2.1 Goal of Chapter

This chapter discusses tuning considerations having to do with the underlying components common to most database management systems. Each component carries its own tuning considerations.

• Concurrency control how to minimize lock contention.

• Recovery and logging how to minimize logging and dumping overhead.

• Operating system how to optimize buffer size, process scheduling, and so on.

• Hardware how to allocate disks, random access memory, and processors.

Figure 2.1 shows the common underlying components of all database systems.

Figure 2.1: Underlying components of a database system.

WARNING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER This is the most difficult chapter of the book because we have written it under the assumption that you have only a passing understanding of concurrent systems. We want to lead you to a level where you can make subtle trade-offs between speed and concurrent correctness, between speed and fault tolerance, and between speed and hardware costs.

So, it may be tough going in spots. If you have trouble, take a break and read another chapter.