Chapter 1

Introduction to DBMS
Introduction to DBMS [5hrs]
� Introduction to Database Management
System
� DBMS vs File System
� View of data
� Data models
� Database Languages: DML, DDL
� Database users and administrators
� Transaction Management
� Database System Structure
� Application architectures
Introduction to Database Management System
Data

� Facts or values used for reference or analysis.

� Data itself may not have clear meaning until it is

processed.

� Data can exist in a variety of forms such as

numbers, text or pictures on pieces of paper, as
bits and bytes stored in electronic memory, or as
facts stored in a person's mind.
Information

� Processed data which gives some

meaning and which can be used for
making decisions.
� For example, consider the following list
of facts
Prem Thapa 06151524
Rajan Tamang 06234578
Yogesh Singh 4320127
Rashmi Gurung 3787766
� The above fact satisfies the definition of data,
but most people would agree that the data
are useless in present from.
� By adding a few additional data items and
providing some structure the above fact
would look as presented below:
Name Passport No. Type
Prem Thapa 06151524 MRP
Rajan Tamang 06234578 MRP
Yogesh Singh 4320127 Non-MRP
Rashmi Gurung 3787766 Non-MRP
Database –

Database is an organized collection of

interrelated data. For example telephone diary,
dictionary, salary sheet etc.

Database Management System –

A database management system (DBMS) is a

collection of programs that enables you to store,
modify, and extract information from a database.

MSAccess, MSSQL, MYSQL, ORACLE are some

examples of DBMS
Types of Data

� Structured Data

� Unstructured Data

Structured Data

Data that resides in a fixed field within a record

or file is called structured data. These includes
data contained in relational database &
spreadsheets.
Unstructured Data:
� These are the data that refers to
information that does not reside in a
traditional row-column database.
� Unstructured data files often include text
and multimedia like e-mail messages,
word documents, videos, photos, audio
files etc.
The following are examples of database
applications:

� Computerized library systems

� Automated teller machines

� Flight reservation systems

� Students Result Processing System

� Banking, etc.
� Database-System Applications
� Some representative applications:
� Enterprise Information
◦ Sales: For customer, product, and purchase
information.
◦ Accounting: For payments, receipts, account
balances, assets and other accounting information.
◦ Human resources: For information about
employees, salaries, payroll taxes and benefits, and
for generation of paychecks.
◦ Manufacturing: For management of the supply
chain and for tracking production of items in
factories, inventories of items in warehouses and
stores, and orders for items.
◦ Online retailers: For sales data noted above plus
tracking, generation of recommendation lists and
maintenance of online product evaluations.
� Banking & Finance
◦ Banking: For customer information, accounts, loans,
and banking transactions.
◦ Credit card transactions: For purchases on credit
cards and generation of monthly statements.
◦ Finance: For storing information about holdings, sales,
and purchases of financial instruments such as stocks
and bonds.
� Universities: For student information, course
registrations, and grades (in addition to standard
enterprise information such as human resources and
accounting).
� Airlines: For reservations and schedule information.
Airlines were among the first to use databases in a
geographically distributed manner.
� Telecommunication: For keeping records of calls made,
generating monthly bills, maintaining balances on
prepaid calling cards, and storing information about the
communication networks.
 Advantages of the DBMS

� The DBMS serves as the intermediary between

the user and the database.
� The database structure itself is stored as a
collection of files, and the only way to access
the data in those files is through the DBMS.
� The DBMS receives all application requests and
translates them into the complex operations
required to fulfill those requests.
� The DBMS hides much of the database’s
internal complexity from the application
programs and users.
 The different advantages of DBMS are
1. Improved data sharing.
The DBMS helps create an environment in which
end users have better access to more and better-
managed data. Such access makes it possible for end
users to respond quickly to changes in their
environment.
2. Improved data security.
The more users access the data, the greater the
risks of data security breaches. Corporations invest
considerable amounts of time, effort, and money to
ensure that corporate data are used properly.A
DBMS provides a framework for better
enforcement of data privacy and security policies.
3. Better data integration.
Wider access to well-managed data promotes an
integrated view of the organization’s operations and
a clearer view of the big picture. It becomes much
easier to see how actions in one segment of the
company affect other segments.

