System Analysis & Design

Unit -4: Distributed Database Systems

Topics covered

 What is a Distributed Database System?

 Need ?- To overcome lacking of Centralized Database System

 Features of Distributed Database System

 Advantages of Distributed Database Systems

 Disadvantages of Distributed Database Systems

What is a Distributed Database System?

A distributed database (DDB) is a collection of multiple, logically interrelated

databases distributed over a computer network.

A distributed database management system (D–DBMS) is the software that

manages the DDB and provides an access mechanism that makes this distribution
transparent to the users.

• By transparent we mean that user will be aware of one relational database, it

doesn’t matter where data is located, query will fetch the data from it.

Distributed database system (DDBS) = DDB + D–DBMS

Need ?- To overcome lacking of Centralized Database
System
Initially Centralized Database was there.
Centralized Database on Network
In centralized database system, all
databases are stored at one location
for example in mainframe computer .

All databases So this can lead to following problems

At one location ,
so centralized  Searching will take more time as all
data on single system.
 If central system fails, all data will be
lost.
 Multiple users accessing data at
same time may cause problems as
all data is on single system

To overcome problems of Centralized database system ,Distributed database comes into role .
Features of Distributed Database System

Distributed databases over network 1. Data is physically stored across multiple sites.
Data in each site can be managed by a DBMS
independent of the other sites.
database1 database2
2. The processors in the sites are connected via a
network
3. The distributed database is created, retrieved,
updated and deleted by DDBMS.
4. DDBMS ensures universal updation of data, when
modified at any site.
5. The database is periodically synchronized and
access mechanism is provided facilitating
database3 Database 4
transparency to the users.
6. Data confidentiality and data integrity is
maintained.
7. The database is periodically synchronized and
access mechanism is provided facilitating
transparency to the users.
Advantages of Distributed Database Systems

 Sharing : Users at one site are able to access data stored at other site.

 Availability & Reliability: Even when a portion of system or one site is down, the system
remains available. Other sites have replicated copy and other sites remain functioning.
Greater accessibility enhance reliability of system.

 Incremental Growth : As organization grows, new sites can be added with little or no
change but in centralized system, new site has to be upgraded with proper hardware and
software.

 Parallel Evaluation: A query involving data from several sites, can be subdivided into
subqueries and can run in parallel.
Advantages of Distributed Database Systems

 Economic : It costs less to create small network as compared to one powerful large
computer.

 Improved Performance: As data is located near the site of greatest demand and different
database system are parallelized so this reduces load on one system.

 Modularity: Systems can be added ,modifies or removed without affecting other modules
or systems.

 Reflect organization structure: Database fragments are stored in the department they are
related to.
Disadvantages of Distributed Database Systems

 Complexity: Extra work has to be done by database administrator to ensure that distributed system is
transparent. Extra work has to be done in designing distributed database and allocate them to different sites.

 Increase Cost: Increased complexity means that we can expect the procurement and maintenance costs for a
DDBMS to be higher than those for a centralized DBMS.

 Difficult to maintain Integrity: Database integrity refers to the validity and consistency of stored data.In
distributed database, enforcing integrity over network is difficult as it require access to different network
resources.

 Security: In a centralized system, access to the data can be easily controlled. However, in a distributed DBMS
not only does access to replicated data have to be controlled in multiple locations but also the network itself
has to be made secure.
Disadvantages of Distributed Database Systems

 Lack of Standards

Although distributed DBMSs depend on effective communication. There are no standard communication
protocols at the database level. For example, different database vendors employ different—and often
incompatible—techniques to manage the distribution of data and processing in a DDBMS environment.This
lack of standards has significantly limited the potential of distributed DBMSs.

 Lack of experience

General-purpose distributed DBMSs have not been widely accepted, although many of the protocols and
problems are well understood. Consequently, we do not yet have the same level of experience in industry as
we have with centralized DBMSs.
To be continued…

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