COMP.

7217
Advanced Database Administration

Assessment 3:
Sample Final Exam

Exam Date:
Weighting: 50%

Marks: 100 marks

1
Time allowed: 3 hours, Plus 10 minutes reading time.

Learning outcome being assessed:

 Responsibilities of a database administrator (1)
 Analyse how to monitor various parts of a database (2)
 Taking regular backups and restoring databases (5)
 Analyse how to tune a database to optimise performance(6)

Instructions:
1. No writing is permitted during reading time.
2. CLOSED BOOK
3. Calculators and any form of dictionary are NOT PERMITTED.
4. Write answers to all questions on the paper provided.
5. Take care of your handwriting, as illegible writing will not be marked.
6. Answer ALL the questions given.
Summary of Paper
Question Marks
1 20 marks
2 20 marks
3 10 marks
4 10 marks
5 10 marks
6 10 marks
7 10 marks
8 10 marks
TOTAL 100 marks

Page 2 Printed 04/04/23

Question 1 20 marks
You are the database administrator of a multi-user database running on a single server in a
client/server environment that has up to 500 concurrent users. These users share this database in a
number of applications. One particular application in this database found to be running very slow
and almost all the most of the users who use this application are unhappy about the poor
performance.

a) Give four possible reasons for the poor performance of this applications. You must justify
your answer explaining the reasons behind it. You should not include network bandwidth,
or hardware issues as reasons for the poor performance. [8 marks]

b) Discuss how you would go about finding the cause of the poor performance of the slow
application of the database. You are expected to mention MS windows tools, SSMS tools
or any other methods that you may use in this process. [8 marks]

c) What steps would you take to ensure this problem will not happen again?
[4 marks]

Question 2 20 marks
Discuss the backup and recovery process in the following SQL Server 2014 database system
environments. You must mention the important files and databases that you need to backup in each
database system. You must justify your answers giving reasons.

a) Single user database [10 marks]

b) Multi user distributed database. [10 marks]

Question 3 10 marks
Briefly discuss the purpose of using filegroups in a SQL Server 2014 distributed database.
[4 marks]

Give three advantages and three disadvantages of distributed database systems. [6 marks]

Question 4 10 marks
What is Transaction Log in a SQL server 2014 database? [2 marks]
Give two purposes of having a Transaction Log in a database. [4 marks]
Explain the reason for having backup copies of Transaction Logs of a database. [2 marks]
Explain what is meant by Log Shipping in SQL Server 2014. [2 marks]

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Question 5 10 marks
Name three Security Server Roles in a SQL Server 2014 database and describe their capabilities (6
marks).

Describe what is meant by “Schema” in SQL Server 2014 database system. If no specific default
schema is defined for a user account, what will be the default schema? (4 marks)

Question 6 10 marks
Suggest five changes to a physically distributed database to improve performance, if the frequency
of concurrent usage and the data volume each table of a database are known.

Question 7 10 marks
Discuss briefly the five additional responsibilities a data warehouse administrator will have in the
ETL (Extract Transform Load) process in which data is loaded from database environment to data
warehouse environment.

Question 8 10 marks
Compare stored procedures and stored functions of SQL server 2014 database system giving two
common features and two differences of each of them. [4 marks]

Explain the purpose of using system stored procedures in SQL Server 2014. Name two System
stored procedures available in SQL server. [3 marks]

Explain the purpose of using System Functions in SQL Server 2014. Name two System Functions
available in SQL server 2014.
[3 marks]

Page 4 Printed 04/04/23