SQLU VLDB Week – Intro to VLDBs
SQL U - VLDB Week
Welcome to another exciting week SQL University postings. The week of April 11, we will be talking about working with VLDBs, or Very Large DataBases.
If you ask a hundred people to define what constitutes a very large database and what it is like working with one, you would probably get at least fifty different answers. One sentiment that I’ve heard time and time again is that working with very large databases is the same as working with small databases, except bigger. The argument is that the fundamentals of database administration are the same, you just apply them a little differently. There is some truth in this. If you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals, you should be able to work with just about any database.
There is also some non-truth in that statement. When dealing with very large database, minor details quickly become major details. Everyday tasks become more complex and have a bigger impact on the system. For example, a database backup may no not be able to complete within your standard maintenance window. And the longer the full backup takes to run, the bigger your transaction log and log backups get. Add to that the time required to copy that backup to another environment and restore it for testing purposes. These are very common tasks that now require a lot more thought.
DuringVLDB week, we’re going to look at these issues and ways to address them. First, I want to get some information from you readers and students. Please vote in the polls below: