Physical Database Design

Process of producing a description of the implementation of the database on secondary storage.

Overview of Physical Database Design Methodology
 Step 3 Translate logical data model for target DBMS: To produce a relational database schema from the
o Step 3.1 Design base relations logical data model that can be implemented in the
o Step 3.2 Design representation of derived data target DBMS.
o Step 3.3 Design general constraints
 Step 4 Translate logical data model for target DBMS
o Step 4.1 Analyze Transactions To determine optimal file organizations to store
the base relations and the indexes that are
o Step 4.2 Choose file organizations
required to achieve acceptable performance
o Step 4.3 Choose indexes
o Step 4.4 Estimate disk space requirements
 Step 5 Design user views
 Step 6 Design security mechanisms
 Step 7 Consider the introduction of controlled redundancy
 Step 8 Monitor and tune operational system
Index
Approach:
- One approach is to keep tuples unordered and create as many secondary indexes as necessary.
- Another approach is to order tuples in the relation by specifying a primary or clustering index.
Choose indexes – Guidelines for choosing ‘wish-list’:
1. Do not index small relations.
2. Index PK of a relation if it is not a key of the file organization.
3. Add secondary index to a FK if it is frequently accessed.
4. Add secondary index to any attribute heavily used as a secondary key.
5. Add secondary index on attributes involved in: selection or join criteria; ORDER BY; GROUP BY; and other
operations involving sorting (such as UNION or DISTINCT).

Application Design
The design of user interface and application programs that use and process the database.
Two Important Activities
Transaction Design
The purpose of transaction design is to define and document the high-level characteristics of the transactions required
on the database including:
 Data to be used by the transaction
 Functional characteristics of the transaction
 Output of the transaction
 Importance to the users
 Expected rate of usage
Three main types of transactions:
 Retrieval transactions
 Update transactions
 Mixed transactions
User Interface Design
Design database layout and appearance and make it user friendly.

Prototyping
Prototype is a working model that does not normally have all the required features or provide all the functionality of
the final system
Prototype Techniques
 Representation describes the form of the prototype, e.g., sets of paper sketches or computer simulations
 Precision describes the level of detail at which the prototype is to be evaluated; e.g., informal and rough or
highly polished
 Interactivity describes the extent to which the user can actually interact with the prototype; e.g., watch-only or
fully interactive; and
 Evolution describes the expected life-cycle of the prototype, e.g. throwaway or iterative.
Prototype Tools
 Offline Prototypes (Paper Prototypes): include paper sketches, illustrated story-boards, cardboard mock-ups
 Online Prototypes (Software Prototypes): include computer animations, interactive video presentations,
programs written with scripting languages, and applications developed with interface builders
Methods of user participation in prototyping process
 User Centered Design: User-centered design places the user at the center of the design process, from the initial
analysis of user requirements to testing and evaluation.
 Participatory Design: Participatory (also called Cooperative) Design is a form of user-centered design that
actively involves the user in all phases the design process
Prototyping Strategies
 Requirements Prototyping:
o Uses a prototype to determine the requirements of a proposed database system
o Once the requirements are complete, the prototype is discarded
 Evolutionary Prototyping
o Similar with requirements prototyping, but after requirements are complete, the prototype is not
discarded, but with the further development becomes the working database system
 Rapid Prototyping
o The goal of rapid prototyping is to develop prototypes very quickly, in a fraction of the time it would
take to develop a working system
Prototyping Steps Steps for Evaluation the Prototype
 Plan Prototype:  Plan Evaluation
 Refine Objectives  Define Scenarios
 Identify data to be used  Plan evaluation measures
 Develop prototype  Prepare evaluation environment
 Review for feasibility  Evaluate with users
 Access impact of prototype  Analyze results and document
 Update documentation