4. Minimized data inconsistency.

Data inconsistency exists when different versions of
the same data appear in different places. The
probability of data inconsistency is greatly reduced
in a properly designed database as the data are
stored in only one place.
5. Improved data access.
The DBMS makes it possible to produce quick
answers to ad hoc queries. From a database
perspective, a query is a specific request issued to the
DBMS for data manipulation—for example, to read or
update the data.
6.Improved decision making.
Better-managed data and improved data access make
it possible to generate better-quality information, on
which better decisions are based.The quality of the
information generated depends on the quality of the
underlying data. Data quality is a comprehensive
approach to promoting the accuracy, validity, and
timeliness of the data.While the DBMS does not
guarantee data quality, it provides a framework to
facilitate data quality initiatives.
Disadvantages of Database:
Although the database system yields considerable
advantages over previous data management
approaches, database systems do carry significant
disadvantages.
1. Increased costs.
Database systems require sophisticated hardware
and software and highly skilled personnel.The cost
of maintaining the hardware, software, and
personnel required to operate and manage a
database system can be substantial.Training, licensing,
and regulation compliance costs are often
overlooked when database systems are
implemented.
2. Management complexity.
Database systems interface with many different
technologies and have a significant impact on a
company’s resources and culture.The changes
introduced by the adoption of a database system
must be properly managed to ensure that they help
advance the company’s objectives. Given the fact
that database systems hold crucial company data
that are accessed from multiple sources, security
issues must be assessed constantly.
3. Security issues
Database administrators should always be careful
regarding security of data stored in database.

