Database Management Systems

Transaction Management

Transaction
o The transaction is a set of logically related operation. It contains a group of tasks.
o A transaction is an action or series of actions. It is performed by a single user to
perform operations for accessing the contents of the database.

Example: Suppose an employee of bank transfers Rs 800 from X's account to Y's account.
This small transaction contains several low-level tasks:

X's Account

1. Open_Account(X)  
2. Old_Balance = X.balance  
3. New_Balance = Old_Balance - 800  
4. X.balance = New_Balance  
5. Close_Account(X)  

Y's Account

1. Open_Account(Y)  
2. Old_Balance = Y.balance  
3. New_Balance = Old_Balance + 800  
4. Y.balance = New_Balance  
5. Close_Account(Y)  

Operations of Transaction:

Following are the main operations of transaction:

Read(X): Read operation is used to read the value of X from the database and stores it in a
buffer in main memory.

Write(X): Write operation is used to write the value back to the database from the buffer.

Let's take an example to debit transaction from an account which consists of following
operations:

1.   R(X);  
2.   X = X - 500;  

6th sem IT Page 1

 Database Management Systems

3.   W(X);  

Let's assume the value of X before starting of the transaction is 4000.

o The first operation reads X's value from database and stores it in a buffer.
o The second operation will decrease the value of X by 500. So buffer will contain
3500.
o The third operation will write the buffer's value to the database. So X's final value
will be 3500.

But it may be possible that because of the failure of hardware, software or power, etc. that
transaction may fail before finished all the operations in the set.

For example: If in the above transaction, the debit transaction fails after executing
operation 2 then X's value will remain 4000 in the database which is not acceptable by the
bank.

To solve this problem, we have two important operations:

Commit: It is used to save the work done permanently.

Rollback: It is used to undo the work done.

Transaction property

The transaction has the four properties. These are used to maintain consistency in a
database, before and after the transaction.

Property of Transaction

1. Atomicity
2. Consistency
3. Isolation
4. Durability

6th sem IT Page 2

 Database Management Systems

Atomicity

o It states that all operations of the transaction take place at once if not, the
transaction is aborted.
o There is no midway, i.e., the transaction cannot occur partially. Each transaction is
treated as one unit and either run to completion or is not executed at all.

Atomicity involves the following two operations:

Abort: If a transaction aborts then all the changes made are not visible.

Commit: If a transaction commits then all the changes made are visible.

Example: Let's assume that following transaction T consisting of T1 and T2. A consists of

Rs 600 and B consists of Rs 300. Transfer Rs 100 from account A to account B.

T1 T2

Read(A) Read(B)
A:=A-100 Y:=Y+100
Write(A) Write(B)

After completion of the transaction, A consists of Rs 500 and B consists of Rs 400.

 If the transaction T fails after the completion of transaction T1 but before

completion of transaction T2, then the amount will be deducted from A but not

6th sem IT Page 3

 Database Management Systems

added to B. This shows the inconsistent database state. In order to ensure

correctness of database state, the transaction must be executed in entirety.

Consistency

o The integrity constraints are maintained so that the database is consistent before
and after the transaction.
o The execution of a transaction will leave a database in either its prior stable state or
a new stable state.
o The consistent property of database states that every transaction sees a consistent
database instance.
o The transaction is used to transform the database from one consistent state to
another consistent state.

For example: The total amount must be maintained before or after the transaction.

1. Total before T occurs = 600+300=900  
2. Total after T occurs= 500+400=900  

Therefore, the database is consistent. In the case when T1 is completed but T2 fails, then
inconsistency will occur.

Isolation

o It shows that the data which is used at the time of execution of a transaction cannot
be used by the second transaction until the first one is completed.
o In isolation, if the transaction T1 is being executed and using the data item X, then
that data item can't be accessed by any other transaction T2 until the transaction T1
ends.
o The concurrency control subsystem of the DBMS enforced the isolation property.

Durability

o The durability property is used to indicate the performance of the database's

consistent state. It states that the transaction made the permanent changes.
o They cannot be lost by the erroneous operation of a faulty transaction or by the
system failure. When a transaction is completed, then the database reaches a state
known as the consistent state. That consistent state cannot be lost, even in the event
of a system's failure.
o The recovery subsystem of the DBMS has the responsibility of Durability property.

6th sem IT Page 4

 Database Management Systems

States of Transaction

In a database, the transaction can be in one of the following states -

Active state
o The active state is the first state of every transaction. In this state, the transaction is
being executed.
o For example: Insertion or deletion or updating a record is done here. But all the
records are still not saved to the database.

Partially committed
o In the partially committed state, a transaction executes its final operation, but the
data is still not saved to the database.
o In the total mark calculation example, a final display of the total marks step is
executed in this state.

Committed

A transaction is said to be in a committed state if it executes all its operations successfully.

In this state, all the effects are now permanently saved on the database system.

