Course Branch Subject Name with Semeste Assignment Unit

Name Code r No.

B-Tech ECE Data Base 4 5
Management System
(ICS-402)
Roll No: A24080043
Name Arti Kak
Student SVU0132157
ID

Objective types Questions – Answers (1 Mark each)

1. Define a transaction in the context of a database management system.

Ans. Atransaction is a single logical unit of work which accesses and

possibly modifies the contents of a database. Transactions access
data using read and write operations. In order to maintain
consistency in a database, before and after the transaction, certain
properties are followed. These are called ACID properties.

2. What is the purpose of the ACID properties in transaction processing?

Ans. The purpose of the ACID properties in transaction processing is

to ensure the reliability and integrity of database transactions. ACID
stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. Each
property plays a crucial role in maintaining the correctness and
stability of transactions.

3. What is the significance of the commit and rollback operations in transaction processing?

Ans. Thesignificance of the commit and rollback operations in

transaction processing lies in their roles in ensuring data integrity
and consistency within a database.

4. Discuss the importance of concurrency control in transaction processing.

 Ans. Concurrency control is the process of managing simultaneous
transactions in a DBMS to ensure that they do not interfere with each
other. This is important because if multiple transactions are allowed
to access and modify the same data at the same time, it can lead to
inconsistencies and errors in the database.

5. Define the term serializability in the context of transaction processing.

Ans. Serializability
in the context of transaction processing refers to
the concept that ensures the consistency of a database by making
sure that the outcome of executing transactions concurrently is the
same as if the transactions were executed serially, one after the
other.

Very Short Questions - Answers (2 Marks each)

1. Discuss the concept of a deadlock in transaction processing and how it can be avoided.

Ans. Adeadlock in transaction processing occurs when two or more

transactions are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the
other to release a resource. This situation results in a standstill where
none of the transactions can move forward.

To classify and understand deadlocks, consider the following

attributes:

1. Required Attributes:
o Mutual Exclusion: At least one resource must be held in a
non-shareable mode.
o Hold and Wait: A transaction holding at least one resource
is waiting to acquire additional resources held by other
transactions.
o No Preemption: Resources cannot be forcibly taken from
transactions holding them.
o Circular Wait: A closed chain of transactions exists, where
each transaction holds at least one resource needed by the
next transaction in the chain.
 2. Variable Attributes:
o Resource Types: Different types of resources (e.g., CPU,
memory, data locks).
o Transaction Priorities: Priority levels assigned to
transactions which may affect deadlock resolution
strategies.

To avoid deadlocks, several strategies can be employed:

1. Deadlock Prevention:
o Eliminate Circular Wait: Impose a total ordering of all
resource types and ensure that each transaction requests
resources in an increasing order of enumeration.
o Resource Allocation Policies: Use policies like requiring
all resources to be requested at once (all-or-nothing) or
preempting resources from lower-priority transactions.

2. Deadlock Avoidance:
o Banker's Algorithm: Evaluate resource allocation
requests to ensure that granting them will not lead to a
deadlock.
o Wait-Die and Wound-Wait Schemes: Use transaction
timestamps to decide whether a transaction should wait or
abort when a conflict arises.

3. Deadlock Detection and Recovery:

o Detection Algorithms: Periodically check for cycles in the
resource allocation graph.
o Recovery Mechanisms: Abort one or more transactions to
break the deadlock, typically choosing the transaction with
the least cost to restart.
2. What is a save point in transaction processing?

Ans. Asave point in transaction processing is a specific point within a

transaction where the current state is saved, allowing the transaction
to be rolled back to this point if necessary. This is useful for error
recovery and partial rollbacks within a larger transaction.

Required attributes:

 Transaction ID: Unique identifier for the transaction.

 Save Point Name: Unique name or identifier for the save point
within the transaction.
 Timestamp: The exact time when the save point was created.

Variable attributes:

 User ID: Identifier for the user who initiated the transaction.
 Context Information: Additional data relevant to the
transaction's state at the save point.

3. Explain the two-phase commit protocol used in distributed transaction processing.

Ans. The two phase commit protocol is a distributed algorithm which

lets all sites in a distributed system agree to commit a transaction. In
the Two-phase commit protocol, there are two phases (that’s the
reason it is called Two-phase commit protocol) involved. The first
phase is called prepare. In this phase, a coordinator makes a request
to all the participating nodes, asking them whether they are able to
commit the transaction. They either return yes or no in the response.
They return yes if they can successfully commit the transaction or no
if they unable to do so.

