MainMemoryDatabaseSystems.pptVIP

Main Memory Database Systems Adina Costea Introduction Main Memory database system (MMDB) Data resides permanently on main physical memory Backup copy on disk Disk Resident database system (DRDB) Data resides on disk Data may be cached into memory for access Main difference is that in MMDB, the primary copy lives permanently in memory Questions about MMDB Is it reasonable to assume that the entire database fits in memory? Yes, for some applications! What is the difference between a MMDB and a DRDB with a very large cache? In DRDB, even if all data fits in memory, the structures and algorithms are designed for disk access. Differences in properties of main memory and disk The access time for main memory is orders of magnitude less than for disk storage Main memory is normally volatile, while disk storage is not The layout of data on disk is much more critical than the layout of data in main memory Impact of memory resident data The differences in properties of main-memory and disk have important implications in: Concurrency control Commit processing Access methods Data representation Query processing Recovery Performance Concurrency control Access to main memory is much faster than disk access, so we can expect that transactions complete more quickly in a MM system Lock contention may not be as important as it is when the data is disk resident Commit Processing As protection against media failure, it is necessary to have a backup copy and to keep a log of transaction activity The need for a stable log threatens to undermine the performance advantages that can be achieved with memory resident data Access Methods The costs to be minimized by the access structures (indexes) are different Data representation Main memory databases can take advantage of efficient pointer following for data representation A study of Index Structures for Main Memory Database Management Systems Tobin J. Lehman Michael J. Carey VLDB 1986 Disk versus Main Memory Primary goals for a disk