Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 1

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan and J.
Gehrke
Storing Data: Disks and Files
Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Disks and Files
 DBMS stores information on (“hard”) disks.

 This has major implications for DBMS design!
– READ: transfer data from disk to main memory (RAM).
– WRITE: transfer data from RAM to disk.
– Both are high-cost operations, relative to in-memory
operations, so must be planned carefully!

Why Not Store Everything in Main
Memory?
 Costs too much. You may buy you either GB

RAM or TB disk today.
 Main memory is volatile. We want data to be
saved between runs. (Obviously!)
 Typical storage hierarchy:
– Main memory (RAM) for currently used data.
– Disk for the main database (secondary storage).
– Tapes for archiving older versions of the data
(tertiary storage).

Disks
 Secondary storage device of choice.
 Main advantage over tapes: random access vs.
sequential.
 Data is stored and retrieved in units called
disk blocks or pages.
 Unlike RAM, time to retrieve a disk page
varies depending upon location on disk.
– Therefore, relative placement of pages on disk has
major impact on DBMS performance!

Components of a Disk Spindle
Tracks
Disk head
 The platters spin (say, 90rps).
 The arm assembly is Sector
moved in or out to position

a head on a desired track.
Tracks under heads make
a cylinder (imaginary!). Platters
Arm movement
 Only one head
reads/writes at any
one time.
Arm assembly
 Block size is a multiple
of sector size (which is fixed).

Hard Disk Structure

Disk Structure
Picture is from : http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/lesson6/lesson6-3.htm
• Track is a sequence of bits on a circular region on the

surface of the plate
A surface with 3 tracks

Disk Structure
• A track consists of a set of sectors defined with

a magnetic marking and and ID number
• Disk block consists of multiple

sectors

Disk Structure
• Cylinder is the collection of tracks with

the same radius
Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 1

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 1 to 20msec
– Rotational delay varies from 0 to 10msec
– Transfer rate is about 1msec per 4KB page
 Key to lower I/O cost: reduce seek/rotation
delays! Hardware vs. software solutions?
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!

Disk Space Management
 Lowest layer of DBMS software manages space
on disk.
 Higher levels call upon this layer to:
– allocate/de-allocate a page
– read/write a page
 Request for a sequence of pages must be satisfied
by allocating the pages sequentially on disk!
Higher levels don’t need to know how this is
done, or how free space is managed.

Buffer Management in a DBMS
Page Requests from Higher Levels
BUFFER POOL
disk page
free frame
MAIN MEMORY
DISK choice of frame dictated

DB by replacement policy
 Data must be in RAM for DBMS to operate on it!

 Table of <frame#, pageid> pairs is maintained.
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!

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)

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.

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.

Record Formats: Fixed Length
F1 F2 F3 F4
L1 L2 L3 L4
Base address (B) Address = B+L1+L2
 Information about field types same for all

records in a file; stored in system catalogs.

Record Formats: Variable Length
 Two alternative formats (# fields is fixed):
F1 F2 F3 F4
$ $ $ $
Fields Delimited by Special Symbols
F1 F2 F3 F4
Array of Field Offsets

 Second offers direct access to i’th field, efficient storage
of nulls (special don’t know value); small directory overhead.
Page Formats: Fixed Length Records
Slot 1 Slot 1
Slot 2 Slot 2
Free
... Space ...
Slot N Slot N
Slot M
N 1 . . . 0 1 1M
number M ... 3 2 1 number
PACKED of records UNPACKED, BITMAP of slots
 Record id = <page id, slot #>. In first

alternative, moving records for free space
management changes rid; may not be acceptable.
Page Formats: Variable Length Records
Rid = (i,N)
Page i
Rid = (i,2)
Rid = (i,1)
20 16 24 N Pointer
N ... 2 1 # slots to start
of free
space
SLOT DIRECTORY
 Can move records on page without changing rid;
so, attractive for fixed-length records too.
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)

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.
Heap File Implemented as a List
Data Data Data Full Pages

Page Page Page
Header
Page
Data Data Data
Pages with
Page Page Page
Free Space
 The header page id and Heap file name must

be stored someplace.
 Each page contains 2 `pointers’ plus data.
Heap File Using a Page Directory
Data
Header Page 1
Page
Data
Page 2
Data
DIRECTORY Page N
 The entry for a page 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!
Indexes
 A Heap file allows us to retrieve records:

– by specifying the rid, or
– by scanning all records sequentially
 Sometimes, we want to retrieve records by
specifying the values in one or more fields, e.g.,
– Find all students in the “CS” department
– Find all students with a gpa > 3
 Indexes are file structures that enable us to
answer such value-based queries efficiently.

System Catalogs
 For each index:
– structure (e.g., B+ tree) and search key fields
 For each relation:
– name, file name, file structure (e.g., Heap file)
– attribute name and type, for each attribute
– index name, for each index
– integrity constraints
 For each view:
– view name and definition
 Plus statistics, authorization, buffer pool size, etc.
 Catalogs are themselves stored as relations!
Attr_Cat(attr_name, rel_name, type, position)
attr_name rel_name type position
attr_name Attribute_Cat string 1
rel_name Attribute_Cat string 2
type Attribute_Cat string 3
position Attribute_Cat integer 4
sid Students string 1
name Students string 2
login Students string 3
age Students integer 4
gpa Students real 5
fid Faculty string 1
fname Faculty string 2
sal Faculty real 3
Summary
 Disks provide cheap, non-volatile storage.
– Random access, but cost depends on location of page
on disk; important to arrange data sequentially to
minimize seek and rotation delays.
 Buffer manager brings pages into RAM.
– Page stays in RAM until released by requestor.
– Written to disk when frame chosen for replacement
(which is sometime after requestor releases the page).
– Choice of frame to replace based on replacement policy.
– Tries to pre-fetch several pages at a time.

Summary (Contd.)
 DBMS vs. OS File Support
– DBMS needs features not found in many OS’s, e.g.,
forcing a page to disk, controlling the order of page
writes to disk, files spanning disks, ability to
control pre-fetching and page replacement policy
based on predictable access patterns, etc.
 Variable length record format with field offset
directory offers support for direct access to
i’th field and null values.
 Slotted page format supports variable length
records and allows records to move on page.
Summary (Contd.)
 File layer keeps track of pages in a file, and

supports abstraction of a collection of records.
– Pages with free space identified using linked list
or directory structure (similar to how pages in file
are kept track of).
 Indexes support efficient retrieval of records
based on the values in some fields.
 Catalog relations store information about
relations, indexes and views. (Information that
is common to all records in a given collection.)

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