4. Frequent upgrade/replacement cycles.

DBMS vendors frequently upgrade their products by
adding new functionality. Such new features often
come bundled in new upgrade versions of the
software. Some of these versions require hardware
upgrades. Not only do the upgrades themselves cost
money, but it also costs money to train database
users and administrators to properly use and
manage the new features.
 Objectives of using DBMS
� To provide storage area for large amount of data.
� To make access to the data easy for the end user.
� To provide prompt response to users request for
data.
� To make the latest modification to the database
available immediately.
� To eliminate data redundancy, ( duplication of
data).
� To allow multiple users to access data at the same
time.
� To allow the growth of the database.
� To protect the data from the physical harm and
unauthorized access.
 DBMS vs File System
� File is a collection of records stored in a
computer.
� In the early days, database systems were built on
top of file systems.
� In file processing system, data needed for each
user application was stored in independent data
files .
� File processing consisted of using separate
computer programs that updated these
independent data files and used them to produce
the required documents and reports for individual
users.
 Draw back of using File systems to store data:
i) Data redundancy and inconsistency.
� Multiple file formats, duplication of information in
different files.
� For example, if a student has a double major
(say, music and mathematics) the address and
telephone number of that student may appear in a file
that consists of student records of students in the
Music department and in a file that consists of student
records of students in the Mathematics department.
This redundancy leads to higher storage and
access cost. In addition, it may lead to data
inconsistency; that is, the various copies of the same
data may no longer agree. For example, a changed
student address may be reflected in the Music
department records but not elsewhere in the system.
ii) Difficulty in accessing data.
� Need to write new program to carry out each
new task.
�For example, assume we already have program to
generate the list of books on the basis of subject.
Now, if we need to generate the list of books on
the basis of author name, either we need to
extract the data from book data files manually or
we should request the programmer to write a
program to retrieve required data from the book
data file. Both of the alternatives are not
satisfactory.
iii) Data isolation.
� Because data are scattered in various files, and
files may be in different formats, writing new
application programs to retrieve the appropriate
data is difficult.
� Multiple files and different formats.
 iv) Integrity problems.
� Difficulty to maintain uniformity in stored data as it is difficult
to implement constraints (rules) in each files.
� For example, if maximum salary in an organization is 150,000
then we have the integrity constraint ―salary ≤ 150,000.
Integrity constraints are important to maintain correctness of
data. It plays vital to prevent users from doing mistakes. For
example, if user mistakenly types 200,000 in place of 20,000
while transferring salary of an employee in his/her account,
specified integrity constrain is violated and hence the system
tell the user about the mistake.
� Unfortunately, flat file systems do not allow us to specify
integrity constraint and hence it is difficult to maintain
correctness of data. On the other hand, database
management systems allow us to specify integrity constraints
on data therefore relatively it is easy to maintain correctness
of data.
 v) Data dependence.
� the organization of files, physical location
on storage device and the application
program used to access those files
depends on each other in significant ways.
vi) Lack of data integration.
� As the data are stored in separate files, its
quite difficult to retrieve required
information selectively from more than one
file.
� Special programs need to be written for this
purpose and it decreases efficiency and
performance of database.
 vii) Difficult to handle concurrent access
anomalies by multiple users
� Consider department A, with an account balance of
$10,000. If two department clerks debit the account
balance (by say $500 and $100, respectively) of
department A at almost exactly the same time, the
result of the concurrent executions may leave the
budget in an incorrect (or inconsistent)state. Suppose
that the programs executing on behalf of each
withdrawal read the old balance, reduce that value by
the amount being withdrawn, and write the result
back. If the two programs run concurrently, they may
both read the value $10,000, and write back $9500
and $9900, respectively. Depending on which one
writes the value last, the account balance of
department A may either contain $9500 or $9900,
rather than the correct value of $9400.
viii) Atomicity of updates.
�Failures may leave database in the inconsistent
state with partial update.
�For example; transfer of funds from one account
to another should either complete or not happen
at all.
�Consider a program to transfer $5000 from the
account balance of department A to the account
balance of department B.
�If a system failure occurs during the execution of
the program, it is possible that the $5000 was
removed from the balance of department A, but was
not credited to the balance of department B,
resulting in an inconsistent database state.
ix) security problems
For Example: Consider the Banking System.The
CustomerTransaction file has details about the total
available balance of all customers.
Database management system offers solution to
all above mentioned problems.
View of Data
� Database contains large volume of
interrelated data.
� All the data and structure of database are
not useful or necessary for all users.
� For the efficient utilization of database,
database designers need to use complex
data structures to represent data in
database.
� But the developers hide the complexity
from users through several levels of
abstraction, to simplify users’ interaction
with the system
 Levels of abstraction
Physical level:
- The lowest level of data
abstraction which describes
how the data are actually
stored in the storage device.
Logical level:
- The logical level describes
what data to be stored in the
database.
- It also explains about the relationships that exist
among those data.
- Database administrators who decides what data
must be stored in database uses the logical level
of abstraction.
- The users of the logical level do not need to deal
with underlying hardware complexities regarding
data storage, which is known as “Physical data
Independence”
For example, we may describe a record as follow:
type customer = record
name : string;
street : string;
city : integer;
end;
View Level:
- This is the highest level of data abstraction through
which common user interacts with the database.
- Application programs hides details of data
structure and other complexities and
provide simple interface according to the
necessities of individual users.
- The system may provide many views for the
same database.
- Views can also hide information for security
purposes
� Even though the logical level uses simpler
structures, complexity remains because of
the variety of information stored in a large
database.
Instances and Schemas
� Database instance:
� Database contains collection of interrelated
data and it may vary according to time as
information is inserted or deleted in the
database.
� The collection of information stored in the
database as a particular moment is called as
instance of the database.
� The overall design of the database is called
the database schema.
� Once the database schema is prepared, it is
not changed frequently.
 Schema
� The physical schema describes the
database design at the physical level, while
the logical schema describes the database
design at the logical level.
� Similarly, design of database at view level is
called view schema.
Data models
� Defines the structure and the design of
database at the physical, logical and view
levels.
� Is a collection of conceptual tools for
describing data, data relationships, data
semantics, and consistency constraints.
Types of data models
� Data models can be mainly categorized into
four different categories:
a) Relational model
b) Entity-relationship model
c) Object-based data model
d) Semi structured data model
Except these four data models, network data
model and hierarchical data models were used
in the earlier days. Because of their
complexities and low efficiency, they are rarely
used in new system these days.
Relational model
� Most widely used data model for todays
database system.
� Uses collection of tables called relation to
represent both data and the relationship
among those data.
� Each table consists of columns having unique
name (called field name which represents
one attribute of an object).
� A row of a table contains different values for
individual column to make a record, which
describe an object completely.
� A row in a table is called as a record or
tuple.
� Relational model is an example of record
based model.
Entity-Relationship model
� An entity is a “thing” or “object” which can
be distinguished from any other objects in
the real world.

