Advanced Databases
News
- Lecture (VO): The lectures will start on Wednesday, October 7, at 8:30 in HS I – Christian Doppler.
- Lab (PS): The joint kick-off meeting for all lab groups will take place on Tuesday, October 13, at 10:30 in HS II – Lise Meitner.
Introduction
The course provides an in-depth understanding of the techniques, algorithms, and data structures that are used in database systems. The focus of the course is on the relational data model and the following topics will be covered:
- transactions
- concurrency
- recovery
Lecture (VO)
Questions and discussions
For questions and discussions about course-specific topics, including discussions among students, please use the Slack channel #adb-vo (workspace dbteaching.slack.com).
Slack registration: Students can register using their university email address here: https://dbteaching.slack.com/signup
Schedule
Lecture schedule according to PlusOnline. Changes to the schedule will be announced in the Slack channel #adb-vo and/or on the course website. The exam dates will be announced on PlusOnline.
Slides
Each set of slides covers a specific topic area and will be discussed in one or more lecture units. Slides that have not yet been discussed during the lecture may be subject to change. Once a slide set has been discussed in class, only corrections will be made. Each slide set has a version date on its title page.
The slides and their discussion during the lecture are essential for exam preparation.
Note: The slides from last year are already online to give you an overview, but they may be subject to change.
The chapter numbers in the following table refer to the book “Database System Concepts” (see Section Literature).
| Topic | Chapter | Slides | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Transactions: Transaction Concept, Transaction State, Concurrent Executions, Serializability, Recoverability, Implementation Isolation, Transaction Definition in SQL, Testing for Serializability | Ch. 17 | [1up] [4up] |
| 2. | Concurrency Control: Lock-Based Protocols, Timestamp-Based Protocols, Validation-Based Protocols, Multiversion Schemes, Insert and Delete Operations, Concurrency in Index Structures | Ch. 18 | [1up] [4up] |
| 3. | Recovery System: Failure Classification, Storage Structure, Recovery and Atomicity, Log-Based Recovery, Recovery Algorithm, Recovery with Early Lock Release and Logical Undo, ARIES | Ch. 19 | [1up] [4up] |
Literature
Silberschatz, Korth, Sudarshan. Database System Concepts. McGraw-Hill, 2019 (7th edition)
Multiple copies of the book are available in the textbook collection of the department library (Itzling).
Exam
The exam will be written. If very few students register for an exam date, the exam may be held as an oral exam; in this case, the registered students will be notified before the exam.
The exam dates will be announced on PlusOnline.
Written Exam Rules: You may use one A4 sheet with your personal notes (both sides, handwritten or printed).
Registration and withdrawal: Registration for or withdrawal from the exam is possible up to 48 hours before the scheduled start. Failure to attend the exam without prior withdrawal will result in a ban in accordance with §15(7) of the university regulations.
Past exams: 03.06.2016, 19.05.2017, 02.02.2018, 06.02.2019, 07.02.2020, 15.03.2021, 19.01.2022, 15.02.2022, 23.09.2022, 25.01.2023, 16.03.2023, 20.04.2023, 31.01.2024, 28.02.2024, 24.05.2024, 29.01.2025, 26.02.2025, 28.01.2026, 25.02.2026, 17.04.2026
Oral Exam Rules: The exam lasts for about 30 minutes. The questions cover all topics discussed during the lecture, and some of them are very specific: you are expected to be able to justify your statements conclusively, show the execution steps of algorithms on example instances that you provide, and explain each step.
The grading takes the following into account:
- the technical correctness of the answer,
- the depth of the answer, i.e., the level of detail that the answer provides,
- the completeness of the answer, i.e., whether all relevant aspects have been covered,
- correct use of terminology,
- the ability to answer in-depth questions.
During the oral exam no notes are allowed. The rules for registration and withdrawal outlined above for written exams also apply to oral exams.
Online Exam: The exam may be conducted online in exceptional cases (e.g., during a lockdown). The type of exercises, permitted notes, and exam duration remain the same regardless of whether the written exam takes place online or in person.
Lab (PS)
Preliminary: This part of the website is under construction. Contents may change.
We will practice the concepts discussed in the lecture regarding transactions, concurrency, and recovery. We will exercise numerous techniques to deal with the problems related to these topics and apply the gained knowledge in a practical setting. To this end, there will be an initial individual task, and four group tasks (all named Homeworks). Each group contains a maximum of 3 students. Every homework solution (including source code) is submitted via Blackboard. The key results and a small live demo of the group tasks are presented in person in the seminar. You can freely decide whether you present in German or English.
The first appointment is at Tue Oct 13 including: Kickoff, detailed schedule of the PS, and Short description of the first task.
Homeworks
The purpose of the homeworks is to apply the our knowledge in a practical setting. Homeworks are mandatory and make 100% of the lab grade. Homeworks partially rely on PostgreSQL database management system. Install it locally on your machine.
Schedule
| Meetings | Topic | Download | Submission details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 13 | Kickoff | PostgreSQL | Source code of PostgreSQL |
Evaluation
The evaluation is based solely on the submitted homeworks with the following grading scale.
| Points | Mark |
|---|---|
| [8.75, 10.00] | 1 |
| [7.50, 8.75) | 2 |
| [6.25, 7.50) | 3 |
| [5.00, 6.25) | 4 |
| [0.00, 5.00) | 5 |