Computer Science (COMP) 418
Distributed Database Systems and Database Tuning (Revision 2)
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Delivery Mode:Individualized study online.
Credits:3
Area of Study:Science
Prerequisite:COMP 378.
Note: Students who are concerned about not meeting the prerequisites for this course are encouraged to contact the course coordinator before registering.
Students in this course are required to contact their tutor using email or the course (Moodle) forums. Please see the Tutor and Coordinator Support page for more information.
Centre:School of Computing and Information Systems
SCIS Orientation
COMP 418 has a Challenge for Credit option.
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Overview
Computer Science 418: Distributed Database Systems and Database Tuning deals with two broad topics: database tuning and distributed databases. Database tuning deals with the performance of the DBMS and database administration and distributed database systems deals with the distribution of data and its management in a networked environment.
Learning Objectives
Students successfully completing this course will be able to:
- Explain the concept of database tuning.
- Discuss tuning issues related to common underlying components of all database systems.
- Discuss several tuning principles and techniques for indexes.
- Discuss and illustrate different type of indexes and conditions of their use for optimal performance.
- Describe and use techniques to improve performance of relational database systems.
- Analyze relational database applications with special concentration on the design of relations, queries, procedures and connections.
- Describe and use techniques for queries evaluation and optimization.
- Discuss transaction management and use techniques for concurrency control, performance of locking and crash recovery.
- Describe and use security and authorization techniques.
- Discuss and illustrate major types and architectures of distributed and parallel Databases.
- Describe different techniques used for storing data in distributed DBMS.
- Discuss evaluation and optimization of queries over distributed database.
- Describe transaction management in a distributed environment.
- Explain the merits of synchronous vs. asynchronous replication.
- Describe and use distributed recovery techniques
Learning Outcomes
After completing this course, students will be able to describe the main tasks of database tuning and query optimization. Explain the key concepts of database indexing and conditions of its use. Students will also be able to apply mechanisms for crash recovery and concurrency control, and techniques for security and authentication. Students will also be able to explain the main concepts related with data distribution and identify situations for using distributed and parallel databases systems.
Outline
Computer Science 418 consists of the thirteen units listed below.
- Unit 1: Overview of Storage and indexing
- Unit 2: Tree-Structured Indexing
- Unit 3: Hash-Based Indexing
- Unit 4: Overview of Query Evaluation
- Unit 5: Distributed Transactions: Processing Concepts
- Unit 6: External Sorting
- Unit 7: Query Optimizers
- Unit 8: Overview of Transaction Management
- Unit 9: Concurrency Control
- Unit 10: Crash Recovery
- Unit 11: Physical Database Design and Tuning
- Unit 12: Security and Authorization
- Unit 13: Distributed Database Systems
Evaluation
To receive credit for COMP 418, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent) (a grade of at least 50 percent on the invigilated final examination and an average grade of 50 percent on the assignments and a grade of at least 50 percent on the project). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Assign. 1 | Assign. 2 | Assign. 3 | Assign. 4 | Final Exam | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 15% | 15% | 20% | 40% | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.
Course Materials
Textbook
Ramakrishnan, Raghy and Johannes Gerhrke. 2003. Database Management Systems, 3/e, McGraw-Hill
Supplementary Reading
Shasha, Dennis and Philippe Bonnet. 2002. Database Tuning: Principles, Experiments, and Troubleshooting Techniques. Morgan Kauffmann.
Ozsu, M. Tamer and Patrick Valduriez. 1999. Principles of Distributed Database Systems, 2/e. Prentice Hall.
Special Course Features
Completion of the course requires access to an IBM-compatible PC using Windows® and to the World Wide Web. The delivery of Computer Science 418 is dependent upon computer mediated communications. Students will be required to complete assignments and activities on the School of Computing Information Systems Web server and use online resources.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.
Opened in Revision 2, December 6, 2005.
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Last updated by SAS 05/19/2015 14:13:17