6th sem IT Page 5

 Database Management Systems

Failed state
o If any of the checks made by the database recovery system fails, then the transaction
is said to be in the failed state.
o In the example of total mark calculation, if the database is not able to fire a query to
fetch the marks, then the transaction will fail to execute.

Aborted
o If any of the checks fail and the transaction has reached a failed state then the
database recovery system will make sure that the database is in its previous
consistent state. If not then it will abort or roll back the transaction to bring the
database into a consistent state.
o If the transaction fails in the middle of the transaction then before executing the
transaction, all the executed transactions are rolled back to its consistent state.
o After aborting the transaction, the database recovery module will select one of the
two operations:
1. Re-start the transaction
2. Kill the transaction

Schedule

A series of operation from one transaction to another transaction is known as schedule. It

is used to preserve the order of the operation in each of the individual transaction.

6th sem IT Page 6

 Database Management Systems

1. Serial Schedule

The serial schedule is a type of schedule where one transaction is executed completely
before starting another transaction. In the serial schedule, when the first transaction
completes its cycle, then the next transaction is executed.

For example: Suppose there are two transactions T1 and T2 which have some operations.
If it has no interleaving of operations, then there are the following two possible outcomes:

1. Execute all the operations of T1 which was followed by all the operations of T2.
2. Execute all the operations of T1 which was followed by all the operations of T2.

o In the given (a) figure, Schedule A shows the serial schedule where T1 followed by
T2.
o In the given (b) figure, Schedule B shows the serial schedule where T2 followed by
T1.

2. Non-serial Schedule

o If interleaving of operations is allowed, then there will be non-serial schedule.

th
6 sem IT Page 7
 Database Management Systems

o It contains many possible orders in which the system can execute the individual
operations of the transactions.
o In the given figure (c) and (d), Schedule C and Schedule D are the non-serial
schedules. It has interleaving of operations.

 Schedule A and Schedule B are serial schedule.

 Schedule C and Schedule D are Non-serial schedule.

3. Serializable schedule

o The serializability of schedules is used to find non-serial schedules that allow the
transaction to execute concurrently without interfering with one another.

6th sem IT Page 8

 Database Management Systems

o It identifies which schedules are correct when executions of the transaction have
interleaving of their operations.
o A non-serial schedule will be serializable if its result is equal to the result of its
transactions executed serially.

Serializability
When multiple transactions are running concurrently then there is a possibility that the
database may be left in an inconsistent state. Serializability is a concept that helps us to
check which schedules are serializable. A serializable schedule is the one that always leaves
the database in consistent state.

A serializable schedule always leaves the database in consistent state. A serial schedule is
always a serializable schedule because in serial schedule, a transaction only starts when
the other transaction finished execution. However a non-serial schedule needs to be
checked for Serializability.

A non-serial schedule of n number of transactions is said to be serializable schedule, if it is

equivalent to the serial schedule of those n transactions. A serial schedule doesn’t allow
concurrency, only one transaction executes at a time and the other starts when the already
running transaction finished.

Types of Serializability
There are two types of Serializability.

1. Conflict Serializability

2. View Serializability

Testing of Serializability

Serialization Graph is used to test the Serializability of a schedule.

Assume a schedule S. For S, we construct a graph known as precedence graph. This graph
has a pair G = (V, E), where V consists a set of vertices, and E consists a set of edges. The set
of vertices is used to contain all the transactions participating in the schedule. The set of
edges is used to contain all edges Ti ->Tj for which one of the three conditions holds:

1. Create a node Ti → Tj if Ti executes write (Q) before Tj executes read (Q).

2. Create a node Ti → Tj if Ti executes read (Q) before Tj executes write (Q).
6th sem IT Page 9
 Database Management Systems

3. Create a node Ti → Tj if Ti executes write (Q) before Tj executes write (Q).

o If a precedence graph contains a single edge Ti → Tj, then all the instructions of Ti
are executed before the first instruction of Tj is executed.
o If a precedence graph for schedule S contains a cycle, then S is non-serializable. If
the precedence graph has no cycle, then S is known as serializable.

For example:

Explanation:

Read(A): In T1, no subsequent writes to A, so no new edges

Read(B): In T2, no subsequent writes to B, so no new edges
Read(C): In T3, no subsequent writes to C, so no new edges
Write(B): B is subsequently read by T3, so add edge T2 → T3
Write(C): C is subsequently read by T1, so add edge T3 → T1
Write(A): A is subsequently read by T2, so add edge T1 → T2
Write(A): In T2, no subsequent reads to A, so no new edges
Write(C): In T1, no subsequent reads to C, so no new edges
Write(B): In T3, no subsequent reads to B, so no new edges

6th sem IT Page 10

 Database Management Systems

Precedence graph for schedule S1:

The precedence graph for schedule S1 contains a cycle that's why Schedule S1 is non-
serializable.