Distributed two-phase commit reduces the vulnerability of one-phase

commit protocols. The steps performed in the two phases are as
follows –

Phase 1: Prepare Phase

  After each slave has locally completed its transaction, it sends a
“DONE” message to the controlling site. When the controlling
site has received “DONE” message from all slaves, it sends a
“Prepare” message to the slaves.

 The slaves vote on whether they still want to commit or not. If a

slave wants to commit, it sends a “Ready” message.

 A slave that does not want to commit sends a “Not Ready”

message. This may happen when the slave has conflicting
concurrent transactions or there is a timeout.

Phase 2: Commit/Abort Phase

 After the controlling site has received “Ready” message from all
the slaves –

o The controlling site sends a “Global Commit” message to

the slaves.

o The slaves apply the transaction and send a “Commit ACK”

message to the controlling site.

o When the controlling site receives “Commit ACK” message

from all the slaves, it considers the transaction as
committed.

 After the controlling site has received the first “Not Ready”
message from any slave –

o The controlling site sends a “Global Abort” message to the

slaves.

o The slaves abort the transaction and send a “Abort ACK”

message to the controlling site.

o When the controlling site receives “Abort ACK” message

from all the slaves, it considers the transaction as aborted.
4. Discuss the concept of dirty read in transaction isolation levels.
Ans. A dirty read occurs in database transaction isolationlevels when a
transaction reads data that has been modified by another transaction
but not yet committed. This can lead to inconsistencies if the other
transaction is rolled back.

Required attributes for dirty read:

 Uncommitted Data: Data read by a transaction that has not

been committed by the transaction that modified it.
 Concurrent Transactions: Multiple transactions are running
simultaneously.

Variable attributes:

 Rollback Scenario: The transaction that modified the data may

be rolled back, leading to inconsistencies.
 Isolation Level: Typically occurs in the Read Uncommitted
isolation level.

Isolation levels and their definitions:

1. Read Uncommitted: Allows dirty reads. Transactions can read

uncommitted changes made by other transactions.
2. Read Committed: Prevents dirty reads. Transactions can only
read data that has been committed.
3. Repeatable Read: Ensures that if a transaction reads a row, it
will read the same value if it reads that row again, preventing
non-repeatable reads.
4. Serializable: The highest isolation level, ensuring complete
isolation from other transactions, preventing dirty reads, non-
repeatable reads, and phantom reads.

5. Discuss the role of recovery manager in ensuring transaction durability

Ans. Arecovery manager is responsible for ensuring transaction
durability in a database system. Durability guarantees that once a
transaction has been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of
a system failure. The recovery manager achieves this by maintaining
logs and using recovery protocols.

Required attributes:

 Logging: Keeping a record of all transactions and changes.

 Checkpointing: Periodically saving the state of the database.
 Commit Protocols: Ensuring transactions are fully completed
before marking them as committed.
 Recovery Protocols: Procedures to restore the database to a
consistent state after a failure.

Variable attributes:

 Concurrency Control: Managing simultaneous transactions.

 Backup Strategies: Frequency and method of backups.
 System Configuration: Hardware and software setup affecting
recovery speed.

Distinctions:
1. Logging:
o Write-Ahead Logging (WAL): Logs changes before they
are applied to the database.
o Redo Logging: Logs sufficient information to redo
changes.
o Undo Logging: Logs sufficient information to undo
changes.
2. Checkpointing:
o Consistent Checkpointing: Ensures a consistent state of
the database at the checkpoint.
o Fuzzy Checkpointing: Allows some transactions to be in
progress during the checkpoint.
3. Commit Protocols:
o Two-Phase Commit (2PC): Ensures all participants in a
distributed transaction agree before committing.
o Three-Phase Commit (3PC): Adds an additional phase to
handle network partitions.
4. Recovery Protocols:
 o Immediate Update: Applies changes immediately and logs
them.
o Deferred Update: Logs changes and applies them only
after the transaction commits.

