DB2 L03 Transactions

Introduction to Transaction
Processing Concepts and Theory
DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)
11
Outline
Transaction and System Concepts
Desirable Properties of Transactions
Characterizing Schedules based on
Recoverability
Serializability
Transaction Support in SQL
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1 Introduction to Transaction Processing (1)

Single-User System:
At most one user at a time can use the system.
Multiuser System:
Many users can access the system concurrently.
Concurrency
Interleaved processing:
Concurrent execution of processes is interleaved in a single
CPU
Parallel processing:
Processes are concurrently executed in multiple CPUs.
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Introduction to Transaction Processing (2)

A Transaction:
Logical unit of database processing that includes one or more
access operations (read -retrieval, write - insert or update,
delete).
A transaction (set of operations) may be stand-alone

specified in a high level language like SQL submitted
interactively, or may be embedded within a program.
Transaction boundaries:
Begin and End transaction.
An application program may contain several transactions

separated by the Begin and End transaction boundaries.
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SIMPLE MODEL OF A DATABASE (for purposes of
discussing transactions):
A database is a collection of named data items
Granularity of data - a field, a record , or a whole disk
block (Concepts are independent of granularity)
Basic operations are read and write
read_item(X): Reads a database item named X into a
program variable. To simplify our notation, we assume
that the program variable is also named X.
write_item(X): Writes the value of program variable X
into the database item named X.
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READ AND WRITE OPERATIONS:
Basic unit of data transfer from the disk to the computer
main memory is one block. In general, a data item (what
is read or written) will be the field of some record in the
database, although it may be a larger unit such as a
record or even a whole block.
read_item(X) command includes the following steps:
Find the address of the disk block that contains item X.
Copy that disk block into a buffer in main memory (if that disk
block is not already in some main memory buffer).
Copy item X from the buffer to the program variable named X.
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READ AND WRITE OPERATIONS (cont.):
write_item(X) command includes the following steps:
Find the address of the disk block that contains item X.
Copy that disk block into a buffer in main memory (if that disk
block is not already in some main memory buffer).
Copy item X from the program variable named X into its correct
location in the buffer.
Store the updated block from the buffer back to disk (either
immediately or at some later point in time).
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Two Sample Transactions
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Why Concurrency Control is needed:
The Lost Update Problem

The Temporary Update (or Dirty Read) Problem
The Incorrect Summary Problem
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Concurrent execution is uncontrolled:

(a) The lost update problem.
This occurs when two transactions that access the same
database items have their operations interleaved in a way that
makes the value of some database item incorrect.
Assume X=80, N=5, M=4
The final should be 79, but it is 84

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10

(b) The temporary update problem.
This occurs when one transaction updates a database item
and then the transaction fails for some reason.
The updated item is accessed by another transaction before it
is changed back to its original value.
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(c) The incorrect summary problem.
If one transaction is calculating an aggregate summary function on a
number of records while other transactions are updating some of these
records, the aggregate function may calculate some values before they
are updated and others after they are updated.
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Why recovery is needed:
(What causes a Transaction to fail)
1. A computer failure (system crash):
A hardware or software error occurs in the computer system
during transaction execution. If the hardware crashes, the
contents of the computers internal memory may be lost.
2. A transaction or system error:

Some operation in the transaction may cause it to fail, such as
integer overflow or division by zero. Transaction failure may
also occur because of erroneous parameter values or
because of a logical programming error. In addition, the user
may interrupt the transaction during its execution.
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13

Why recovery is needed (cont.):
3. Local errors or exception conditions detected by the
transaction:
Certain conditions necessitate cancellation of the transaction. For
example, data for the transaction may not be found. A
condition, such as insufficient account balance in a banking
database, may cause a transaction, such as a fund
withdrawal from that account, to be canceled.
A programmed abort in the transaction causes it to fail.
4. Concurrency control enforcement:

The concurrency control method may decide to abort the
transaction, to be restarted later, because it violates
serializability or because several transactions are in a state
of deadlock.
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14