Explanation:

Read(A): In T4,no subsequent writes to A, so no new edges

Read(C): In T4, no subsequent writes to C, so no new edges
Write(A): A is subsequently read by T5, so add edge T4 → T5
Read(B): In T5,no subsequent writes to B, so no new edges
Write(C): C is subsequently read by T6, so add edge T4 → T6
Write(B): A is subsequently read by T6, so add edge T5 → T6
Write(C): In T6, no subsequent reads to C, so no new edges
Write(A): In T5, no subsequent reads to A, so no new edges

6th sem IT Page 11

 Database Management Systems

Write(B): In T6, no subsequent reads to B, so no new edges

Precedence graph for schedule S2:

The precedence graph for schedule S2 contains no cycle that's why ScheduleS2 is
serializable.

a. Conflict Serializable Schedule

o A schedule is called conflict serializability if after swapping of non-conflicting
operations, it can transform into a serial schedule.
o The schedule will be a conflict serializable if it is conflict equivalent to a serial
schedule.

Conflicting Operations

The two operations become conflicting if all conditions satisfy:

1. Both belong to separate transactions.

2. They have the same data item.
3. They contain at least one write operation.

Example:

Swapping is possible only if S1 and S2 are logically equal.

6th sem IT Page 12

 Database Management Systems

Here, S1 = S2. That means it is non-conflict.

Here, S1 ≠ S2. That means it is conflict.

Conflict Equivalent

In the conflict equivalent, one can be transformed to another by swapping non-conflicting

operations. In the given example, S2 is conflict equivalent to S1 (S1 can be converted to S2
by swapping non-conflicting operations).

Two schedules are said to be conflict equivalent if and only if:

6th sem IT Page 13

 Database Management Systems

1. They contain the same set of the transaction.

2. If each pair of conflict operations are ordered in the same way.

Example:

Schedule S2 is a serial schedule because, in this, all operations of T1 are performed before
starting any operation of T2. Schedule S1 can be transformed into a serial schedule by
swapping non-conflicting operations of S1.

After swapping of non-conflict operations, the schedule S1 becomes:

T1 T2

Read(A)
Write(A)
Read(B)
Write(B)
Read(A)
Write(A)
Read(B)
Write(B)

Since, S1 is conflict serializable.

6th sem IT Page 14

 Database Management Systems

b. View Serializability
o A schedule will view serializable if it is view equivalent to a serial schedule.
o If a schedule is conflict serializable, then it will be view serializable.
o The view serializable which does not conflict serializable contains blind writes.

View Equivalent

Two schedules S1 and S2 are said to be view equivalent if they satisfy the following
conditions:

1. Initial Read

An initial read of both schedules must be the same. Suppose two schedule S1 and S2. In
schedule S1, if a transaction T1 is reading the data item A, then in S2, transaction T1 should
also read A.

Above two schedules are view equivalent because Initial read operation in S1 is done by T1
and in S2 it is also done by T1.

2. Updated Read

In schedule S1, if Ti is reading A which is updated by Tj then in S2 also, Ti should read A

which is updated by Tj.

6th sem IT Page 15

 Database Management Systems

Above two schedules are not view equal because, in S1, T3 is reading A updated by T2 and
in S2, T3 is reading A updated by T1.

3. Final Write

A final write must be the same between both the schedules. In schedule S1, if a transaction
T1 updates A at last then in S2, final writes operations should also be done by T1.

Above two schedules is view equal because Final write operation in S1 is done by T3 and in
S2, the final write operation is also done by T3.

Example:

6th sem IT Page 16

 Database Management Systems

Schedule S

With 3 transactions, the total number of possible schedule

1. = 3! = 6  
2. S1 = <T1 T2 T3>  
3. S2 = <T1 T3 T2>  
4. S3 = <T2 T3 T1>  
5. S4 = <T2 T1 T3>  
6. S5 = <T3 T1 T2>  
7. S6 = <T3 T2 T1>  

Taking first schedule S1:

Schedule S1

Step 1: final updation on data items

In both schedules S and S1, there is no read except the initial read that's why we don't need
to check that condition.

Step 2: Initial Read

6th sem IT Page 17

 Database Management Systems

The initial read operation in S is done by T1 and in S1, it is also done by T1.

Step 3: Final Write

The final write operation in S is done by T3 and in S1, it is also done by T3. So, S and S1 are
view Equivalent.

The first schedule S1 satisfies all three conditions, so we don't need to check another
schedule.

Hence, view equivalent serial schedule is:

T1    →      T2    →    T3  

Non-Serializable:
The non-serializable schedule is divided into two types, Recoverable and Non-recoverable
Schedule.

