database design, then, is to characterize

fully the data needs of the prospective database users.

 The database designer needs to interact extensively with

domain experts and users to carry out this task.
 The outcome of this phase is a specification of user
requirements.
 Next, the designer chooses a data model, and by applying the
concepts of the chosen data model, translates these
requirements into a conceptual schema of the database.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  The schema developed at this conceptual-design phase
provides a detailed overview of the enterprise.

 The designer reviews the schema to confirm that all data

requirements are indeed satisfied and are not in conflict with
one another.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 In the relational model, the conceptual-design process involves
decisions on what attributes we want to capture in the database
and how to group these attributes to form the various tables
 Business decision – What attributes should we record in the
database?
 Computer Science decision – What relation schemas should we
have and how should the attributes be distributed among the
various relation schemas?

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  There are two ways to tackle the problem.
 The first one is to use the entity-relationship model
 Entity Relationship Model (Chapter 7)
 Models an enterprise as a collection of entities and relationships
 Entity: a “thing” or “object” in the enterprise that is
distinguishable from other objects
– Described by a set of attributes
 Relationship: an association among several entities
 Represented diagrammatically by an entity-relationship
diagram:
 The other is to employ a set of algorithms (collectively known as
normalization) that takes as input the set of all attributes and
generates a set of tables.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Entity-Relationship Model
 Models an enterprise as a collection of entities and relationships
 Entity: a “thing” or “object” in the enterprise that is distinguishable
from other objects
 Described by a set of attributes
 Relationship: an association among several entities
 Represented diagrammatically by an entity-relationship diagram:

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 E-R Diagram for a University Enterprise

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 Database Design for University Data
Base

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  A fully developed conceptual schema indicates the
functional requirements of the enterprise.

 specification of functional requirements, users

describe the kinds of operations (or transactions) that
will be performed on the data.

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 Normalization:
Another method for designing a relational database is to use a
process commonly known as normalization.

The goal is to generate a set of relation schemas that allows us

to store information without unnecessary redundancy, yet also
allows us to retrieve information easily.

To understand the need for normalization, let us look at

what can go wrong in a bad database design.
Among the undesirable properties that a bad design
may have are:
• Repetition of information
• Inability to represent certain information

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 Database Design?
 Is there any problem with this design? – Faculty Table

Normalization Required

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 Data Storage and Querying

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 Data Storage and Querying
 A database system is partitioned into modules that deal with each
of the responsibilities of the overall system.
 The functional components of a database system are
 Storage manager
 Query processor
 The storage manager is important because databases typically
require a large amount of storage space.
 The query processor is important because it helps the database
system to simplify and facilitate access to data.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage manager is the component of that provides the
interface between the low-level data stored in the database
and the application programs and queries submitted to the
system.
The storage manager is responsible to the following
tasks:
 Interaction with the file manager.
 Efficient storing, retrieving and updating of data.
The storage manager translates the various DML
statements into low-level file-system commands.

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 Database System Structure

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 Data Storage and Querying Cont..
The storage manager components include:
Authorization and integrity manager, which tests for the satisfaction
of integrity constraints and checks the authority of users to access data.
Transaction manager, which ensures that the database remains in a
consistent (correct) state despite system failures, and that concurrent
transaction executions proceed without conflicting.
File manager, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage
and the data structures used to represent information stored on disk.
Buffer manager, which is responsible for fetching data from disk
storage into main memory, and deciding what data to cache in main
memory.
The buffer manager is a critical part of the database system, since it
enables the database to handle data sizes that are much larger than
the size of main memory.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The storage manager implements several data structures as
part of the physical system implementation:

• Data files, which store the database itself.

• Data dictionary, which stores metadata about the structure
of the database, in particular the schema of the database.
• Indices, which can provide fast access to data items. Like
the index in this textbook, a database index provides
pointers to those data items that hold a particular value.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Query Processor
The query processor components include:

• DDL interpreter, which interprets DDL statements and records

the definitions in the data dictionary.

• DML compiler, which translates DML statements in a query

language into an evaluation plan consisting of low-level instructions
that the query evaluation engine understands.

The DML compiler also performs query optimization;

•Query evaluation engine, which executes low-level instructions

generated by the DML compiler.

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 Query Processing

1. Parsing and translation

2. Optimization
3. Evaluation

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 Transaction Management
 What if the system fails?
 What if more than one user is concurrently updating the same
data?
 A transaction is a collection of operations that performs a single
logical function in a database application.
 Atomicity : This all-or-none requirement
 Consistency : the value of the sum of the balances of A
and B must be preserved.
 all the transactions will be carried out and
Isolation:
executed as if it is the only transaction in the system.
 Durability: after the successful execution of a funds
transfer, the new values of the balances of accounts A and
B must persist, despite the possibility of system failure.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Transaction-management component ensures that the database
remains in a consistent (correct) state despite system failures (e.g.,
power failures and operating system crashes) and transaction
failures.

The transaction manager consists of the

The recovery manager.
Concurrency-control manager

Recovery Manager: Ensuring the atomicity and durability properties

is the responsibility of the database system itself—specifically, of the
recovery manager.

Concurrency-control manager controls the interaction among the

concurrent transactions, to ensure the consistency of the database.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Users and Administrators

Database

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 Naïve Users: They don’t interact with the database system
directly. interact with the database by invoking one of the
application programs that have been written previously.
Eg: Web users, agents etc.

Application Programmers: They are interacting with the

database by writing application programs using PHP, .Net or
Java.

Sophisticated Users (Analysts): They interact with the database

system directly using some database query languages.

Specialized Users: Sophisticated users who write specialized

database applications that do not fit into the traditional data-
processing framework.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Administrators
 Person who has such central control over the system is called a database
administrator (DBA).

The functions of a DBA include:

• Schema definition.
• Storage structure and access-method definition.
•Schema and physical-organization modification
• Granting of authorization for data access.
• Routine maintenance:
Periodically backing up the database, either onto tapes or onto remote
servers, to prevent loss of data in case of disasters.

Ensuring that enough free disk space is available for normal operations,
and upgrading disk space as required.

Monitoring jobs running on the database and ensuring that performance is

not degraded.

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 Database System Structure

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 Database Architecture

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Architecture

The architecture of a database systems is greatly influenced by

the underlying computer system on which the database is running:
 Centralized
 Client-server
 Parallel (multi-processor)
 Distributed

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Architecture

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database applications are usually partitioned into two or
three parts.
In a two-tier architecture, the application resides at
the client machine.
where it invokes database system functionality at the
server machine through query language statements.
Application program interface standards like ODBC and
JDBC are used for interaction between the client and the
server.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  In a three-tier architecture, the client machine acts as merely a
front end and does not contain any direct database calls.

 The client end communicates with an application server,

usually through a forms interface.

 The application server in turn communicates with a database

system to access data.

 The business logic of the application, which says what actions

to carry out under what conditions, is embedded in the
application server.

 Three-tier applications are more appropriate for large

applications, and for applications that run on the World Wide
Web.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 1

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 1.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan