Storage

1. 1
Storage in Database Systems
CMPSCI 445
Fall 2010

2. Storage Topics
 Architecture and Overview
 Disks
 Buffer management
 Files of records
2

3. 3
DBMS Architecture
Query Parser
Query Rewriter
Query Optimizer
Query Executor
File & Access Methods
Buffer Manager
Lock Manager Log Manager
Disk Space Manager

4. 4
Data on External Storage
 Disks: Can retrieve random page at fixed cost
 But reading several consecutive pages is much cheaper than
reading them in random order
 Tapes: Can only read pages in sequence
 Cheaper than disks; used for archival storage
 Page: Unit of information read from or written to disk
 Size of page: DBMS parameter, 4KB, 8KB
 Disk space manager:
 Abstraction: a collection of pages.
 Allocate/de-allocate a page.
 Read/write a page.
 Page I/O:
 Pages read from disk and pages written to disk
 Dominant cost of database operations

5. 5
Buffer Management
 Architecture:
 Data is read into memory for processing
 Data is written to disk for persistent storage
 Buffer manager stages pages between external
storage and main memory buffer pool.
 Access method layer makes calls to the buffer
manager.

6. 6
Access Methods
 Access methods: routines to manage various disk-based
data structures.
 Files of records
 Various kinds of indexes
 File of records:
 Important abstraction of external storage in a DBMS!
 Record id (rid) is sufficient to physically locate a record
 Indexes:
 Auxiliary data structures
 Given values in index search key fields, find the record ids of
records with those values

7. 7
File organizations & access methods
Many alternatives exist, each ideal for some
situations, and not so good in others:
 Heap (unordered) files: Suitable when typical
access is a file scan retrieving all records.
 Sorted Files: Best if records must be retrieved in
some order, or only a `range’ of records is needed.
 Indexes: Data structures to organize records via
trees or hashing.
• Like sorted files, they speed up searches for a subset of
records, based on values in certain (“search key”) fields
• Updates are much faster than in sorted files.

8. Disks
8

9. 9
Disks and DBMS Design
 DBMS stores information on disks.
 This has major implications for DBMS design!
 READ: transfer data from disk to main memory (RAM)
for data processing.
 WRITE: transfer data from RAM to disk for persistent
storage.
 Both are high-cost operations, relative to in-memory
operations, so must be planned carefully!

10. 10
Why Not Store Everything in Main Memory?
 Main memory is volatile. We want data to be
saved between runs. (Obviously!)
 Costs too much. $100 will buy you either 4GB
of RAM or 1TB of disk today.
 32-bit addressing limitation.
 232 bytes can be directly addressed in memory.
 Number of objects cannot exceed this number.

11. 11
Basics of Disks
 Unit of storage and retrieval: disk block or page.
 A disk block/page is a contiguous sequence of bytes.
 Size of a DBMS parameter, 4KB or 8KB.
 Disks support direct access to a page.
 Unlike RAM, time to retrieve a page varies!
 It depends upon the location on disk.
 Therefore, relative placement of pages on disk has
major impact on DBMS performance!

12. 12
Components of a Disk
Track
Platters
 Platters spin (say, 7200rpm).
Spindle
 Arm assembly is moved in
or out to position a head on a
desired track.
Disk head
Arm movement
Arm
assembly
 Only one head reads/
writes at any one time.
 Tracks under heads make a
cylinder (imaginary!).
 Each track is divided into
sectors (whose size is fixed).
 Block size is a multiple
of sector size.
Sector

13. 13
Accessing a Disk Page
 Time to access (read/write) a disk block:
 seek time (moving arms to position disk head on track)
 rotational delay (waiting for block to rotate under head)
 transfer time (actually moving data to/from disk surface)
 Seek time and rotational delay dominate.
 Seek time varies from about 2 to 30 msec
 Rotational delay varies from 0 to 11 msec
 Transfer rate between 25 to 100 MB/s
 Key to lower I/O cost: reduce seek/rotation
delays!

14. 14
Arranging Pages on Disk
 `Next’ block concept:
 blocks on same track, followed by
 blocks on same cylinder, followed by
 blocks on adjacent cylinder
 Blocks in a file should be arranged
sequentially on disk (by `next’), to minimize
seek and rotational delay.
 For a sequential scan, pre-fetching several
pages at a time is a big win!

15. Buffer Management
15

16. 16
Buffer Management in a DBMS
Page Requests from Higher Levels
BUFFER POOL
DB
disk page
free frame
MAIN MEMORY
DISK
choice of frame dictated
by replacement policy
 Data must be in RAM for DBMS to operate on it!
 Table of <frame#, pageid> pairs is maintained.