� Every entity have their own descriptive

properties called as attribute, which is used
as field name for table in relational database
system

� The E-R data model uses a collection of

objects, called entities and relationships
among these objects
E-R diagram
Object based data model
� Object oriented technology is the latest
technology in programming.
� Object based data model is the extended
form of E-R model with the facility of data
encapsulation, data access methods
(functions) etc. which gives more security
to the database by combining both data
and functions together inside an object.
Semistructured data model
� In previous types of data models, every data
item of a particular type must have the same
set of attributes.
� The semistructured data model permits the
specification of data where individual data
items of the same type may have different
sets of attributes or values.
� It provides a flexible format for data
exchange between different types of
databases.
� The XML (Extended Markup Language) and
OEM(Object Exchange Model) is widely
used to represent semistructured data.
Database Languages
Data definition language (DDL)
� It is used to create database schema or
structure of database.
� It is also used to specify additional
properties of data to be stored in
database.
� Data storage and definition lanaguage, an
extension of DDL is used to specify the
storage structure and access methods
used by the database system
For Example
create table account (
accNumber char(10),
balance integer)
� DDL compiler generates a set of statements
stored in a data dictionary
� Data dictionary contains metadata (i.e., data
about data)
� The data dictionary is considered to be a special
type of table that can only be accessed and
updated by the database system itself (not by
regular user).
� The database system consults data dictionary
before reading or modifying actual dta.
Integrity constraints
� A constraint (rule) that must remain true for a
database to preserve data integrity.
� Integrity constraints are specified at database
creation time and enforced by the database
management system.
� For example the date of birth of an employee in
an organization must not be a future date.
� The database system checks this constraints
every time when database is updated.
� Database system implements constraints to store
reliable data in database however, using more
constraints may degrades the efficiency of overall
database operations.
Types of constraints
Domain constraints:
� Domain is the set of possible values that can
be provided to the particular attribute of an
object (For example, character types, integer
types, data/time etc.)
� Domain constraints are the most
elementary form of integrity constraints.
� Every attribute of an object must be
provided with the anticipated values of the
specified domain for correctness of data
Referential Integrity Constraints:
� When records of one table is related to
another table, there must exist the records
in both related tables when some
modification is to be made in that tables.
� For example, to issue book that exists in the
book table to a student, student must exists
in the student table to whom the book is
being issued.
� Referential integrity is implemented with the
help of Foreign key.
� Foreign key is an attribute of a table which is
in real a primary key field of another table,
to which it needs to refer.
Entity Integrity Constraints:
� Entity integrity concerns the concept of a
primary key.
� Entity integrity is an integrity rule which
states that every table must have a
primary key and that the column or
columns chosen to be the primary key
should be unique and not null.
� Every records of a table must be able to
be identified uniquely.
Assertions:
� An assertion is ‘any condition’ or ‘prediction’
that the database must always satisfy.
� Domain constraints, referential integrity
constraints, entity integrity constraints etc.
are special forms of assertions.
� When the constraints can not be
implemented by using domain constraints or
referential integrity constraints, assertions
are created.
� For example; every classroom must have at
least 20 students to run class, must be
expressed as an assertion.
� The future modification to the database is
allowed only if it ensures that the assertion
is not violeted.
Authorization:
� All the users do not need to perform all possible
actions with database
� Database authorization is used to limit the access
authority of database users.
� The authorization can be limited to:
i) Read authorization – allows reading , but
not modification of data.
ii) insert authorization – allows to add
records but not mmodification.
iii) update authorization – allows to edit
records but not to delete.
iv) delete authorization – allows deletion
of records
� Individual users may be assigned with all, only one
or combination of above mentioned authorities.
� Authorization is crucial for security purpose too.
Data manipulation language (DML)
� Language for accessing and manipulating the
data organized by the appropriate data model
� The types of manipulations are:
i) Inserting new records into the database
ii) Retrieving existing information from
database.
iii) Updating available records of database
iv) Deleting unnecessary records from
database.
� DML is also known as query language
Two types DML
i) Procedural – user specifies what data is required
and how to get those data
ii) Nonprocedural – user specifies what data is
required without specifying how to get those data

� A query is a statement requesting the retrieval of

information. The portion of a DML that involves
information retrieval is called a query language.
� SQL is the most widely used non procedural
query language
Database users and administrators
� The database system is used to create the
database and manage information in it.
� Records may be inserted, updated or
deleted frequently from database.
� We can view or retrieved information
from database according to necessity for
decision making purpose.
� People who works with database can be
categorized as:
i) Database users
ii) Database administrators

Database users are again classified into four

groups according to their nature of job.
a) Naïve (Simple) users
b) Application programmers
c) Sophisticated users
d) specialized users.
a) Naïve (Simple) users:They are general users
of database who frequently interacts with
the database using database interfaces( such
as forms orWeb application programs).
For example, an employee in a bank who
stores records of account holders through
the provided application programs or
forms.
b) Application programmers:They are the
computer professionals with good knowledge
in programming.They prepare user interfaces
and other application programs through which
naïve users can interact with database.
They use different tools such as Rapid
Application Development (RAD)tools to
prepare forms and reports with minimal effort
and time.

