DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS UNIT 5

UNIT 5

OVERVIEW OF STORAGE AND INDEXING

Unit 5 Contents at a glance:

1. Data on external storage,
2. file organizations
3. indexing,
4. index data structures,
5. comparison of file organizations,
6. RAID
7. Tree structured indexing -intuition for tree indexes,
8. indexed sequential access method (ISAM),
9. B+ Trees -a dynamic tree structure.

1. Data on external storage:

 Data in a DBMS is stored on storage devices such as disks and tapes

 The disk space manager is responsible for keeping track of available disk space.
 The file manager, which provides the abstraction of a file of records to higher levels of
DBMS code, issues requests to the disk space manager to obtain and relinquish space on
disk.

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Storage Manager Component :

A Storage Manager is a component or program module that provides the interface between the
low-level data stored in the database and the application programs/queries submitted to
the system. The Storage Manager Components include –

1. File Manager- File manager manages the file space and it takes care of the structure of
the file. It manages the allocation space on disk storage and the data structures used to
represent info stored on other media.
2. Buffer Manager – It transfers blocks between disk (or other devices) and Main Memory.
A DMA (Direct Memory Access) is a form of Input/Output that controls the exchange of
blocks process. When a processor receives a request for a transfer of a block, it sends it
to the DMA Controller which transfers the block uninterrupted.
3. Authorization and Integrity Manager – This Component of storage manager checks for
the authority of the users to access and modify information, as well as integrity
constraints (keys, etc).
4. Disk Manager- The block requested by the file manager is transferred by the Disk
Manager.

Memory Hierarchy:

Figure: Memory Hierarchy

At the top, we have primary storage, which consists of cache and main memory , and provides very
fast access to data. then comes secondary storage, which consists of slower devices such as magnetic
disks. tertiary storage is the slowest class of storage devices; for example, optical disks and tapes.

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Primary Storage:

1. all the primary storage level, the memory hierarchy includes at the most expensive end
cache memory, which is a static RAM (Random Access Memory ) cache memory is mainly used
by the CPU to speedup execution programs.
2. the next level of primary storage is DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory ), which provides
the main work area for the CPU for keeping programs and data , which is popularly called as
main memory .
3. the advantages of DRAM is its low cost, which continuous to decrease ; the drawback is its
volatility and lower speed compared with static RAM.
Secondary Storage:
At the secondary storage level, the hierarchy includes magnetic disks, as well storage in the form
of CD - ROM (Compact Disk - Read Only Memory ) devices.

Secondary storage devices are used to store data for future use or as backup. Secondary storage
includes memory devices that are not a part of the CPU chipset or motherboard, for example,
magnetic disks, optical disks (DVD, CD, etc.), hard disks, flash drives, and magnetic tapes.
Tertiary storage:
At the tertiary storage level, the hierarchy includes optical disks and tapes as the least expensive
end.
The storage capacity anywhere in the hierarchy is measured in kilobytes (k bytes or bytes),
megabytes (M bytes or 1 million bytes), gigabytes (G byte or billion bytes), and even terabytes
(1000 G bytes).
Explanation:
DRAM:

programs reside execute in DRAM . Generally, large permanent database reside on secondary
storage, and portions of the database are read into and written from buffers is main memory as
needed. personal computers and work stations have tens of megabytes of data in DRAM. it is become
possible to load a large fraction of the database into main memory. an example is telephone switching
applications, which store databases that contain routing and line information in main memory.
Flash Memory:

1. Between DRAM and magnetic disk storage, another form of memory resides, flash memory,
which is becoming common, particularly because it is non - volatile.
2. flash memories are high density, high - performance memories using EEPROM (Electrically
Erasable programmable Read -only Memory) technology.
3. the advantage of flash memory is the fast access speed;
4. the disadvantage is that an entire block must be erased and written over at a time.

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Magnetic disk storage:

 primary medium for long-term storage.
 Typically the entire database is stored on disk.
 Data must be moved from disk to main memory in order for the data to be operated on.
 After operations are performed, data must be copied back to disk if any changes were
made.
 Disk storage is called direct access storage as it is possible to read data on the disk in
any order (unlike sequential access).
 Disk storage usually survives power failures and system crashes.

Figure: Structure of magnetic disk

Access time: the time it takes from when a read or write request is issued to when data
transfer begins.
Data-transfer rate– the rate at which data can be retrieved from or stored to the disk.
Mean time to failure (MTTF)– the average time the disk is expected to run continuously
without any failure.

CD-ROM:
CD - ROM disks store data optically and are read by a laser. CD - ROM s contain pre - recorded
data that cannot be overwritten. WORM (Write - Once - Read - Many disks) are a form of optical
storage used for archiving data; they allow data to be written once and read any number of times
without the possibility of erasing. the DVD (Digital Video Disks) is a recent standard for optical disks
allowing fourteen to fifteen gigabytes of storage per disks.

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Tapes:

1. Tapes are relatively not expensive and can store very large amount of data. when we
maintain data for a long period but do expect to access it very often.

2. used primarily for backup and archival data.

3. Cheaper, but much slower access, since tape must be read sequentially from the
beginning.
4. Used as protection from disk failures!
5. A Quantum DLT 4000 drive is a typical tape device; it stores 20 GB of data and can store
about twice as much by compressing the data.

Figure: storage device hierarchy