Recoverable Schedule:
 Schedules in which transactions commit only after all transactions whose changes
they read commit are called recoverable schedules.
 In other words, if some transaction Tj is reading value updated or written by some
other transaction Ti, then the commit of Tj must occur after the commit of Ti.
 Example – Consider the following schedule involving two transactions T 1 and T2.
T1 T2

R(A)

W(A)

W(A)

R(A)

commit

commit
This is a recoverable schedule since T 1 commits before T2, that makes the
value read by T2 correct.
There can be three types of recoverable schedule:
1. Cascading Schedule:
 Also called Avoids cascading aborts/rollbacks (ACA). When there is a failure
in one transaction and this leads to the rolling back or aborting other

6th sem IT Page 18

 Database Management Systems

dependent transactions, then such scheduling is referred to as Cascading

rollback or cascading abort.
 Example:

2. Cascadeless Schedule:
 Schedules in which transactions read values only after all transactions whose
changes they are going to read commit are called cascadeless schedules. Avoids that
a single transaction abort leads to a series of transaction rollbacks.
 A strategy to prevent cascading aborts is to disallow a transaction from reading
uncommitted changes from another transaction in the same schedule.
 In other words, if some transaction T j wants to read value updated or written by
some other transaction Ti, then the commit of Tj must read it after the commit of Ti.
Example: Consider the following schedule involving two transactions T 1 and T2.

T1 T2

R(A)

W(A)

W(A)

commit

R(A)

commit
This schedule is cascadeless. Since the updated value of A is read by T2 only
after the updating transaction i.e. T1 commits.
6th sem IT Page 19
 Database Management Systems

Example: Consider the following schedule involving two transactions T 1 and T2.

T1 T2

R(A)

W(A)

R(A)

W(A)

abort

abort
 It is a recoverable schedule but it does not avoid cascading aborts. It can be seen
that if T1 aborts, T2 will have to be aborted too in order to maintain the correctness
of the schedule as T2 has already read the uncommitted value written by T 1.

3. Strict Schedule:
 A schedule is strict if for any two transactions T i, Tj, if a write operation of
Ti precedes a conflicting operation of Tj (either read or write), then the commit or
abort event of Ti also precedes that conflicting operation of T j.
In other words, Tj can read or write updated or written value of T i only after
Ti commits/aborts.
Example: Consider the following schedule involving two transactions T 1 and T2.
T1 T2

R(A)

R(A)

W(A)

commit

W(A)

R(A)

commit
This is a strict schedule since T2 reads and writes A which is written
by T1 only after the commit of T1.

Non-Recoverable Schedule:
Example: Consider the following schedule involving two transactions
T1 and T2.
6th sem IT Page 20
 Database Management Systems

T1 T2

R(A)

W(A)

W(A)

R(A)

commit

abort
1. T2 read the value of A written by T1, and committed. T1 later aborted,
therefore the value read by T2 is wrong, but since T2 committed, this
schedule is non-recoverable.

Transaction Isolation Levels

 As we know that, in order to maintain consistency in a database, it follows ACID
properties. Among these four properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and
Durability) Isolation determines how transaction integrity is visible to other users
and systems.
 It means that a transaction should take place in a system in such a way that it is the
only transaction that is accessing the resources in a database system.
Isolation levels define the degree to which a transaction must be isolated from the
data modifications made by any other transaction in the database system.
 A transaction isolation level is defined by the following phenomena –
 Dirty Read – A Dirty read is the situation when a transaction reads a data that has
not yet been committed. For example, Let’s say transaction 1 updates a row and
leaves it uncommitted, meanwhile, Transaction 2 reads the updated row. If
transaction 1 rolls back the change, transaction 2 willhave read data that is
considered never to have existed.
 Non Repeatable read – Non Repeatable read occurs when a transaction reads same
row twice, and get a different value each time. For example, suppose transaction T1
reads data. Due to concurrency, another transaction T2 updates the same data and
commit, Now if transaction T1 rereads the same data, it will retrieve a different
value.
 Phantom Read – Phantom Read occurs when two same queries are executed, but
the rows retrieved by the two, are different. For example, suppose transaction T1
retrieves a set of rows that satisfy some search criteria. Now, Transaction T2
generates some new rows that match the search criteria for transaction T1. If
transaction T1 re-executes the statement that reads the rows, it gets a different set
of rows this time.
Based on these phenomena, The SQL standard defines four isolation levels :

6th sem IT Page 21

 Database Management Systems

1. Read Uncommitted – Read Uncommitted is the lowest isolation level. In this level,
one transaction may read not yet committed changes made by other transaction, thereby
allowing dirty reads. In this level, transactions are not isolated from each other.
2. Read Committed – This isolation level guarantees that any data read is committed
at the moment it is read. Thus it does not allows dirty read. The transaction holds a read or
write lock on the current row, and thus prevent other transactions from reading, updating
or deleting it.
3. Repeatable Read – This is the most restrictive isolation level. The transaction holds
read locks on all rows it references and writes locks on all rows it inserts, updates, or
deletes. Since other transaction cannot read, update or delete these rows, consequently it
avoids non-repeatable read.
4. Serializable – This is the Highest isolation level. A serializable execution is
guaranteed to be serializable. Serializable execution is defined to be an execution of
operations in which concurrently executing transactions appears to be serially executing.