Why recovery is needed (cont.):
5. Disk failure:
Some disk blocks may lose their data because of a read or write
malfunction or because of a disk read/write head crash. This
may happen during a read or a write operation of the
transaction.
6. Physical problems and catastrophes:

This refers to an endless list of problems that includes power or
air-conditioning failure, fire, theft, sabotage , overwriting
disks or tapes by mistake, and mounting of a wrong tape by
the operator.
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2 Transaction and System Concepts (1)

A transaction is an atomic unit of work that is
either completed in its entirety or not done at all.
For recovery purposes, the system needs to keep track of
when the transaction starts, terminates, and commits or
aborts.
Transaction states:
Active state
Partially committed state
Committed state
Failed state
Terminated State
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State Transition Diagram Illustrating the

States for Transaction Execution
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Transaction and System Concepts (2)

Recovery manager keeps track of the following
operations:
begin_transaction: This marks the beginning of
transaction execution.
read or write: These specify read or write operations on
the database items that are executed as part of a
transaction.
end_transaction: This specifies that read and write
transaction operations have ended and marks the end
limit of transaction execution.
At this point it may be necessary to check whether the
changes introduced by the transaction can be
permanently applied to the database or whether the
transaction has to be aborted because it violates
concurrency control or for some other reason.
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Recovery manager keeps track of the
following operations (cont):
commit_transaction: This signals a successful
end of the transaction so that any changes
(updates) executed by the transaction can be
safely committed to the database and will not be
undone.
rollback (or abort): This signals that the
transaction has ended unsuccessfully, so that
any changes or effects that the transaction may
have applied to the database must be undone.
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Recovery techniques use the following
operators:
undo: Similar to rollback except that it applies to
a single operation rather than to a whole
transaction.
redo: This specifies that certain transaction
operations must be redone to ensure that all the
operations of a committed transaction have
been applied successfully to the database.
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The System Log
Log or Journal: The log keeps track of all
transaction operations that affect the values of
database items.
This information may be needed to permit recovery
from transaction failures.
The log is kept on disk, so it is not affected by any
type of failure except for disk or catastrophic failure.
In addition, the log is periodically backed up to
archival storage (tape) to guard against such
catastrophic failures.
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The System Log (cont):
T in the following discussion refers to a unique transaction-id
that is generated automatically by the system and is used to
identify each transaction:
Types of log record:
[start_transaction,T]: Records that transaction T has started
execution.
[write_item,T,X,old_value,new_value]: Records that transaction
T has changed the value of database item X from old_value to
new_value.
[read_item,T,X]: Records that transaction T has read the value
of database item X.
[commit,T]: Records that transaction T has completed
successfully, and affirms that its effect can be committed
(recorded permanently) to the database.
[abort,T]: Records that transaction T has been aborted.
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The System Log (cont):
Protocols for recovery that avoid cascading
rollbacks do not require that read operations
be written to the system log, whereas other
protocols require these entries for recovery.
Strict protocols require simpler write entries
that do not include new_value.
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Recovery using log records:
If the system crashes, we can recover to a consistent
database state by examining the log.
1.
Because the log contains a record of every write operation

that changes the value of some database item, it is possible
to undo the effect of these write operations of a transaction
T by tracing backward through the log and resetting all
items changed by a write operation of T to their old_values.
2.
We can also redo the effect of the write operations of a

transaction T by tracing forward through the log and setting
all items changed by a write operation of T (that did not get
done permanently) to their new_values.
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Commit Point of a Transaction:
Definition a Commit Point:
A transaction T reaches its commit point when all its operations
that access the database have been executed successfully and
the effect of all the transaction operations on the database has
been recorded in the log.
Beyond the commit point, the transaction is said to be
committed, and its effect is assumed to be permanently recorded
in the database.
The transaction then writes an entry [commit,T] into the log.
Roll Back of transactions:

Needed for transactions that have a [start_transaction,T] entry
into the log but no commit entry [commit,T] into the log.
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Commit Point of a Transaction (cont):
Redoing transactions:
Transactions that have written their commit entry in the log must also
have recorded all their write operations in the log; otherwise they
would not be committed, so their effect on the database can be
redone from the log entries. (Notice that the log file must be kept on disk.)
At the time of a system crash, only the log entries that have been
written back to disk are considered in the recovery process because
the contents of main memory may be lost.)
Force writing a log:

