Architecture of a Database System

TLDR

Database Management Systems are ubiquitous, critical components of modern computing that evolved over decades of research, and this book discusses their architectural principles—process models, parallelism, storage, transaction, query processing, and shared utilities—drawing on commercial and open‑source examples to illustrate the systems‑design techniques that underpin scalability and reliability. The book serves as a comprehensive reference for database researchers, practitioners, and other computing professionals seeking insights into the systems‑design techniques that enable scalability and reliability in DBMSs.

Abstract

Database Management Systems (DBMSs) are a ubiquitous and critical component of modern computing, and the result of decades of research and development in both academia and industry. Architecture of a Database System presents an architectural discussion of DBMS design principles, including process models, parallel architecture, storage system design, transaction system implementation, query processor and optimizer architectures, and typical shared components and utilities. Successful commercial and open-source systems are used as points of reference, particularly when multiple alternative designs have been adopted by different groups. Historically, DBMSs were among the earliest multi-user server systems to be developed, and thus pioneered many systems design techniques for scalability and reliability now in use in many other contexts. While many of the algorithms and abstractions used by a DBMS are textbook material, Architecture of a Database System addresses the systems design issues that make a DBMS work. Architecture of a Database System is an invaluable reference for database researchers and practitioners and for those in other areas of computing interested in the systems design techniques for scalability and reliability that originated in DBMS research and development.