CENG 352

Database Management Systems

Instructor: Nihan Kesim Çiçekli
email: nihan@ceng.metu.edu.tr
URL: http://www.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~nihan
 CENG 352
• Instructor: Nihan Kesim Çiçekli
• Office: A308
• Email: nihan@ceng.metu.edu.tr
• Lecture Hours: Mon. 14:40,15:40 (BMB4);
Thu. 13:40 (BMB2)
• Office Hours: Fri. 10:40-11:30
• Course Web page:
http://www.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~semra/nli/ceng352
• Teaching Assistant:
Semra Doğandağ (semra@ceng.metu.edu.tr)
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 Text Books and References
1. Raghu Ramakrishnan, Database Management
Systems, McGraw Hill, 3rd edition, 2003 (text
book).
2. R. Elmasri, S.B. Navathe, Fundamentals of
Database Systems, 4th edition, Addison-Wesley,
2004.
3. A. Silberschatz, H.F. Korth, S. Sudarshan,
Database System Concepts, McGraw Hill, 4th
edition, 2002.
4. H. Garcia-Molina, J. D. Ullman, J. Widom,
Database Systems The Complete Book, Prentice
Hall, 2002.
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 Grading
Written assignments 15%
Project 20%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final 35%

Exam Date:
Midterm Exam: 2nd week of April.

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Grading Policies
• Policy on missed midterm:
– no make-up exam
• Lateness policy:
– Late assignments are penalized up to 10% per
day.
• All assignments are to be your own work.
Projects in groups of two.

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 Course Outline
• The Relational Data Model, Relational Algebra
and Calculus, SQL
• Query Evaluation and Optimization
• Relational Database Design and Tuning
• Transaction Management, Concurrency Control
and Crash Recovery
• Database Security and Authorization
• Parallel and Distributed Databases
• Object-Database Systems
• Information Retrieval and XML Data
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What is a Database Management System?
• A Database Management System (DBMS) is a
software package designed to store and manage
databases:
1. Manages very large amounts of data.
2. Supports efficient access to very large amounts of data.
3. Supports concurrent access to very large amounts of data.
• Example: bank and its ATM machines.
4. Supports secure, atomic access to very large amounts of
data.
• Contrast two people editing the same UNIX file – last to write
“wins” – with the problem if two people deduct money from the
same account via ATM machines at the same time – new balance
is wrong whichever writes last.
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 Example: Online Bookseller
• Data = information on books (including categories,
bestsellers, etc.), customers, pending orders, order
histories, trends and preferences, etc.
– Massive: many gigabytes at a minimum for medium-size
bookseller, more if keep all order histories over all time,
even more if keep images of book covers and sample
pages
=> Far too big for memory
– Persistent: data outlives programs that operate on it
– Multi-user: many people/programs accessing same
database, or even same data, simultaneously
=> Need careful controls
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 Files vs. DBMS
• Application must stage large datasets between
main memory and secondary storage (e.g.,
buffering, page-oriented access, 32-bit addressing,
etc.)
• Special code for different queries
• Must protect data from inconsistency due to
multiple concurrent users
• Crash recovery
• Security and access control

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 What is a Relational Database?
• Based on the relational model (tables):

acct # name balance

12345 Sally 1000.21
34567 Sue 285.48
… … …
• Today used in most DBMS's.

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 The DBMS Marketplace
• Relational DBMS companies – Oracle, Sybase – are among the largest
software companies in the world.
• IBM offers its relational DB2 system. With IMS, a nonrelational
system, IBM is by some accounts the largest DBMS vendor in the
world.
• Microsoft offers SQL-Server, plus Microsoft Access for the cheap
DBMS on the desktop, answered by “lite” systems from other
competitors.
• Relational companies also challenged by “object-oriented DB”
companies.
• But countered with “object-relational” systems, which retain the
relational core while allowing type extension as in OO systems.

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Three Aspects to Studying DBMS's
1. Modeling and design of databases.
– Allows exploration of issues before committing to an
implementation.
2. Programming: queries and DB operations like
update.
– SQL = “intergalactic dataspeak.”
3. DBMS implementation.

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 Query
Employee Languages
Department

Name Dept Dept Manager

SQL
SELECT Manager
FROM Employee, Department
WHERE Employee.name = "Clark Kent”
AND Employee.Dept = Department.Dept
Query Language
Data definition language (DDL) ~ like type defs in C or Pascal
Data Manipulation Language (DML)
Query (SELECT)
UPDATE < relation name >
SET <attribute> = < new-value>
WHERE <condition>
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 Host Languages
C, C++, Java, Lisp, COBOL

Application prog.
Calls to
DB DBMS

Local Vars
(Memory)

(Storage)

• Host language is completely general (Turing complete)

• Query language—less general "non procedural" and
optimizable

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 Relational Model
Relational model is good for:
• Large amounts of data —> simple operations
• Navigate among small number of relations

Difficult Applications for relational model:

• VLSI Design (CAD in general)
• CASE
• Graphical Data
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 Other Models
Where number of "relations" is large, relationships are complex
•Object Data Model
•Logic Data Model

OBJECT DATA MODEL

1. Complex Objects – Nested Structure (pointers or
references)
2. Encapsulation, set of Methods/Access functions
3. Object Identity
4. Inheritance – Defining new classes like old classes
Object model: usually find objects via explicit navigation
Also query language in some systems