The Table is given below clearly depicts the relationship between isolation levels, read
phenomena and locks :

Anomaly Serializable is not the same as Serializable. That is, it is necessary, but not
sufficient that a Serializable schedule should be free of all three phenomena types.

Transaction Isolation Implementations

 In order to determine if a transaction is Serializable or not we need some thorough
analysis of transactions. We cannot simply say any serial schedule transactions are
conflicting or view Serializable.
 In order to determine their serializability and hence their isolation, we use
precedence graph. This is a directed graph, from one transaction to another.  A
directed node between any two transactions is drawn if there is any conflict
between them.
 Consider below case and the precedence graph for the same. Draw nodes for each
transaction. Draw a directed line from T1 to T2 (T1 T2) if T2 reads the data x after
T1 writes it, or if T2 writes x after T1 reads it.

6th sem IT Page 22

 Database Management Systems

A directed line between T1 and T2 is drawn in a schedule if we have combination of

transactions in T1 and T2 as in below table.

A schedule is said to be conflict Serializable if and only if the precedence graph is acyclic. If
the graph forms a cycle, then it cannot be conflict Serializable.

 Consider below set of transaction and its precedence graph. Here it forms a cycle
and hence it cannot be conflict Serializable.

6th sem IT Page 23

 Database Management Systems

 For any schedule to be conflict Serializable, the precedence graph should be like
T1 → T2 → T4 → T5 → T3 (order of transaction can be anything, but it should not
form cycle). That means transactions can be serialized even if they have conflicting
transactions, and can achieve isolation.

 Now let us see how to determine if a schedule is view Serializable or not. We cannot
determine this by graph above, but it needs some analysis. Consider that we have
three transactions – T1, T2 and T3. Now write all the combination of these three
transactions.

T1, T2, T3
T1, T3, T2
T2, T1, T3
T2, T3, T1
T3, T1, T2
T3, T2, T1
 According to view serializability rule stated above, if a transaction is reading the
data in a schedule, it should read the data in other schedule too. Suppose T1 is
reading the data. Then T1 should be the first transaction reading the data in both the
schedules. Hence retain those transactions which read data first, T1 first. Below last
combination of transactions are kept thing T2 is writing the data that T1 has read
and T3 is reading some other data.
6th sem IT Page 24
 Database Management Systems

T1, T2, T3
T1, T3, T2
T3, T1, T2
 According to second condition of view serializability, if a transaction reads the data
written by another transaction in a schedule, then another schedule should also
have a transaction which reads the data written by another same transaction. But in
above case, T1 reads the initial data and should be the first transaction. T2 writes
the data read by T1. T3 reads some other data. Hence we do not have case of
transaction reading a data written by T2. Hence it cannot be view Serializable.
 Suppose we passed second condition too. Now the third condition says, if one of the
transactions writes the final data in a schedule, then same transaction should write
the data in combination of transactions. In above combination, T2 writes the final
data. But T3 reads some other data. Hence we do not have combination of at least 2
transactions which has T2 at the end and T1 at the beginning. Hence it cannot be
view serializable.

 Let consider another example below

This can even be re-written as W3 (Z), R2 (X), W2 (Y), R1 (Z), W3 (Y), W1 (Y).

 According first rule, transaction reading initial data should be kept at the
beginning. Here T1 and T2 read the data. But T2 reads the initial data – since
there is no writes before T2’s read. The read in T1 is after it is written by T3.
Hence T1’s read cannot be considered as initial read. Hence, we should have T2
placed at the beginning or at least before other transaction reads it or before last
transaction.

 According to second rule, transaction should read the data written by some other
transaction. In above case, we see T3 writes X and is read by T1. Hence T1 should
be placed after T3 i.e.; T3 → T1.

6th sem IT Page 25

 Database Management Systems

 As per third rule, the transactions writing the final results should be placed at the
end. Here all the transactions write the result. If we observe, the final result is the
result of Y or Z. But after writing Z, it is read by T1. Hence it is not final. Y is
written by three transactions: T1, T2 or T3. As we discussed in first step, T2
reads the initial data and hence cannot be placed at the end. It will be placed at
the beginning. T3 writes data X, and is red by T1. Hence it should be placed
before T1. Now only left transaction is T1, which writes the final result Y, and can
be kept at the end – may be after T2 or T3

Hence the possible way of scheduling these three transactions is as below

T2, T3, T1

T3, T2, T1 – here T3 can be placed first, as it is not using any data X.

Now these two schedules are view serializable. These transactions are scheduled in either
way and will be executed independent of each other. It will result in consistent resultset.
Hence isolation of transactions is achieved.

Concurrency Control
o In the concurrency control, the multiple transactions can be executed
simultaneously.
o It may affect the transaction result. It is highly important to maintain the order of
execution of those transactions.

Problems of concurrency control

Several problems can occur when concurrent transactions are executed in an uncontrolled
manner. Following are the three problems in concurrency control.

1. Lost updates
2. Dirty read
3. Unrepeatable read

1. Lost update problem

o When two transactions that access the same database items contain their operations
in a way that makes the value of some database item incorrect, then the lost update
problem occurs.

