4.

DBMS - Data Backup and Recovery

Loss of Volatile Storage
A volatile storage like RAM stores all the active logs, disk buffers, and related data. In addition,
it stores all the transactions that are being currently executed. What happens if such a volatile
storage crashes abruptly? It would obviously take away all the logs and active copies of the
database. It makes recovery almost impossible, as everything that is required to recover the data
is lost.
Following techniques may be adopted in case of loss of volatile storage −
 We can have checkpoints at multiple stages so as to save the contents of the database
periodically.
 A state of active database in the volatile memory can be periodically dumped onto a
stable storage, which may also contain logs and active transactions and buffer blocks.
 <dump> can be marked on a log file, whenever the database contents are dumped from a
non-volatile memory to a stable one.
Recovery
 When the system recovers from a failure, it can restore the latest dump.
 It can maintain a redo-list and an undo-list as checkpoints.
 It can recover the system by consulting undo-redo lists to restore the state of all
transactions up to the last checkpoint.
Database Backup & Recovery from Catastrophic Failure
A catastrophic failure is one where a stable, secondary storage device gets corrupt. With the
storage device, all the valuable data that is stored inside is lost. We have two different strategies
to recover data from such a catastrophic failure −
 Remote backup &minu; Here a backup copy of the database is stored at a remote
location from where it can be restored in case of a catastrophe.
 Alternatively, database backups can be taken on magnetic tapes and stored at a safer
place. This backup can later be transferred onto a freshly installed database to bring it to
the point of backup.
Grown-up databases are too bulky to be frequently backed up. In such cases, we have
techniques where we can restore a database just by looking at its logs. So, all that we need to do
here is to take a backup of all the logs at frequent intervals of time. The database can be backed
up once a week, and the logs being very small can be backed up every day or as frequently as
possible.
Remote Backup
Remote backup provides a sense of security in case the primary location where the database is
located gets destroyed. Remote backup can be offline or real-time or online. In case it is offline,
it is maintained manually.
Online backup systems are more real-time and lifesavers for database administrators and
investors. An online backup system is a mechanism where every bit of the real-time data is
backed up simultaneously at two distant places. One of them is directly connected to the system
and the other one is kept at a remote place as backup.
As soon as the primary database storage fails, the backup system senses the failure and switches
the user system to the remote storage. Sometimes this is so instant that the users can’t even
realize a failure.

Data Recovery
Crash Recovery
DBMS is a highly complex system with hundreds of transactions being executed every second.
The durability and robustness of a DBMS depends on its complex architecture and its
underlying hardware and system software. If it fails or crashes amid transactions, it is expected
that the system would follow some sort of algorithm or techniques to recover lost data.
Failure Classification
To see where the problem has occurred, we generalize a failure into various categories, as
follows −
Transaction failure
A transaction has to abort when it fails to execute or when it reaches a point from where it can’t
go any further. This is called transaction failure where only a few transactions or processes are
hurt.
Reasons for a transaction failure could be −
 Logical errors − Where a transaction cannot complete because it has some code error or
any internal error condition.
 System errors − Where the database system itself terminates an active transaction
because the DBMS is not able to execute it, or it has to stop because of some system
condition. For example, in case of deadlock or resource unavailability, the system aborts
an active transaction.
System Crash
There are problems − external to the system − that may cause the system to stop abruptly and
cause the system to crash. For example, interruptions in power supply may cause the failure of
underlying hardware or software failure.
Examples may include operating system errors.
Disk Failure
In early days of technology evolution, it was a common problem where hard-disk drives or
storage drives used to fail frequently.
Disk failures include formation of bad sectors, unreachability to the disk, disk head crash or any
other failure, which destroys all or a part of disk storage.
Failure Classification

To find that where the problem has occurred, we generalize a failure into the following
categories:

1. Transaction failure
2. System crash
3. Disk failure

1. Transaction failure

The transaction failure occurs when it fails to execute or when it reaches a point from
where it can't go any further. If a few transaction or process is hurt, then this is called as
transaction failure.

Reasons for a transaction failure could be -

1. Logical errors: If a transaction cannot complete due to some code error or an

internal error condition, then the logical error occurs.
2. Syntax error: It occurs where the DBMS itself terminates an active transaction
because the database system is not able to execute it. For example, The system
aborts an active transaction, in case of deadlock or resource unavailability.

2. System Crash
o System failure can occur due to power failure or other hardware or software
failure. Example: Operating system error.

Fail-stop assumption: In the system crash, non-volatile storage is assumed not to

be corrupted.

3. Disk Failure
o It occurs where hard-disk drives or storage drives used to fail frequently. It was a
common problem in the early days of technology evolution.
 o Disk failure occurs due to the formation of bad sectors, disk head crash, and
unreachability to the disk or any other failure, which destroy all or part of disk
storage.