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 Other Models
LOGIC (Horn Clause) DATA MODEL
• Prolog, Datalog:
if A1 and A2 then B
B:- A1 and A2
• Functions s(5) = 6 (successor)
• Predicates with Arguments: sum(X,Y,Z)  X + Y = Z
sum(X,0,X) means X + 0 = X (always true for all X)
sum(X,s(Y),s(Z)):-sum(X,Y,Z) means X+(Y+1) = (Z+1) if X
+Y=Z
• More powerful than relational
Can Compute Transitive Closure
edge(X,Y).
path(X,Y) :- edge(X,Y).
path(X,Z) :- path(X,Y) & edge(Y,Z).
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 Data Models
60’s
Hierarchical Network
70's

80's
Relational Choice for most new
applications
90’s

Object Bases Knowledge Bases

now

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 Why Use a DBMS?
• Data independence and efficient access.
• Reduced application development time.
• Data integrity and security.
• Uniform data administration.
• Concurrent access, recovery from crashes.

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 Data Independence *
• Applications insulated from how data is
structured and stored.
• Logical data independence: Protection
from changes in logical structure of data.
• Physical data independence: Protection
from changes in physical structure of data.

 One of the most important benefits of using a DBMS!

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 Levels of Abstraction
• Many views, single View 1 View 2 View 3
conceptual (logical) schema
and physical schema. Conceptual Schema
– Views describe how users see
the data. Physical Schema

– Conceptual schema defines

logical structure
– Physical schema describes the
files and indexes used.
 Schemas are defined using DDL; data is modified/queried using DML.

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 Concurrency Control
• Concurrent execution of user programs is essential
for good DBMS performance.
– Because disk accesses are frequent, and relatively slow, it
is important to keep the cpu humming by working on
several user programs concurrently.
• Interleaving actions of different user programs can
lead to inconsistency: e.g., check is cleared while
account balance is being computed.
• DBMS ensures such problems don’t arise: users can
pretend they are using a single-user system.

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Transaction: An Execution of a DB Program
• Key concept is transaction, which is an atomic
sequence of database actions (reads/writes).
• Each transaction, executed completely, must leave the
DB in a consistent state if DB is consistent when the
transaction begins.
– Users can specify some simple integrity constraints on the
data, and the DBMS will enforce these constraints.
– Beyond this, the DBMS does not really understand the
semantics of the data. (e.g., it does not understand how the
interest on a bank account is computed).
– Thus, ensuring that a transaction (run alone) preserves
consistency is ultimately the user’s responsibility!

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 Scheduling Concurrent Transactions
• DBMS ensures that execution of {T1, ... , Tn} is
equivalent to some serial execution T1’ ... Tn’.
– Before reading/writing an object, a transaction requests a lock
on the object, and waits till the DBMS gives it the lock. All
locks are released at the end of the transaction. (Strict 2PL
locking protocol.)
– Idea: If an action of Ti (say, writing X) affects Tj (which
perhaps reads X), one of them, say Ti, will obtain the lock on
X first and Tj is forced to wait until Ti completes; this
effectively orders the transactions.
– What if Tj already has a lock on Y and Ti later requests a lock
on Y? (Deadlock!) Ti or Tj is aborted and restarted!
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 Ensuring Atomicity
• DBMS ensures atomicity (all-or-nothing property) even
if system crashes in the middle of a Xact.
• Idea: Keep a log (history) of all actions carried out by
the DBMS while executing a set of Xacts:
– Before a change is made to the database, the corresponding
log entry is forced to a safe location. (WAL protocol; OS
support for this is often inadequate.)
– After a crash, the effects of partially executed transactions are
undone using the log. (Thanks to WAL, if log entry wasn’t
saved before the crash, corresponding change was not applied
to database!)

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 The Log
• The following actions are recorded in the log:
– Ti writes an object: The old value and the new value.
• Log record must go to disk before the changed page!
– Ti commits/aborts: A log record indicating this action.
• Log records chained together by Xact id, so it’s
easy to undo a specific Xact (e.g., to resolve a
deadlock).
• Log is often duplexed and archived on “stable”
storage.
• All log related activities (and in fact, all CC related
activities such as lock/unlock, dealing with
deadlocks etc.) are handled transparently by the
DBMS.
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Databases make these folks happy
• End users and DBMS vendors
• DB application programmers
– e.g., smart webmasters
• Database administrator (DBA)
– Designs logical /physical schemas
– Handles security and authorization
– Data availability, crash recovery
– Database tuning as needs evolve
Must understand how a DBMS works!
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 Structure of a DBMS These layers
must consider
concurrency
control and
• A typical DBMS has a recovery

layered architecture. Query Optimization

and Execution
• The figure does not
show the concurrency Relational Operators
control and recovery Files and Access Methods
components.
Buffer Management
• This is one of several
possible architectures; Disk Space Management
each system has its
own variations.
DB

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 Summary
• DBMS used to maintain, query large datasets.
• Benefits include recovery from system crashes,
concurrent access, quick application development,
data integrity and security.
• Levels of abstraction give data independence.
• A DBMS typically has a layered architecture.
• DBAs hold responsible jobs and
are well-paid! 
• DBMS R&D is one of the broadest,
most exciting areas in CS.

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