Centralized and Client/Server

Architecture and Classification of

DBMS

Prepared By :

Muhammad Usman
Topic To be Covered

 Classification of DBMSs,
 Data modelling using the Entity-relationship model(ER)

Syed Sarmad Ali

Centralized and Client-Server Architectures

• Centralized DBMS: combines everything into single

system including- DBMS software, hardware, application
programs and user interface processing software.

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A physical centralized architecture.
Basic Client-Server Architectures
 A server is a system containing both hardware and software that can provide
services to the client machines, such as file access, printing or database access.
 In general, the client/server architecture was developed to deal with computing
environment in which large number of PCs, workstation, file server, printers,
database server, web servers, and other equipment are connected via a network.
 The idea is to define Specialized Servers with specific functionality.
 For example, it is possible to connect a number of PCs or workstation as client to
the file server that maintain the files of the client machine.
 Similarly, Printer Server dedicated to all the print requests forwarded to this
machine.
 In this way, resources provided by the specialized servers can be accessed by
many client machines.
 The client machines provide the user with the appropriate interface to utilize these
servers.

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Specialized Servers with Specialized functions:

• File Servers
• Printer Servers
• Web Servers
• E-mail Servers

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Clients:

• Provide appropriate interfaces and a client-version of

the system to access and utilize the server resources.
• Clients maybe diskless machines or PCs or
Workstations with disks with only the client software
installed.
• Connected to the servers via some form of a network.
(LAN: local area network, wireless network, etc.)

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Logical two-tier client/server architecture

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DBMS Server

• Provides database query and transaction services to

the clients
• Sometimes called query and transaction servers

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 Diskless node
 A diskless node (or diskless workstation) is a workstation or personal computer
without disk drives, which employs network booting to load its operating system
from a server. (A computer may also be said to act as a diskless node, if its disks are
unused and network booting is used.)
 Diskless workstation
 Alternatively referred to as a diskless node, dummy terminal, or dumb terminal,
a diskless workstation is a networked computer that provides no local hard drive
space or floppy disk drive access. These terminals will have a monitor, motherboard
, network card, keyboard, and mouse. This term can also be used to describe any
computer that has a hard drive, but is booting and using applications from the
network instead of from the local hard drive. This type of computer is often referred
to as a hybrid computer or network computer.
Physical two-tier client-server architecture.
Two Tier Client-Server Architecture
 In client/server architecture User Interface Program and Application programs can run on
the client side.
 When DBMS access is required, the program establish a connection to the DBMS(which is on
the server side); once the connection is created, the client program can communicate with the
DBMS.
 A standard called Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) provide an application program
interface(API), which allows client-side programs to call the DBMS, as long as both client
and server machines have the necessary software installed.
 Similarly a related standard is used for the Java Programming language (JDBC), has also been
defined. This allow Java client program to access the DBMS through a standard interface.
 the architecture is called two tier architecture because the software components are distributed
over two system.

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13 Two Tier Client-Server Architecture

• A client program may connect to several DBMSs.

• Other variations of clients are possible: e.g., in some
DBMSs, more functionality is transferred to clients
including data dictionary functions, optimization and
recovery across multiple servers, etc. In such situations the
server may be called the Data Server.

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

Three tier Architecture

 Many web applications use an architecture called the application server which add an
intermediate layer between the client and the database server.
 Intermediate Layer called Application Server or Web Server:

 The intermediate layer or the middle tier is sometimes called the application server and
sometimes the Web Server.
 This server plays an intermediary role by providing the rules (procedure and constraints) that
are used to access data from the database.
Three tier Architecture

 Additional Features- Security:

 Improve database security by checking clients credentials before forwarding the request.
• encrypt the data at the server before transmission
• decrypt data at the client
16 Logical three-tier client/server architecture.

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

17 Classification of DBMSs

 Several criteria are normally used to classify DBMSs.

 Data model
 Number of users
 Number of sites
 Cost
 Types of access path

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

18 Classification of Data Model

 Relational model represents a database as a collection of tables, where each table can be
stored as a separate file.
 Object model defines a database in terms of objects, their properties, and their operations.
 Relational DBMSs have been extending their models to incorporate object database
concepts and other capabilities; Object-relational model
 Hierarchical model represents data as record types
 and also represents a limited type of l:N relationship, called a set type.
 Network model represents data as hierarchical tree structures.

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

Hierarchical DBMS
 Represent data as hierarchical tree structures
 Each hierarchy represents a number of related records
 A hierarchical database model is a data model in which the data is organized into a tree-
like structure. The structure allows representing information using parent/child
relationships: each parent can have many children, but each child has only one parent (also
known as a 1-to-many relationship). All attributes of a specific record are listed under an
entity type.
Network DBMS
 Resembles hierarchical model
 Represent data as record types
 Collection of records in 1:N relationships
 The network model is a database model conceived as a flexible way of representing
objects and their relationships. Its distinguishing feature is that the schema, viewed as a
graph in which object types are nodes and relationship types are arcs, is not restricted to
being a hierarchy or lattice.
21 The schema of Figure 2.1 in network model
notation

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

Relational DBMS
 Represent database as collection of tables
 Each table can be stored as separate file
Relational DBMS (cont.)

 Relational schema
 representation of relational database’s entities, attributes within those entities, and relationships
between those entities
 Relational table
 Stores a collection of related entities
Object Oriented Model

 Represent database in terms of object, their properties and their operations.

 Objects with same structure and behavior belongs to same class.
 Classes are organized into hierarchies.
 Operations of each class are called methods.
Object relational DBMS

 Relational DBMS are extending their models by incorporating object database concepts
resulting in object-relational or extended relational systems.
26 Number of users

 Single-user systems support only one user at a time and are mostly used with personal
computers.
 Multiuser systems, which include the majority of DBMSs, support multiple users
concurrently.

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

27 Number of sites

 A DBMS is centralized if the data is stored at a single computer site.

 A distributed DBMS (DDBMS) can have the actual database and DBMS software
distributed over many sites, connected by a computer network.
 Homogeneous
 Heterogeneous
 Federated or Multidatabase Systems

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali

28 Types of the access path

 One well-known family of DBMSs is based on inverted file structures. Finally, a DBMS
can be general purpose or special purpose.
 Online transaction processing (OLTP) systems,

Database Management Systems Syed Sarmad Ali