6th sem IT Page 26

 Database Management Systems

o If two transactions T1 and T2 read a record and then update it, then the effect of
updating of the first record will be overwritten by the second update.

Example:

Here,

o At time t2, transaction-X reads A's value.

o At time t3, Transaction-Y reads A's value.
o At time t4, Transactions-X writes A's value on the basis of the value seen at time t2.
o At time t5, Transactions-Y writes A's value on the basis of the value seen at time t3.
o So at time T5, the update of Transaction-X is lost because Transaction y overwrites
it without looking at its current value.
o Such type of problem is known as Lost Update Problem as update made by one
transaction is lost here.

2. Dirty Read
o The dirty read occurs in the case when one transaction updates an item of the
database, and then the transaction fails for some reason. The updated database item
is accessed by another transaction before it is changed back to the original value.
o A transaction T1 updates a record which is read by T2. If T1 aborts then T2 now has
values which have never formed part of the stable database.

Example:

6th sem IT Page 27

 Database Management Systems

o At time t2, transaction-Y writes A's value.

o At time t3, Transaction-X reads A's value.
o At time t4, Transactions-Y rollbacks. So, it changes A's value back to that of prior to
t1.
o So, Transaction-X now contains a value which has never become part of the stable
database.
o Such type of problem is known as Dirty Read Problem, as one transaction reads a
dirty value which has not been committed.

3. Inconsistent Retrievals Problem

o Inconsistent Retrievals Problem is also known as unrepeatable read. When a
transaction calculates some summary function over a set of data while the other
transactions are updating the data, then the Inconsistent Retrievals Problem occurs.
o A transaction T1 reads a record and then does some other processing during which
the transaction T2 updates the record. Now when the transaction T1 reads the
record, then the new value will be inconsistent with the previous value.

Example:

Suppose two transactions operate on three accounts.

6th sem IT Page 28

 Database Management Systems

o Transaction-X is doing the sum of all balance while transaction-Y is transferring an

amount 50 from Account-1 to Account-3.
o Here, transaction-X produces the result of 550 which is incorrect. If we write this
produced result in the database, the database will become an inconsistent state
because the actual sum is 600.
o Here, transaction-X has seen an inconsistent state of the database.

Concurrency Control Protocol

Concurrency control protocols ensure atomicity, isolation, and serializability of concurrent

transactions. The concurrency control protocol can be divided into three categories:

6th sem IT Page 29

 Database Management Systems

1. Lock based protocol

2. Time-stamp protocol
3. Validation based protocol

Lock-Based Protocol

In this type of protocol, any transaction cannot read or write data until it acquires an
appropriate lock on it. There are two types of lock:

1. Shared lock:

o It is also known as a Read-only lock. In a shared lock, the data item can only read by
the transaction.
o It can be shared between the transactions because when the transaction holds a
lock, then it can't update the data on the data item.

2. Exclusive lock:

o In the exclusive lock, the data item can be both reads as well as written by the
transaction.
o This lock is exclusive, and in this lock, multiple transactions do not modify the same
data simultaneously.

There are four types of lock protocols available:

1. Simplistic lock protocol

It is the simplest way of locking the data while transaction. Simplistic lock-based protocols
allow all the transactions to get the lock on the data before insert or delete or update on it.
It will unlock the data item after completing the transaction.

2. Pre-claiming Lock Protocol

o Pre-claiming Lock Protocols evaluate the transaction to list all the data items on
which they need locks.
o Before initiating an execution of the transaction, it requests DBMS for all the lock on
all those data items.
o If all the locks are granted then this protocol allows the transaction to begin. When
the transaction is completed then it releases all the lock.
o If all the locks are not granted then this protocol allows the transaction to rolls back
and waits until all the locks are granted.

6th sem IT Page 30

 Database Management Systems

3. Two-phase locking (2PL)

o The two-phase locking protocol divides the execution phase of the transaction into
three parts.
o In the first part, when the execution of the transaction starts, it seeks permission for
the lock it requires.
o In the second part, the transaction acquires all the locks. The third phase is started
as soon as the transaction releases its first lock.
o In the third phase, the transaction cannot demand any new locks. It only releases
the acquired locks.

There are two phases of 2PL:

Growing phase: In the growing phase, a new lock on the data item may be acquired by the
transaction, but none can be released.

Shrinking phase: In the shrinking phase, existing lock held by the transaction may be
released, but no new locks can be acquired.

In the below example, if lock conversion is allowed then the following phase can happen:

1. Upgrading of lock (from S(a) to X (a)) is allowed in growing phase.

2. Downgrading of lock (from X(a) to S(a)) must be done in shrinking phase.

6th sem IT Page 31

 Database Management Systems

Example:

The following way shows how unlocking and locking work with 2-PL.