Before a transaction reaches its commit point, any portion of the log
that has not been written to the disk yet must now be written to the
disk.
This process is called force-writing the log file before committing a
transaction.
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3 Desirable Properties of Transactions (1)

ACID properties:
Atomicity: A transaction is an atomic unit of processing; it
is either performed in its entirety or not performed at all.
Consistency preservation: A correct execution of the
transaction must take the database from one consistent
state to another.
Isolation: A transaction should not make its updates
visible to other transactions until it is committed; this
property, when enforced strictly, solves the temporary
update problem and makes cascading rollbacks of
transactions unnecessary.
Durability or permanency: Once a transaction changes
the database and the changes are committed, these
changes must never be lost because of subsequent
failure.
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4 Characterizing Schedules Based on Recoverability (1)

Transaction schedule or history:
When transactions are executing concurrently in an interleaved
fashion, the order of execution of operations from the various
transactions forms what is known as a transaction schedule (or
history).
A schedule (or history) S of n transactions T1, T2, , Tn :

It is an ordering of the operations of the transactions subject to
the constraint that, for each transaction Ti that participates in S,
the operations of Ti in S must appear in the same order in
which they occur in Ti .
Note, however, that operations from other transactions Tj can be
interleaved with the operations of Ti in S.
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Characterizing Schedules Based on Recoverability (2)

Schedule example 1:
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Schedule example 2:
- Assume that transaction T1 is aborted after read_item(Y)

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Conflict operations in schedule
Two operations in a schedule are said to conflict if they satisfy all
three of the following conditions:
1)
2)
3)
they belong to different transactions;

they access the same item X; and
at least one of the operations is a write_item(X).
Two types of conflicts:

Read-write conflict.
Write-write conflict.
Check conflicts
<r1(X), w2(X)>, <r2(X), w1(X)>, <w1(X), w2(X)>, <r1(X), r2(X)
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Complete Schedule
A schedule S of n transactions T1, T2, , Tn is said to be a
complete schedule if the following conditions hold:
1.
2.
3.
The operations in S are exactly those operations in T1, T2, , Tn,

including a commit or abort operation as the last operation for each
transaction in the schedule.
For any pair of operations from the same transaction Ti, their
relative order of appearance in S is the same as their order of
appearance in Ti.
For any two conflicting operations, one of the two must occur
before the other in the schedule.
The preceding condition (3) allows for two nonconflicting

operations to occur in the schedule without defining which occurs
first, thus leading to the definition of a schedule as a partial order
of the operations in the n transactions (in contrast to total order).
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Schedules classified on recoverability:

Recoverable schedule:
One where no transaction needs to be rolled back.
A schedule S is recoverable if no transaction T in S
commits until all transactions T that have written an
item that T reads have committed.
for committed transaction, no rollback permitted (for
ensuring durability constraint)
Check recoverable schedule
Sa
is not
recoverable,
even
though
it suffers
from X
lost
update
S
recoverable,
recoverable,
because
because
T1 commits
T2
readsbefore
item
T2
from
T1 problem.
c is
d
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Schedules classified on recoverability:
Schedules requiring cascaded rollback:
A schedule in which uncommitted transactions that
read an item from a failed transaction must be rolled
back.
But, quite time-consuming.
Cascadeless schedule: (to avoid cascading rollback)

One where every transaction reads only the items
that are written by committed transactions.
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Schedules classified on recoverability (cont.):

