DATABASE REPLICATION

1
 Replication
an alternative, and potentially more simplified
approach to data distribution provided by a
replication server, which handles the
replication of data to remote sites.
Database Replication: the process of
copying and maintaining database objects,
such as relations, in multiple databases that
make up a distributed database system.
an important mechanism because it enables
organizations to provide users with access to
current data where and when they need it.
2
 Replication
Changes applied at one site are captured and
stored locally before being forwarded and
applied at each of the remote locations.
Replication uses distributed database
technology to share data between multiple sites.
replication means that the same data is
available at multiple locations.

3
Advantages of Data Replication
Availability
Reliability
Performance
Load reduction
Disconnected computing
Supports many users
Supports advanced applications

4
Availability
Availability refers to how replication
increases the availability of data for users
and applications through the provision of
alternative data access options.
If one site becomes unavailable, then
users can continue to query or even
update the remaining locations.

5
Reliability
Reliability refers to the fact that with
multiple copies of the data available over
the system, this provides excellent warm
standby recovery facilities in the event of
failure at one or possibly more sites.

6
 Performance
Performance is particularly improved for
query transactions when replication is
introduced into a system that suffered from a
significant overloading of centralized
resources.
Replication provides fast, local access to
shared data because it balances activity over
multiple sites.
Some users can access one server while other
users access different servers, thereby
maintaining performance levels over all 7
 Load reduction
Load reduction refers to how replication can
be used to distribute data over multiple
remote locations.
Then, users can access various remote servers
instead of accessing one central server.
This configuration can significantly reduce
network traffic.
Also, users can access data from the
replication site that has the lowest access cost,
which is typically the site that is geographically
closest to them. 8
Disconnected computing
Disconnected computing refers to how
replication can be supported by snapshots.
A snapshot is a complete or partial copy
(replica) of a target relation from a single
point in time.
Snapshots enable users to work on a subset
of a corporate database while disconnected
from the main database server. Later, when
a connection is re-established, users can
synchronize (refresh) snapshots with the
corporate database, as necessary.
9
Disconnected computing
This may mean that a snapshot receives
updates from the corporate database or
the corporate database receives updates
from the snapshot.
Whatever the action taken the data in the
snapshot and the corporate database are
once more consistent.

10
Supports many users
Supports many users: organizations
increasingly need to deploy many
applications that require the ability to use
and manipulate data.
Replication can create multiple customized
snapshots that meet the requirements of
each user or group of users of the system.

11
Supports advanced applications
Organizations increasingly need to make the
corporate data available not only for
traditional Online Transaction Processing
(OLTP) systems but also for advanced data
analysis applications such as Data
warehousing, Online Analytical Processing
(OLAP), and Data mining.
Furthermore, through replication the
corporate data can also be made available to
support the increasingly popular trend of
mobile computing. 12
Negatives to replication
Of course, a replicated database system
that provides the benefits listed above is
more complex than a centralized database
system.
Eg, performance can be significantly
reduced for update transactions, because a
single logical update must be performed
on every copy of the database to keep the
copies consistent.
Also, concurrency control and recovery
techniques are more complex hence more 13
Database Replication Environments
whether data replication is maintained
using synchronous or asynchronous
replication.
whether one or more sites has ownership
of a master copy of the replicated data-
Data Ownership.
Synchronous Replication-replicated data
is updated immediately when the source
data is updated.
Asynchronous Replication-the target
database is updated after the source
database has been modified. 14
Data Ownership
Ownership relates to which site has the
privilege to update the data.
The main types of ownership are
master/slave ownership
workflow ownership.
update-anywhere (sometimes referred
to as peer-to-peer or symmetric
replication).

15
Master/Slave ownership
With master/slave ownership,
asynchronously replicated data is owned by
one site, the
master (or primary) site, and can be
updated only by that site.
Using a publish-and subscribe metaphor,
the master site (the publisher) makes data
available at the slave sites (the
subscribers).

16
 Master/Slave ownership contd
The slave sites subscribe to the data owned
by the master site, which means that they
receive read-only copies on their local
systems.
Potentially, each site can be the master site
for non-overlapping data sets.
However, there can only ever be one site that
can update the master copy of a particular
data set, and so update conflicts cannot occur
between sites.
17
Workflow ownership
Like master/slave ownership, the workflow
ownership model avoids update conflicts
while
at the same time providing a more
dynamic ownership model.
Workflow ownership allows the right to
update replicated data to move from site
to site.
However, at any one moment, there is
only ever one site that may update that
particular data set. 18
Update-anywhere (symmetric
replication) ownership
The two previous models share a common
property:
at any given moment, only one site may
update the data, all other sites have
read-only access to the replicas.
In some environments this is too
restrictive. The update-anywhere model
creates a peer-to-peer environment where
multiple sites have equal rights to update
replicated data.
19
Update-anywhere (symmetric
replication) ownership
This allows local sites to function
autonomously even when other sites are
not available.
However, Shared ownership can lead to
conflict scenarios and the replication
architecture has to
be able to employ a methodology for
conflict detection and resolution.

20
Databases and the Web

21