Transaction T1:

o Growing phase: from step 1-3

o Shrinking phase: from step 5-7
o Lock point: at 3

Transaction T2:

o Growing phase: from step 2-6

o Shrinking phase: from step 8-9
o Lock point: at 6

6th sem IT Page 32

 Database Management Systems

4. Strict Two-phase locking (Strict-2PL)

o The first phase of Strict-2PL is similar to 2PL. In the first phase, after acquiring all
the locks, the transaction continues to execute normally.
o The only difference between 2PL and strict 2PL is that Strict-2PL does not release a
lock after using it.
o Strict-2PL waits until the whole transaction to commit, and then it releases all the
locks at a time.
o Strict-2PL protocol does not have shrinking phase of lock release.

It does not have cascading abort as 2PL does.

Timestamp Ordering Protocol

o The Timestamp Ordering Protocol is used to order the transactions based on their
Timestamps. The order of transaction is nothing but the ascending order of the
transaction creation.
o The priority of the older transaction is higher that's why it executes first. To
determine the timestamp of the transaction, this protocol uses system time or
logical counter.
o The lock-based protocol is used to manage the order between conflicting pairs
among transactions at the execution time. But Timestamp based protocols start
working as soon as a transaction is created.
o Let's assume there are two transactions T1 and T2. Suppose the transaction T1 has
entered the system at 007 times and transaction T2 has entered the system at 009
times. T1 has the higher priority, so it executes first as it is entered the system first.

6th sem IT Page 33

 Database Management Systems

o The timestamp ordering protocol also maintains the timestamp of last 'read' and
'write' operation on a data.

Basic Timestamp ordering protocol works as follows:

1. Check the following condition whenever a transaction Ti issues a Read (X) operation:

o If W_TS(X) >TS(Ti) then the operation is rejected.

o If W_TS(X) <= TS(Ti) then the operation is executed.
o Timestamps of all the data items are updated.

2. Check the following condition whenever a transaction Ti issues a Write(X) operation:

o If TS(Ti) < R_TS(X) then the operation is rejected.

o If TS(Ti) < W_TS(X) then the operation is rejected and Ti is rolled back otherwise the
operation is executed.

Where,

TS(TI) denotes the timestamp of the transaction Ti.

R_TS(X) denotes the Read time-stamp of data-item X.

W_TS(X) denotes the Write time-stamp of data-item X.

Advantages and Disadvantages of TO protocol:

o TO protocol ensures serializability since the precedence graph is as follows:

o TS protocol ensures freedom from deadlock that means no transaction ever waits.
o But the schedule may not be recoverable and may not even be cascade- free.

6th sem IT Page 34

 Database Management Systems

Validation Based Protocol

Validation phase is also known as optimistic concurrency control technique. In the

validation based protocol, the transaction is executed in the following three phases:

1. Read phase: In this phase, the transaction T is read and executed. It is used to read
the value of various data items and stores them in temporary local variables. It can
perform all the write operations on temporary variables without an update to the
actual database.
2. Validation phase: In this phase, the temporary variable value will be validated
against the actual data to see if it violates the serializability.
3. Write phase: If the validation of the transaction is validated, then the temporary
results are written to the database or system otherwise the transaction is rolled
back.

Here each phase has the following different timestamps:

Start(Ti): It contains the time when Ti started its execution.

Validation (Ti): It contains the time when Ti finishes its read phase and starts its
validation phase.

Finish(Ti): It contains the time when Ti finishes its write phase.

o This protocol is used to determine the time stamp for the transaction for
serialization using the time stamp of the validation phase, as it is the actual phase
which determines if the transaction will commit or rollback.
o Hence TS(T) = validation(T).
o The serializability is determined during the validation process. It can't be decided in
advance.
o While executing the transaction, it ensures a greater degree of concurrency and also
less number of conflicts.
o Thus it contains transactions which have less number of rollbacks.

Deadlock Handling

A deadlock is a condition where two or more transactions are waiting indefinitely for one
another to give up locks. Deadlock is said to be one of the most feared complications in
DBMS as no task ever gets finished and is in waiting state forever.

For example: In the student table, transaction T1 holds a lock on some rows and needs to
update some rows in the grade table. Simultaneously, transaction T2 holds locks on some

6th sem IT Page 35

 Database Management Systems

rows in the grade table and needs to update the rows in the Student table held by
Transaction T1.

Now, the main problem arises. Now Transaction T1 is waiting for T2 to release its lock and
similarly, transaction T2 is waiting for T1 to release its lock. All activities come to a halt
state and remain at a standstill. It will remain in a standstill until the DBMS detects the
deadlock and aborts one of the transactions.

Deadlock Avoidance

o When a database is stuck in a deadlock state, then it is better to avoid the database
rather than aborting or restating the database. This is a waste of time and resource.
o Deadlock avoidance mechanism is used to detect any deadlock situation in advance.
A method like "wait for graph" is used for detecting the deadlock situation but this
method is suitable only for the smaller database. For the larger database, deadlock
prevention method can be used.