17. 17
More on Buffer Management
 Requestor of page must unpin it, and indicate
whether page has been modified:
 dirty bit is used for this.
 Page in pool may be requested many times,
 a pin count is used. A page is a candidate for
replacement iff pin count = 0.
 CC & recovery may entail additional I/O
when a frame is chosen for replacement.
(Write-Ahead Log protocol; more later.)

18. 18
When a Page is Requested ...
 If requested page is not in pool:
 Choose a frame for replacement
 If frame is dirty, write it to disk
 Read requested page into chosen frame
 Pin the page and return its address.
 If requests can be predicted (e.g., sequential scans)
pages can be pre-fetched several pages at a time!

19. 19
Buffer Replacement Policy
 Frame is chosen for replacement by a
replacement policy:
 Least-recently-used (LRU), Clock, MRU etc.
 Policy can have big impact on # of I/O’s;
depends on the access pattern.
 Sequential flooding: Nasty situation caused by
LRU + repeated sequential scans.
 # buffer frames < # pages in file means each page
request causes an I/O. MRU much better in this
situation (but not in all situations, of course).

20. 20
DBMS vs. OS File System
OS does disk space & buffer mgmt: why not let
OS manage these tasks?
 Differences in OS support: portability issues
 Some limitations, e.g., files can’t span disks.
 Buffer management in DBMS requires ability to:
 pin a page in buffer pool, force a page to disk
(important for implementing CC & recovery),
 adjust replacement policy, and pre-fetch pages based
on access patterns in typical DB operations.

21. Files
21

22. 22
Files
 Access method layer offers an abstraction of
data on disk: a file of records residing on
multiple pages
 A number of fields are organized in a record
 A collection of records are organized in a page
 A collection of pages are organized in a file

23. 23
Files of Records
 Page or block is OK when doing I/O, but
higher levels of DBMS operate on records and
files of records.
 FILE: A collection of pages, each containing a
collection of records. Must support:
 insert/delete/modify record
 read a particular record (specified using record id)
 scan all records (possibly with some conditions on
the records to be retrieved)

24. 24
Unordered (Heap) Files
 Simplest file structure contains records in no
particular order.
 As file grows and shrinks, disk pages are
allocated and de-allocated.
 To support record level operations, we must:
 keep track of the pages in a file
 keep track of free space on pages
 keep track of the records on a page
 There are many alternatives for keeping track
of this.

25. 25
Heap File Implemented as a List
Header
Page
Data
Page
Data
Page
Data
Page
Data
Page
Data
Page
Full Pages
Data
Page Pages with
Free Space
 (heap file name, header page id) stored in a known place.
 Two doubly linked lists, for full pages & pages with space.
 Each page contains 2 `pointers’ plus data.
 Upon insertion, scan the list of pages with space, or ask
disk space manager to allocate a new page

26. 26
Heap File Using a Page Directory
Data
Page 1
Data
Page 2
Data
Page N
Header
Page
DIRECTORY
 A directory entry per page; it can include the
number of free bytes on the page.
 The directory is a collection of pages; linked
list implementation is just one alternative.
 Much smaller than linked list of all HF pages!

27. 27
Page Format
 How to store a collection of records on a page?
 Consider a page as a collection of slots, one for
each record.
 A record is identified by rid = <page id, slot #>
 Record ids (rids) are used in indexes
(Alternatives 2 and 3).

28. 28
Page Format: Fixed Length Records
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot N
. . .
PACKED
N
Free
Space
number
of records
. . .
1 1
. . . 0 1M
M ... 3 2 1
Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot N
Slot M
UNPACKED, BITMAP
number
of slots
 Moving records for free space management changes
rid! May not be acceptable.

29. 20 16 24 N Pointer
to start
of free
space
29
Page Format: Variable Length Records
Page i
Rid = (i,N)
Rid = (i,2)
Rid = (i,1)
N . . . 2 1 # slots
SLOT DIRECTORY
Rid of record is <page id, slot #>
 Can move records on page without changing rid; so, attractive
for fixed-length records too. (level of indirection)

30. 30
Record Format: Fixed Length
F1 F2 F3 F4
L1 L2 L3 L4
Base address (B)
Address = B+L1+L2
 Information of a record type e.g., the number of fields
and field types is stored in the system catalog.
 Fixed length record: (1) the number of fields is fixed,
(2) each field has a fixed length.
 Store fields consecutively in a record.
 Finding i’th field does not require scan of record.

31. 31
Record Format: Variable Length
 Variable length record: (1) number of fields is fixed, (2)
some fields are variable length
 Two alternatives:
F1 F2 F3 F4
$ $ $ $
Scan
Fields Delimited
by Special Symbols
F1 F2 F3 F4
S1 S2 S3 S4 E4 Array of Field
Offsets
 Second offers direct access to i’th field, efficient storage
of NULLs ; small directory overhead.