Storage Structure
We have already described the storage system. In brief, the storage structure can be divided into
two categories −
 Volatile storage − As the name suggests, a volatile storage cannot survive system
crashes. Volatile storage devices are placed very close to the CPU; normally they are
embedded onto the chipset itself. For example, main memory and cache memory are
examples of volatile storage. They are fast but can store only a small amount of
information.
 Non-volatile storage − These memories are made to survive system crashes. They are
huge in data storage capacity, but slower in accessibility. Examples may include hard-
disks, magnetic tapes, flash memory, and non-volatile (battery backed up) RAM.
Recovery and Atomicity
When a system crashes, it may have several transactions being executed and various files
opened for them to modify the data items. Transactions are made of various operations, which
are atomic in nature. But according to ACID properties of DBMS, atomicity of transactions as a
whole must be maintained, that is, either all the operations are executed or none.
When a DBMS recovers from a crash, it should maintain the following −
 It should check the states of all the transactions, which were being executed.
 A transaction may be in the middle of some operation; the DBMS must ensure the
atomicity of the transaction in this case.
 It should check whether the transaction can be completed now or it needs to be rolled
back.
 No transactions would be allowed to leave the DBMS in an inconsistent state.

There are two types of techniques, which can help a DBMS in recovering as well as maintaining
the atomicity of a transaction −
 Maintaining the logs of each transaction, and writing them onto some stable storage
before actually modifying the database.
 Maintaining shadow paging, where the changes are done on a volatile memory, and later,
the actual database is updated.
Log-based Recovery
o The log is a sequence of records. Log of each transaction is maintained in some stable
storage so that if any failure occurs, then it can be recovered from there.
o If any operation is performed on the database, then it will be recorded in the log.
o But the process of storing the logs should be done before the actual transaction is applied
in the database.

Log-based recovery works as follows −

 The log file is kept on a stable storage media.
 When a transaction enters the system and starts execution, it writes a log about it.
<Tn, Start>
 When the transaction modifies an item X, it write logs as follows −
<Tn, X, V1, V2>
It reads Tn has changed the value of X, from V1 to V2.

 When the transaction finishes, it logs −

<Tn, commit>
The database can be modified using two approaches −
 Deferred database modification − All logs are written on to the stable storage and the
database is updated when a transaction commits.
 Immediate database modification − Each log follows an actual database modification.
That is, the database is modified immediately after every operation.

Let's assume there is a transaction to modify the City of a student. The following logs are written
for this transaction.

o When the transaction is initiated, then it writes 'start' log.

1. <Tn, Start>
o When the transaction modifies the City from 'Noida' to 'Bangalore', then another log is
written to the file.

1. <Tn, City, 'Noida', 'Bangalore' >

o When the transaction is finished, then it writes another log to indicate the end of the
transaction.

1. <Tn, Commit>

Recovery using Log records

When the system is crashed, then the system consults the log to find which transactions need to
be undone and which need to be redone.

1. If the log contains the record <Ti, Start> and <Ti, Commit> or <Ti, Commit>, then the
Transaction Ti needs to be redone.
2. If log contains record<Tn, Start> but does not contain the record either <Ti, commit> or
<Ti, abort>, then the Transaction Ti needs to be undone.

Recovery with Concurrent Transactions

When more than one transaction are being executed in parallel, the logs are interleaved. At the
time of recovery, it would become hard for the recovery system to backtrack all logs, and then
start recovering. To ease this situation, most modern DBMS use the concept of 'checkpoints'.
Checkpoint
Keeping and maintaining logs in real time and in real environment may fill out all the memory
space available in the system. As time passes, the log file may grow too big to be handled at all.
Checkpoint is a mechanism where all the previous logs are removed from the system and stored
permanently in a storage disk.
o The checkpoint is like a bookmark. While the execution of the transaction, such
checkpoints are marked, and the transaction is executed then using the steps of the
transaction, the log files will be created.
o When it reaches to the checkpoint, then the transaction will be updated into the database,
and till that point, the entire log file will be removed from the file. Then the log file is
updated with the new step of transaction till next checkpoint and so on.
o The checkpoint is used to declare a point before which the DBMS was in the consistent
state, and all transactions were committed.

Recovery
When a system with concurrent transactions crashes and recovers, it behaves in the following
manner −

 The recovery system reads the logs backwards from the end to the last checkpoint.
 The recovery system reads log files from the end to start. It reads log files from T4 to T1.

 It maintains two lists, an undo-list and a redo-list.
 If the recovery system sees a log with <T n, Start> and <Tn, Commit> or just <Tn,
Commit>, it puts the transaction in the redo-list.
 If the recovery system sees a log with <Tn, Start> but no commit or abort log found, it
puts the transaction in undo-list.
For example: In the log file, transaction T2 and T3 will have <Tn, Start> and <Tn, Commit>.
The T1 transaction will have only <Tn, commit> in the log file. That's why the transaction is
committed after the checkpoint is crossed. Hence it puts T1, T2 and T3 transaction into redo list.

 The transaction is put into undo state if the recovery system sees a log with <Tn, Start> but
no commit or abort log found. In the undo-list, all the transactions are undone, and their logs
are removed.
 For example: Transaction T4 will have <Tn, Start>. So T4 will be put into undo list since
this transaction is not yet complete and failed amid.

All the transactions in the undo-list are then undone and their logs are removed. All the
transactions in the redo-list and their previous logs are removed and then redone before saving
their logs.