Strict Schedules:
A schedule in which a transaction can neither read or
write an item X until the last transaction that wrote X
has committed.
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5 Characterizing Schedules Based on Serializability (1)
Serial schedule:
A schedule S is serial if, for every transaction T
participating in the schedule, all the operations
of T are executed consecutively in the
schedule.
Otherwise, the schedule is called nonserial
schedule.
Serializable schedule:
A schedule S is serializable if it is equivalent to
some serial schedule of the same n
transactions.
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Characterizing Schedules Based on Serializability (2)
Result equivalent:
Two schedules are called result equivalent if they
produce the same final state of the database.
Conflict equivalent:
Two schedules are said to be conflict equivalent if the
order of any two conflicting operations is the same in
both schedules.
Conflict serializable:
A schedule S is said to be conflict serializable if it is
conflict equivalent to some serial schedule S.
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37
Being serializable is not the same as being

serial
Being serializable implies that the
schedule is a correct schedule.
It will leave the database in a consistent state.
The interleaving is appropriate and will result
in a state as if the transactions were serially
executed, yet will achieve efficiency due to
concurrent execution.
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38
39
39
Serializability is hard to check.

Interleaving of operations occurs in an
operating system through some scheduler
Difficult to determine beforehand how the
operations in a schedule will be interleaved.
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40
Practical approach:
Come up with methods (protocols) to ensure
serializability.
Its not possible to determine when a schedule
begins and when it ends.
Hence, we reduce the problem of checking the whole
schedule to checking only a committed project of the
schedule (i.e. operations from only the committed
transactions.)
Current approach used in most DBMSs:

Use of locks with two phase locking
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View equivalence:
A less restrictive definition of equivalence of
schedules
View serializability:
Definition of serializability based on view
equivalence.
A schedule is view serializable if it is view
equivalent to a serial schedule.
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42
Two schedules are said to be view equivalent if the

following three conditions hold:
1.
The same set of transactions participates in S and S, and S

and S include the same operations of those transactions.
2.
For any operation Ri(X) of Ti in S, if the value of X read by

the operation has been written by an operation Wj(X) of Tj
(or if it is the original value of X before the schedule
started), the same condition must hold for the value of X
read by operation Ri(X) of Ti in S.
3.
If the operation Wk(Y) of Tk is the last operation to write

item Y in S, then Wk(Y) of Tk must also be the last
operation to write item Y in S.
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The premise behind view equivalence:

As long as each read operation of a
transaction reads the result of the same write
operation in both schedules, the write
operations of each transaction must produce
the same results.
The view: the read operations are said to
see the same view in both schedules.
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Relationship between view and conflict

equivalence:
The two are same under constrained write assumption
which assumes that if T writes X, it is constrained by the
value of X it read; i.e., new X = f(old X)
Conflict serializability is stricter than view serializability.
With unconstrained write (or blind write), a schedule that
is view serializable is not necessarily conflict serializable.
In blind write, the value writen by Wi(x) in Ti can be
independent of its old value from the database.
Any conflict serializable schedule is also view serializable,

but not vice versa.
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45

Relationship between view and conflict equivalence
(cont):
Consider the following schedule of three transactions
T1: r1(X), w1(X);
T2: w2(X);
and
T3: w3(X):
Schedule Sa: r1(X); w2(X); w1(X); w3(X); c1; c2; c3;
In Sa, the operations w2(X) and w3(X) are blind writes,

since T2 and T3 do not read the value of X.
Sa is view serializable, since it is view equivalent to the serial
schedule T1, T2, T3.
However, Sa is not conflict serializable, since it is not conflict
equivalent to any serial schedule.
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Testing for conflict serializability: Algorithm 1:

Looks at only read_Item (X) and write_Item (X)
operations
Constructs a precedence graph (serialization graph) - a
graph with directed edges
An edge is created from Ti to Tj if one of the operations
in Ti appears before a conflicting operation in Tj
The schedule is serializable if and only if the precedence
graph has no cycles.
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47
Recall
48
48
Constructing the Precedence Graphs
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Another Example of Serializability Testing
50
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YZ
51
51
YZ
52
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6 Transaction Support in SQL2 (1)

A single SQL statement is always considered to
be atomic.
Either the statement completes execution without error
or it fails and leaves the database unchanged.
With SQL, there is no explicit Begin Transaction

statement.
Transaction initiation is done implicitly when particular
SQL statements are encountered.
Every transaction must have an explicit end

statement, which is either a COMMIT or
ROLLBACK.
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Transaction Support in SQL2 (2)