Deadlock Detection

In a database, when a transaction waits indefinitely to obtain a lock, then the DBMS should
detect whether the transaction is involved in a deadlock or not. The lock manager
maintains a Wait for the graph to detect the deadlock cycle in the database.

6th sem IT Page 36

 Database Management Systems

Wait for Graph

o This is the suitable method for deadlock detection. In this method, a graph is created
based on the transaction and their lock. If the created graph has a cycle or closed
loop, then there is a deadlock.
o The wait for the graph is maintained by the system for every transaction which is
waiting for some data held by the others. The system keeps checking the graph if
there is any cycle in the graph.

The wait for a graph for the above scenario is shown below:

Deadlock Prevention

o Deadlock prevention method is suitable for a large database. If the resources are
allocated in such a way that deadlock never occurs, then the deadlock can be
prevented.
o The Database management system analyzes the operations of the transaction
whether they can create a deadlock situation or not. If they do, then the DBMS never
allowed that transaction to be executed.

6th sem IT Page 37

 Database Management Systems

Wait-Die scheme

In this scheme, if a transaction requests for a resource which is already held with a
conflicting lock by another transaction then the DBMS simply checks the timestamp of both
transactions. It allows the older transaction to wait until the resource is available for
execution.

Let's assume there are two transactions Ti and Tj and let TS(T) is a timestamp of any
transaction T. If T2 holds a lock by some other transaction and T1 is requesting for
resources held by T2 then the following actions are performed by DBMS:

1. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is the older transaction and Tj has held some resource,
then Ti is allowed to wait until the data-item is available for execution. That means if
the older transaction is waiting for a resource which is locked by the younger
transaction, then the older transaction is allowed to wait for resource until it is
available.
2. Check if TS(Ti) < TS(Tj) - If Ti is older transaction and has held some resource and if
Tj is waiting for it, then Tj is killed and restarted later with the random delay but
with the same timestamp.

Wound wait scheme

o In wound wait scheme, if the older transaction requests for a resource which is held
by the younger transaction, then older transaction forces younger one to kill the
transaction and release the resource. After the minute delay, the younger
transaction is restarted but with the same timestamp.
o If the older transaction has held a resource which is requested by the Younger
transaction, then the younger transaction is asked to wait until older releases it.

Recoverability of Schedule

Sometimes a transaction may not execute completely due to a software issue, system crash
or hardware failure. In that case, the failed transaction has to be rollback. But some other
transaction may also have used value produced by the failed transaction. So we also have to
rollback those transactions.

6th sem IT Page 38

 Database Management Systems

The above table 1 shows a schedule which has two transactions. T1 reads and writes the
value of A and that value is read and written by T2. T2 commits but later on, T1 fails. Due to
the failure, we have to rollback T1. T2 should also be rollback because it reads the value
written by T1, but T2 can't be rollback because it already committed. So this type of
schedule is known as irrecoverable schedule.

Irrecoverable schedule: The schedule will be irrecoverable if Tj reads the updated value

of Ti and Tj committed before Ti commit.

6th sem IT Page 39

 Database Management Systems

The above table 2 shows a schedule with two transactions. Transaction T1 reads and writes
A, and that value is read and written by transaction T2. But later on, T1 fails. Due to this, we
have to rollback T1. T2 should be rollback because T2 has read the value written by T1. As
it has not committed before T1 commits so we can rollback transaction T2 as well. So it is
recoverable with cascade rollback.

Recoverable with cascading rollback: The schedule will be recoverable with cascading

rollback if Tj reads the updated value of Ti. Commit of Tj is delayed till commit of Ti.

The above Table 3 shows a schedule with two transactions. Transaction T1 reads and write
A and commits, and that value is read and written by T2. So this is a cascade less
recoverable schedule.

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 -

6th sem IT Page 40

 Database Management Systems

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.

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.

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.

6th sem IT Page 41

 Database Management Systems

1. <Tn, Commit>  

There are two approaches to modify the database:

1. Deferred database modification:

o The deferred modification technique occurs if the transaction does not modify the
database until it has committed.
o In this method, all the logs are created and stored in the stable storage, and the
database is updated when a transaction commits.

2. Immediate database modification:

o The Immediate modification technique occurs if database modification occurs while
the transaction is still active.
o In this technique, the database is modified immediately after every operation. It
follows an actual database modification.

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.

Checkpoint
o The checkpoint is a type of mechanism where all the previous logs are removed
from the system and permanently stored in the 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 using Checkpoint

6th sem IT Page 42

 Database Management Systems

In the following manner, a recovery system recovers the database from this failure:

o The recovery system reads log files from the end to start. It reads log files from T4 to
T1.
o Recovery system maintains two lists, a redo-list, and an undo-list.
o The transaction is put into redo state if the recovery system sees a log with <Tn,
Start> and <Tn, Commit> or just <Tn, Commit>. In the redo-list and their previous
list, all the transactions are removed and then redone before saving their logs.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.

6th sem IT Page 43