Long Questions - Answers (7 Marks each)

1. Explain the two-phase locking protocol in transaction processing. Discuss its benefits and
limitations.

Ans. The two-phase locking protocol is a concurrency control method

used in transaction processing to ensure serializability. It operates in
two distinct phases: the growing phase and the shrinking phase.
During the growing phase, a transaction can acquire locks but cannot
release any. In the shrinking phase, a transaction can release locks
but cannot acquire any new ones.

Benefits:

1. Ensures serializability, which means the transactions are

executed in a way that the results are consistent with some
serial order.
2. Prevents conflicts and ensures data integrity by controlling
access to data items.

Limitations:

1. Can lead to deadlocks, where two or more transactions are

waiting indefinitely for each other to release locks.
2. May cause reduced concurrency and performance due to the
strict locking rules, especially in high-contention environments.

Example of a deadlock scenario:

Transaction T1: Lock(A), Lock(B)

 Transaction T2: Lock(B), Lock(A)

If T1 locks A and T2 locks B, both will wait indefinitely for the other
to release the lock, causing a deadlock.

2. Explain the ACID properties of transactions in detail. Discuss why each property is
important in ensuring reliable and consistent data management.

Ans. ACIDproperties of transactions ensure reliable and consistent

data management in databases. They stand for Atomicity,
Consistency, Isolation, and Durability.

1. Atomicity: This property ensures that a transaction is treated as

a single unit, which either completes entirely or does not happen
at all. If any part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction is
rolled back, leaving the database in its original state. This is
crucial for maintaining data integrity, especially in scenarios
where multiple operations are interdependent.

2. Consistency: Consistency ensures that a transaction brings the

database from one valid state to another, maintaining all
predefined rules, such as constraints, cascades, and triggers.
This property is important because it guarantees that the
database remains in a valid state before and after the
transaction, preventing data corruption.

3. Isolation: Isolation ensures that transactions are executed in a

way that they do not interfere with each other. This means that
the intermediate state of a transaction is invisible to other
transactions. This property is vital for concurrency control,
ensuring that simultaneous transactions do not lead to
inconsistent data.

4. Durability: Durability guarantees that once a transaction has

been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of a system
failure. This is achieved through mechanisms like transaction
logs and backups. Durability is important because it ensures that
committed data is never lost, providing reliability in data
storage.
 Each of these properties plays a critical role in ensuring that
databases can handle transactions reliably and consistently, which is
essential for maintaining data integrity and trustworthiness in any
application that relies on database management systems.

3. Discuss the challenges and techniques involved in ensuring serializability of concurrent

transactions in a multi-user DBMS.

Ans. Ensuring serializability of concurrent transactions in a multi-user

DBMS involves several challenges and techniques. Serializability is
the concept that the outcome of executing transactions concurrently
should be the same as if the transactions were executed serially, one
after the other.

Challenges:

1. Concurrency Control: Managing multiple transactions that

access the same data simultaneously.
2. Deadlocks: Situations where transactions wait indefinitely for
resources locked by each other.
3. Performance Overhead: Ensuring serializability can introduce
significant performance costs.
4. Complexity: Implementing and maintaining serializability
mechanisms can be complex.

Techniques:

1. Locking Protocols:
o Two-Phase Locking (2PL): Ensures that all locks are
acquired before any are released.
o Strict Two-Phase Locking: A variant where all exclusive
locks are held until the transaction commits.
2. Timestamp Ordering: Assigns timestamps to transactions to
ensure a serial order.
3. Optimistic Concurrency Control: Transactions execute
without restrictions but validate before committing.
4. Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC): Maintains
multiple versions of data to allow read and write operations to
occur simultaneously.
 Attributes for Classification:

 Required Attributes:
o Isolation Level: Degree to which the operations of one
transaction are isolated from those of other transactions.
o Lock Granularity: Size of the data item that is locked (e.g.,
row, table).
o Transaction Throughput: Number of transactions
processed in a given time period.
 Variable Attributes:
o Resource Utilization: Amount of system resources used
by the concurrency control mechanism.
o Response Time: Time taken to complete a transaction.
o Scalability: Ability to maintain performance as the number
of transactions increases.