c) Sophisticated users:They are the higher level

users with good knowledge in database and
database systems.They use database query
language or data analysis software instead of
using application programs to explore database.
System Analysts are the example of
sophisticated users.
d) Specialized users:They are the expert users
who can deal with complex database systems.
They can write the specialized database
applications which are used for handling very
complex tasks such as Computer Aided
Design(CAD), Knowledge base and Expert
system etc.
Database administrator
� Database management system is used for
centralized storage, management and control
of organizations data.
� Database administrator is a person who is
responsible for such central control over
entire database system.
� Database administrator should have good
knowledge in computer, database system as
well as he/she should be familiar about
organizations structure and its information
need.
Functions of DBA
� Schema definition: Creating a suitable database
structure using DDL to store required data is the
first task of DBA.
� Storage structure and access method definition:
DBA should choose the type of reliable storage
device to store entire content of database
according to the requirement.
� Schema and physical-organization modification:
DBA only has authority to modify structure and
other aspects of database, if needed, to adopt
varying requirements of an organization.
� Granting of authorization for data access:
DBA must ensure the security and proper
utilization of underlying data in database.
DBA creates different users who can use
database with different privileges to
protect database.
� Routine maintenance:As DBMS is far
reliable than traditional record keeping
system, proper maintenance and seurity
system should be implemented to run it
all the time.
� Periodically backing database in different
storage device in different locations is the
first job to preserver the data of
database.
� Ensuring the enough free disk space is
available for normal operations, and
upgrading disk space as required.
� Continuous monitoring the activities
performed in the database so that the
performance will not go down and
unauthorized access can be identified on
time.
Transaction management
� A transaction is a collection of operations
that performs a single logical function in a
database application.
� While performing any transaction, it should
either complete its all task or it should not
perform anything at all, called as atomicity.
� After any transaction, the data of database
should be as reliable as it was and the
correctness of data should be maintained,
means consistency of database should be
maintained at any cost.
� During transaction period, there may be
system failure because of several reasons like
system failure, network problem or power
problem etc.
� Such incomplete transactions must have no
effect in the state of database.
� In such cases, database system must perform
failure recovery and restore the database in
its previous state that existed before starting
the transaction, called rollback operation.
� The recovery manager of database system
ensures atomicity and durability of database.
� Concurrency control manager looks after
concurrent access to the database and
maintain the consistency of database even
many people perform different
transactions on same data.
� Transaction manager consists of the
concurrency-control manager and the
recovery manager.
Database architecture
� The architecture of a database depends
upon computer system on which the
database system runs.
� It may be centralized or client server where
one server machine performs all tasks on
behalf of multiple client machines.
� It may span to geographically separated
multiple computers in case of distributed
database system and they need a reliable
network connection to connect among
those several computers.
 Database application architecture