Characteristics specified by a SET TRANSACTION
statement in SQL2:
Access mode:
READ ONLY or READ WRITE.
The default is READ WRITE unless the isolation level of READ
UNCOMITTED is specified, in which case READ ONLY is assumed.
Diagnostic size n, this option specifies an integer value

n, indicating the number of conditions that can be held
simultaneously in the diagnostic area.
These conditions supply feedback information (errors or
exceptions) to the user or program on the n most recently
executed SQL statement.
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Characteristics specified by a SET TRANSACTION
statement in SQL2 (cont.):
Isolation level <isolation>, where <isolation> can be READ
UNCOMMITTED, READ COMMITTED, REPEATABLE
READ or SERIALIZABLE. The default is SERIALIZABLE.
With SERIALIZABLE: the interleaved execution of
transactions will adhere to our notion of serializability.
However, if any transaction executes at a lower level,
then serializability may be violated.
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Potential problem with lower isolation levels:
Dirty Read:
Reading a value that was written by a transaction which failed.
Nonrepeatable Read:
Allowing another transaction to write a new value between
multiple reads of one transaction.
A transaction T1 may read a given value from a table. If another
transaction T2 later updates that value and T1 reads that value
again, T1 will see a different value.
Consider that T1 reads the employee salary for Smith. Next,
T2 updates the salary for Smith. If T1 reads Smith's salary
again, then it will see a different value for Smith's salary.
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Potential problem with lower isolation levels (cont.):
Phantoms:
New rows being read using the same read with a
condition.
A transaction T1 may read a set of rows from a table,
perhaps based on some condition specified in the SQL
WHERE clause.
Now suppose that a transaction T2 inserts a new row that
also satisfies the WHERE clause condition of T1, into the
table used by T1.
If T1 is repeated, then T1 will see a row that previously did not
exist, called a phantom.
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Sample SQL transaction:

EXEC SQL whenever sqlerror go to UNDO;
EXEC SQL SET TRANSACTION
READ WRITE
DIAGNOSTICS SIZE 5
ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
EXEC SQL INSERT
INTO EMPLOYEE (FNAME, LNAME, SSN, DNO, SALARY)
VALUES ('Robert','Smith','991004321',2,35000);
EXEC SQL UPDATE EMPLOYEE
SET SALARY = SALARY * 1.1
WHERE DNO = 2;
EXEC SQL COMMIT;
GOTO THE_END;
UNDO: EXEC SQL ROLLBACK;
THE_END: ...
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Possible violation of serializabilty:
Type of Violation
Isolation
Dirty
nonrepeatable
level
read
read
phantom
_______________________________________________________
READ UNCOMMITTED
yes
yes
yes
READ COMMITTED
no
yes
yes
REPEATABLE READ
no
no
yes
SERIALIZABLE
no
no
no
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Summary
Transaction and System Concepts
Desirable Properties of Transactions
Recoverability
Serializability
Transaction Support in SQL
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Introduction to Transaction

Processing Concepts and Theory

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

1 Introduction to Transaction Processing (1)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (2)

A transaction (set of operations) may be stand-alone

An application program may contain several transactions

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (3)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (4)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (5)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Two Sample Transactions

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (6)

The Lost Update Problem

The Incorrect Summary Problem

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Concurrent execution is uncontrolled:

The final should be 79, but it is 84

Concurrent execution is uncontrolled:

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Concurrent execution is uncontrolled:

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (12)

2. A transaction or system error:

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Introduction to Transaction Processing (13)

4. Concurrency control enforcement:

Introduction to Transaction Processing (14)

6. Physical problems and catastrophes:

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

2 Transaction and System Concepts (1)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

State Transition Diagram Illustrating the

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (2)

Transaction and System Concepts (3)

Transaction and System Concepts (4)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (5)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (6)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (7)

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (8)

Because the log contains a record of every write operation

We can also redo the effect of the write operations of a

DB Systems 2 (Spring 2016)

Transaction and System Concepts (9)

Roll Back of transactions:

Transaction and System Concepts (10)

Force writing a log:

3 Desirable Properties of Transactions (1)

4 Characterizing Schedules Based on Recoverability (1)