Definitions:

 Two-Phase Locking (2PL): A protocol that ensures

serializability by dividing the transaction execution into two
phases: a growing phase where locks are acquired and a
shrinking phase where locks are released.
 Timestamp Ordering: A method that assigns a unique
timestamp to each transaction and ensures that conflicting
operations are executed in timestamp order.
 Optimistic Concurrency Control: A method that allows
transactions to execute without locking resources but checks for
conflicts before committing.
 Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC): A method that
keeps multiple versions of data to allow concurrent reads and
writes without locking.

4. Discuss the importance of deadlock detection and resolution in transaction processing.

Explain different deadlock detection algorithms and their performance characteristics.

Ans. Deadlock detection and resolution are crucial in transaction

processing to ensure system reliability and efficiency. Deadlocks
occur when two or more transactions are waiting indefinitely for
resources held by each other, leading to a standstill. Detecting and
resolving deadlocks helps maintain system performance and data
integrity.

Deadlock Detection Algorithms:

1. Wait-For Graph (WFG)

o Definition: Constructs a graph where nodes represent
transactions and directed edges represent waiting
dependencies.
o Performance Characteristics:
 Time Complexity: O(n ), where n is the number of
2

transactions.
 Space Complexity: O(n ) for storing the graph.
2

 Scalability: Suitable for systems with a moderate

number of transactions.

2. Resource Allocation Graph (RAG)

o Definition: Extends WFG by including resource nodes and
edges representing allocation and request.
o Performance Characteristics:
 Time Complexity: O(n⋅m), where n is the number of
transactions and m is the number of resources.
 Space Complexity: O(n+m) for storing nodes and
edges.
 Scalability: Effective for systems with a balanced
number of transactions and resources.

3. Banker's Algorithm
o Definition: Simulates resource allocation for each
transaction to check for safe states.
o Performance Characteristics:
 Time Complexity: O(m⋅n ), where m is the number of
2

resource types and n is the number of transactions.

 Space Complexity: O(m⋅n) for storing resource
allocation matrices.
  Scalability: Best for systems with a fixed number of
resources and transactions.

4. Ostrich Algorithm
o Definition: Ignores deadlocks under the assumption that
they are rare and can be manually resolved.
o Performance Characteristics:
 Time Complexity: O(1), as it does not perform
detection.
 Space Complexity: O(1).
 Scalability: Suitable for systems where deadlocks are
infrequent and manual intervention is feasible.


Each algorithm has its own criteria for classification based on:

 Time Complexity: Efficiency in detecting deadlocks.

 Space Complexity: Memory usage for storing necessary data
structures.
 Scalability: Ability to handle varying numbers of transactions
and resources.

Understanding these algorithms helps in choosing the appropriate

method for deadlock detection and resolution, ensuring smooth
transaction processing.

5. Discuss the concept of transaction isolation levels (e.g., Read Uncommitted, Read
Committed, Repeatable Read, Serializable) and their impact on data consistency and
concurrency control.

Ans. Transactionisolation levels define the degree to which the

operations in one transaction are isolated from those in other
transactions. They impact data consistency and concurrency control
by determining how and when the changes made by one transaction
become visible to others. The main isolation levels are:

1. Read Uncommitted:
 o Definition: Transactions can read data that has been
modified but not yet committed by other transactions.
o Impact:
 High concurrency.
 Low data consistency.
 Possible issues: Dirty reads, non-repeatable reads,
phantom reads.

2. Read Committed:
o Definition: Transactions can only read data that has been
committed by other transactions.
o Impact:
 Moderate concurrency.
 Improved data consistency compared to Read
Uncommitted.
 Possible issues: Non-repeatable reads, phantom reads.

3. Repeatable Read:
o Definition: Transactions can read the same data multiple
times and get the same result, even if other transactions
modify the data in between.
o Impact:
 Lower concurrency.
 Higher data consistency.
 Possible issues: Phantom reads.

4. Serializable:
o Definition: Transactions are completely isolated from each
other, ensuring that they execute in a serial order.
o Impact:
 Lowest concurrency.
 Highest data consistency.
  No issues: Prevents dirty reads, non-repeatable reads,
and phantom reads.

Criteria for classification:

 Concurrency: The ability of multiple transactions to execute

simultaneously.
 Data Consistency: The accuracy and reliability of the data read
by transactions.
 Issues: Types of anomalies that can occur (dirty reads, non-
repeatable reads, phantom reads).

By understanding these isolation levels, one can choose the

appropriate level based on the application's need for data consistency
and concurrency.