� Database application
architecture can be
categorized into two
types:
◦ Two tier architecture
◦ Three tier architecture
� In two tier architecture, the application
resides on client machine, where it
invokes database system functionality at
the server machine through query
languages.
� Application program interface standards
like ODBC(Open Database Connectivity)
and JDBC( Java Database Connectivity)
are used for interaction between the
client and the server.
� In three tier architecture, the client machine
just act as a interface to the database and
does not contain direct access to database.
� The client end communicates with an
application server (middleware) which
consists of all business logic of database
which says what actions to be taken in which
condition, through a form interface.
� Through application server, the users are
connected to the database system.
� It is more appropriate for large applications
and for applications that run on theWorld
Wide Web.
Types of DBMS [2hrs ]
� Types of DBMS
� Relational DBMS
� Object-oriented Database Management
System
Types of DBMS
� DBMS can be categorized into different
categories on the basis of several criteria
such as:
i. Based on data model
ii. Based on number of users they
support
iii. Based on location where database is
established
iv. Based on the purpose
Based on data model
� DBMS can be categorized into
following categories depending upon
the data models they use.
I. Hierarchical Model
II. Network Model
III. Entity Relationship Model
IV. Relational Model
V. Object Oriented Model
Hierarchical Model
� The oldest data model developed by IBM in 1968.
� Record based data model
� Records are interrelated in hierarchical structure
in tree like structure.
� The top most node is called as ‘Root’.
� Root can have many sub ordinates at the same
time these subordinates may have any level of
lower level.
� A parent child relationship exists in the hierarchy.
� A parent can have many children but a child can
have only one parent.
� This model can represent One to One and
One to Many relationship only.
� No backward movement is possible/allowed in
the hierarchical database.
 Network Model
� Advance form of Hierarchical model.
� More flexible than hierarchical model as it can
create a link between different levels of
elements.
� Data structure is represented in graphs rather
than in tree like structure.
� It can handle many to many relationship too.
� More complex structure because of the many to
many relationship.
� Minimize redundancy in comparison to
Hierarchical model
Entity Relationship Model
� The most popular conceptual model used for
designing database, originally proposed by Dr.
Peter Chen in 1976.
� The E-R model views the real world as a set of
basic objects (known as Entities), their descriptive
characteristics ( known as attributes), and the
association among these objects (known as
relationships).
� The conceptual model which is independent from
any implementation level and issues hence easily
understood by even non-technical persons
� Overall logical structure of a database is
expressed graphically in the form of E-R diagram.
The basic components of this diagram are:
a) Rectangles (represents Entity sets)
b) Ellipses (represents attributes)
c) Diamonds (represents relationships)
d) Lines ( link between different elements)
 Relational Model
� The most popular database model developed by E.F.
Codd in 1970.
� All data are stored in the foknown as tuples) and
columns (Representing fields or attributes of the
Entity).
� The relationship between tables are created rm of
tables known as ‘Relation’ which consists of Rows
(Representing records or also Foreign key concepts)
hence there does not exits physical links between
relations.with the help of some common attributes in
both table( Using Primary and
� Easy to retrieve required record in comparison to
other database models.
Object Oriented data Model
� The latest data model based on object oriented
programming paradigm.
� It consists of following basic objected-oriented
concepts:
a) Objects:Any real world distinguishable things or
events.
b) Attributes: Set of values that describes about the
objects.
c) Methods: Mechanism(set of instructions) through
which the attributes of objects are accessed.
d) Class:A blue print of all objects with particular
characteristics.
� Polymorphism and Inheritance: Polymorphism is
the feature of object oriented technology which
enables the objects to present themselves in
different form according to the condition.
Inheritance is the process of creating new class
called derived class from the existing class called
base class.
� The derived class inherits all the attributes and
methods of the base class and can add additional
attributes and methods to distinguish itself from
the previous one.
Based on Number of users
� According to the number of users the
DBMS supports, it is categorized into two
categories, Single User System and Multi
User System.
� Normally the database is Multi User
System as it has to share data among
many users .
 Based on Location
� According to the number of locations where the data of
database is stored, it is categorized in to two categories;
i. Centralized database system- data and DBMS is
installed in a single computer in particular location.
ii. Distributed database system- database and DBMS is
scattered over several computers in different
locations.
a) Homogenous distributed database system uses identical
DBMS in different locations
b) Heterogeneous distributed database system may use
different types of DBMS in different locations.
� All the distributed database systems depends upon
reliable Network connections for its functioning.
 Based on Purpose
� Database can be categorized into two categories
according to its purpose
a) General purpose
b) Specific purpose
� Normally DBMS is general purpose software
system however it can be customized to be used in
specific area only like in Ticket Reservation
Systems,ATM services of Bank etc.
� Online Transaction Processing System (OLTP) is
the implementation of specific purpose database
management system which is used for data entry
and retrieval in the real time.
Database Application Architecture
� Database architecture defines how
to manage and access data in the
database management system
� Three are two types of database
architectures:
a) Centralized architecture
b) Client/Server architecture
 Centralized architecture
� A centralized database is a collection of information at
a single location accessible from numerous points.
� Computers which stores all the information as well as
application programs are called as Database Servers.
� The content of database can be accessed through
dumb terminals with input and output devices, which
may not have its own processing capacity.
� Centralized database systems have many advantages
like security of data, faster response, easy updating and
maintenance of database, less threats from external
world etc.
� Disadvantages of Centralized database systems are like
physical data dependence on central server, if central
server is down then no accessibility to data etc.
Client/Server architecture
� In this architecture, the computers which
request services are called client computer
and the computers which stores data and
response to the request from the clients are
called as Servers.
� Client machine themselves have their own
processing capacity which is utilized to
process Interface related tasks.
� There are two ways to implement
Client/Server architecture:
i) Two tier architecture
ii) Three tier architecture