Methodology-Monitoring and Tuning the Operational System

Denormalization
Denormalization refers to a refinement to relational schema such that the degree of normalization for a modified
relation is less than the degree of at least one of the original relations.
Denormalization Steps
 Step 7.1 Combining 1:1 relationships
 Step 7.2 Duplicating non-key attributes in 1:* relationships to reduce joins
 Step 7.3 Duplicating foreign key attributes in 1:* relationships to reduce joins
 Step 7.4 Duplicating attributes in *:* relationships to reduce joins
 Step 7.5 Introducing repeating groups
 Step 7.6 Creating extract tables
 Step 7.7 Partitioning relations.
o Rather than combining relations together, alternative approach is to decompose them into a number of
smaller and more manageable partitions.
o Two main types of partitioning: horizontal and vertical.
Distributed DBMSs-Concept and Design
Distributed Database: A logically interrelated collection of shared data (and a description of this data), physically
distributed over a computer network.
Distributed DBMS: Software system that permits the management of the distributed database and makes the
distribution transparent to users.
DDBMS Characteristic
 Collection of logically-related shared data.
 Data split into fragments.
 Fragments may be replicated.
 Fragments/replicas allocated to sites.
 Sites linked by a communications network.
 Data at each site is under control of a DBMS.
 DBMSs handle local applications autonomously.
 Each DBMS participates in at least one global application.
Advantages of DBMS Disadvantages of DBMS
 Reflects organizational structure  Complexity
 Improved share ability and local autonomy  Cost
 Improved availability  Security
 Improved reliability  Integrity control more difficult
 Improved performance  Lack of standards
 Economics  Lack of experience
 Modular growth  Database design more complex
Type of DDBMS
Homogeneous DDBMS:
• All sites use the same DBMS product
• Much easier to design and manage, because provides incremental growth, making the addition of a new site to
the DBMS easy, and allows increased performance by exploiting the parallel processing capability of multiple
sites.
Heterogeneous DDBMS:
• Sites may run different DBMS products
• Usually result when individual sites have implemented their own databases and integration is considered at a
later stage
Fragmentation
Used for achieve locality of reference, improved reliability, availability, performance of DDBMS.
Advantage of Fragmentation Four types of fragmentation:
 Usage  Horizontal,
 Efficiency  Vertical,
 Parallelism  Mixed,
 Security  Derived.
Data Allocation
 Centralized: Consists of single database and DBMS stored at one site with users distributed across the
network.
 Partitioned: Database partitioned into disjoint fragments, each fragment assigned to one site.
 Complete Replication: Consists of maintaining complete copy of database at each site.
 Selective Replication: Combination of partitioning, replication, and centralization.
Transparencies in a DDBMS
 Distribution Transparency: Distribution transparency allows user to perceive database as single, logical entity.
o Fragmentation Transparency
o Location Transparency
o Replication Transparency
o Local Mapping Transparency
o Naming Transparency
 Transaction Transparency: Ensures that all distributed transactions maintain distributed database’s integrity
and consistency.
o Concurrency Transparency
o Failure Transparency
 Performance Transparency
 DBMS Transparency
Database Architecture and The Web
Multi-User DBMS Architecture Client-Server
Teleprocessing  Traditional Two-tier Client server architecture
One computer with a single CPU and a number of  Three-tier Client-server
terminals.

File-Server
File-server is connected to several workstations across
a network.
 N-Tier Client-server

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA)

Architecture for building applications that implement business processes as sets of services
Data Warehousing
Consolidated/integrated view of corporate data. Drawn from disparate operational data sources.
Cloud Computing
The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than
a local server or a personal computer.
Service Models
 Software as a Service (SaaS):
o Software and data hosted on cloud. Accessed through using thin client interface (e.g. web browser).
 Platform as a Service (PaaS)
o Allows creation of web applications without buying/maintaining the software and underlying
infrastructure.
 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
o Provider’s offer servers, storage, network and operating systems – typically a platform virtualization
environment – to consumers as an on-demand service, in a single bundle and billed according to
usage.
Component of a DBMS
 Query processor
 Database manager (DM)
 File manager
 DML preprocessor
 DDL compiler
 Catalog manager
Conceptual Diagram Logical Diagram

UI Data Transaction

UI Master

UI Report