Chapter 6

Data and Database

Administration

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 Objectives
• Definition of terms

• Functions and roles of data/database administration

• Role of data dictionaries and information repositories

• Optimistic and pessimistic concurrency control

• Problems and techniques for data security
• Problems and techniques for data recovery

• Database tuning issues

• Importance and measures of data quality

• Importance and measures of data availability 2

 Traditional Administration Definitions
• Data Administration: A high-level function that
is responsible for the overall management of
data resources in an organization, including
maintaining corporate-wide definitions and
standards
• Database Administration: A technical function
that is responsible for physical database
design and for dealing with technical issues
such as security enforcement, database
performance, and backup and recovery

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 Traditional Data
Administration Functions
• Data policies, procedures, standards
• Planning
• Data conflict (ownership) resolution
• Internal marketing of DA concepts
• Managing the data repository

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 Traditional Database
Administration Functions
• Selection of hardware and software
• Installing/upgrading DBMS
• Tuning database performance
• Improving query processing performance
• Managing data security, privacy, and integrity

• Data backup and recovery

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 Evolving Approaches
to Data Administration
• Merge data and database administration into one role
• Fast-track development – monitoring development
process (analysis, design, implementation,
maintenance)
• Procedural DBAs – managing quality of triggers and
stored procedures
• eDBA – managing Internet-enabled database
applications
• PDA DBA – data synchronization and personal
database management
• Data warehouse administration 6
 Data Warehouse Administration
• New role, coming with the growth in data
warehouses
• Similar to DA/DBA roles
• Emphasis on integration and coordination of
metadata/data across many data sources
• Specific roles:
– Support decision–support applications
– Manage data warehouse growth
– Establish service level agreements regarding data
warehouses and data marts
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 Open Source DBMSs
• An alternative to proprietary packages such as
Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, or Microsoft
Access
• mySQL is an example of open-source DBMS

• Less expensive than proprietary packages

• Source code available, for modification

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Data Modeling Responsibilities

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 Database Security
• Database Security: Protection of the
data against accidental or intentional
loss, destruction, or misuse

• Increased difficulty due to Internet access

and client/server technologies

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Possible locations of data security threats

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 Threats to Data Security
• Accidental losses attributable to:
– Human error
– Software failure
– Hardware failure
• Theft and fraud
• Improper data access:
– Loss of privacy (personal data)
– Loss of confidentiality (corporate data)
• Loss of data integrity
• Loss of availability (through, e.g. sabotage)
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 Data Management Software
Security Features
• Views or subschemas

• Integrity controls

• Authorization rules

• User-defined procedures

• Encryption

• Authentication schemes

• Backup, journalizing, and checkpointing 13

 Views and Integrity Controls
• Views
– Subset of the database that is presented to one or
more users
– User can be given access privilege to view without
allowing access privilege to underlying tables

• Integrity Controls
– Protect data from unauthorized use
– Domains – set allowable values
– Assertions – enforce database conditions 14
 Authorization Rules
• Controls incorporated in the data
management system
• Restrict:
– Access to data
– Actions that people can take on data

• Authorization matrix for:

– Subjects
– Objects
– Actions
– Constraints
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Authorization matrix

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Authorization table for subjects

Authorization table for objects

Oracle9i privileges

Some DBMSs also provide

capabilities for user-
defined procedures to
customize the authorization
process 17
Basic two-Key Encryption

Encryption – the coding or

scrambling of data so that
humans cannot read them

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 Authentication Schemes (1)
• Goal – obtain a positive identification of the
user
• Passwords: First line of defense
– Should be at least 8 characters long
– Should combine alphabetic and numeric
data
– Should not be complete words or personal
information
– Should be changed frequently
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 Authentication Schemes (2)
• Strong Authentication
– Passwords are flawed:
• Users share them with each other

• They get written down, could be copied

• Automatic logon scripts remove need to
explicitly type them in
• Unencrypted passwords travel the Internet

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 Authentication Schemes (3)
• Possible solutions:
– Two factor – e.g. smart card plus PIN

– Three factor – e.g. smart card, biometric,

PIN
– Biometric devices – use of fingerprints,
retinal scans, etc. for positive ID
– Third-party authentication – using secret
keys, digital certificates 21
 Security Policies and Procedures
• Personnel controls
– Hiring practices, employee monitoring, security
training
• Physical access controls
– Equipment locking, check-out procedures, screen
placement
• Maintenance controls
– Maintenance agreements, access to source code,
quality and availability standards
• Data privacy controls
– Adherence to privacy legislation, access rules
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 Database Recovery
 Mechanism for restoring a database quickly
and accurately after loss or damage
 Recovery facilities:

− Backup Facilities

− Journalizing Facilities

− Checkpoint Facility

− Recovery Manager

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 Backup Facilities
• Automatic dump facility that produces
backup copy of the entire database
• Periodic backup (e.g. nightly, weekly)
• Cold backup – database is shut down
during backup
• Hot backup – selected portion is shut down
and backed up at a given time
• Backups stored in secure, off-site location
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 Journalizing Facilities
• Audit trail of transactions and database
updates
• Transaction log – record of essential data for
each transaction processed against the
database
• Database change log – images of updated
data
– Before-image – copy before modification
– After-image – copy after modification

Produces an audit trail 25

Database audit trail

From the backup and logs,

databases can be restored in
case of damage or loss 26
 Checkpoint Facilities
• DBMS periodically refuses to accept new
transactions
 system is in a quiet state
• Database and transaction logs are
synchronized

This allows recovery manager to resume

processing from short period, instead of
repeating entire day

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Recovery and Restart Procedures
• Switch - Mirrored databases
• Restore/Rerun - Reprocess transactions
against the backup
• Transaction Integrity - Commit or abort all
transaction changes
• Backward Recovery (Rollback) - Apply before
images
• Forward Recovery (Roll Forward) - Apply after
images (preferable to restore/rerun)
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Basic recovery techniques Rollback

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Rollforward

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 Database Failure Responses
• Aborted transactions
– Preferred recovery: rollback
– Alternative: Rollforward to state just prior to abort
• Incorrect data
– Preferred recovery: rollback
– Alternative 1: rerun transactions not including inaccurate data
updates
– Alternative 2: compensating transactions
• System failure (database intact)
– Preferred recovery: switch to duplicate database
– Alternative 1: rollback
– Alternative 2: restart from checkpoint
• Database destruction
– Preferred recovery: switch to duplicate database
– Alternative 1: rollforward
– Alternative 2: reprocess transactions 31
 Concurrency Control
• Problem – in a multiuser environment,
simultaneous access to data can result in
interference and data loss

• Solution – Concurrency Control

– The process of managing simultaneous operations
against a database so that data integrity is
maintained and the operations do not interfere with
each other in a multi-user environment

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 Lost Update

Simultaneous access causes updates to cancel each other

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A similar problem is the inconsistent read problem
 Concurrency Control Techniques
• Serializability
– Finish one transaction before starting another

• Locking Mechanisms
– The most common way of achieving serialization
– Data that is retrieved for the purpose of updating is
locked for the updater
– No other user can perform update until unlocked

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 Updates with locking for concurrency control

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This prevents the lost update problem
 Locking Mechanisms
• Locking level:
– Database – used during database updates
– Table – used for bulk updates
– Block or page – very commonly used
– Record – only requested row; fairly commonly
used
– Field – requires significant overhead; impractical
• Types of locks:
– Shared lock - Read but no update permitted.
Used when just reading to prevent another user
from placing an exclusive lock on the record
– Exclusive lock - No access permitted. Used when
preparing to update 36
 Deadlock
An impasse that results when two or more transactions have
locked common resources, and each waits for the other to unlock
their resources
A deadlock situation

UserA and UserB

will wait forever
for each other to
release their
locked resources! 37
 Managing Deadlock
• Deadlock prevention:
– Lock all records required at the beginning of a
transaction
– Two-phase locking protocol
• Growing phase
• Shrinking phase
– May be difficult to determine all needed
resources in advance
• Deadlock Resolution:
– Allow deadlocks to occur
– Mechanisms for detecting and breaking them
• Resource usage matrix
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 Versioning
• Optimistic approach to concurrency
control
• Instead of locking
• Assumption is that simultaneous updates
will be infrequent
• Each transaction can attempt an update
as it wishes
• The system will reject an update when it
senses a conflict
• Use of rollback and commit for this
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The use of versioning

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Better performance than locking
 Managing Data Quality
• Data Steward - Liaisons between IT and business
units
• Five Data Quality Issues:
 Security policy and disaster recovery

 Personnel controls

 Physical access controls

 Maintenance controls (hardware and software)

 Data protection and privacy 41

 Data Dictionaries and Repositories
• Data dictionary
– Documents data elements of a database
• System catalog
– System-created database that describes all database objects
• Information Repository
– Stores metadata describing data and data processing
resources
• Information Repository Dictionary System (IRDS)
– Software tool managing/controlling access to information
repository
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 Three components
of the repository system architecture
A schema of the
repository information

Software that manages the

repository objects

Where repository
objects are stored
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 Database Performance Tuning
• DBMS Installation
– Setting installation parameters
• Memory Usage
– Set cache levels
– Choose background processes
• Input/Output Contention
– Use striping
– Distribution of heavily accessed files
• CPU Usage
– Monitor CPU load
• Application tuning
– Modification of SQL code in applications

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