Database Systems
Course instructor: Yanif Ahmad.
Course staff: P. Shyamshankar, Y. Huang.
Class schedule: MW 12-1.15pm, Shaffer 100.
Yanif: W 1.15-2.30pm, Shaffer 200A.
Shyam, Yao: M 5-6:30pm, Shaffer 204E.
Course Description
This course serves as an introduction to the architecture and design of modern
database management systems.
Database management systems (DBMS) are widely used to manage, store and query
diverse datasets and have become an invaluable tool in today's enterprises and
large web companies with applications in transaction processing, business intelligence
and analytics.
Topics include query processing algorithms and data
structures, data organization and storage, query optimization and cost modeling,
transaction management and concurrency control, high-availability mechanisms,
parallel and distributed databases, and a survey of modern architectures including
NoSQL, column-oriented and streaming databases.
In addition to technical material, we will devote a portion of
weekly lectures to looking at the use of database technology in today's
enterprises, including document indexing at Google, parallel data warehousing
with systems such as Hadoop and HIVE, and transactional web applications.
Coursework includes programming assignments and experimentation in a
simple database framework written in Java.
Which JHU Database course do I take?
Database Systems (CS 600.316/416) is complementary to Databases (CS 600.315/415)
offered in the Fall semester and the two make a natural course sequence.
315/415 focuses on using databases in applications, for
example to support web sites, with topics including database schema design and
models, and database programming languages.
316/416 focuses on database internals and the implementation of a database
runtime to realize declarative queries, including storage and data organization,
indexing, query processing and optimization and transactions. 316/416 does not
have 315/415 as a prerequisite but it is recommended that you have some prior
exposure to SQL (for example by reading through the SQL tutorials below).
Course area: Systems.
Prerequisites:
CS 600.120 (Intermediate Programming) and CS 600.226 (Data Structures) or equivalent.
Class discussions:
See our Piazza page.
The following links may be useful if you're looking for a refresher on SQL, or want
to play with DBMS software.
SQL tutorial:
PDF,
CS 315@JHU,
SQLZoo,
W3Schools
Open-source DBMS:
SQLite,
Postgres,
MySQL
Academic Conduct
All activities related to this course are subject to JHU's academic ethics and student conduct policies. Students are also expected to adhere to the Computer Science Academic Integrity Code.Grading Scheme
60% Assignments15% Midterm
15% Final
10% Class participation
Late policy: You have a total of 10 late days throughout the semester. Any late handins after you have used up late days will automatically be deducted 20% of the assignment grade. We strongly suggest you start programming assignments well in advance of their handin date to give you time to address software bugs and to ask for clarifications as needed.
Syllabus
| Week | Topic | Suggested reading |
| 1: January 28 | Welcome, SQL+DBMS intro. | SQL tutorials above. |
| Warmup: development environment setup. | ||
| 2: February 4 | Storage and data organization. | Cow 9.3-9.7, Boat 10.5-10.8 |
| Assignment 1: storage manager. | Hand-in: week 4. | |
| 3: February 11 | Indexing and access methods. | Cow 10, Boat 11-11.4 |
| 4: February 18 | Query processing. | Cow 12-14, Boat 12 |
| Assignment 2: B+-tree. | Hand-in: week 6. | |
| 5: February 25 | Query optimization. | Cow 15, Boat 13-13.4 |
| 6: March 4 | Physical database design. | Cow 20, Boat 13.5-13.6,24.1-24.1 |
| 7: March 11 | Transaction processing. | Cow 16-17, Boat 14,15 |
| Midterm exam. | 4-day take home. | |
| 8: March 18 | No class, spring break! | The Manga Guide to Databases, while here |
| 9: March 25 | Logging and recovery. | Cow 17-18, Boat 15,16 |
| Assignment 3: join algorithms. | Hand-in: week 11. | |
| 10: April 1 | Data analytics. | Cow 25, Boat 20 |
| 11: April 8 | Parallel and distributed QP. | Cow 22, Boat 18 |
| Assignment 4: query optimization. | Hand-in: week 13. | |
| 12: April 15 | Modern architectures: NoSQL | Cassandra/HBase, MongoDB. |
| 13: April 22 | Modern architectures: MPP and streams. | Hadoop, Hive, StreamBase, Storm. |
| Assignment 5: transactions. | Hand-in: week 15. | |
| 14: April 29 | Modern architectures: graph and prob. DBs | Pregel/GoldenOrb/Giraph, MayBMS, MCDB. |
| Final exam. | Date to be announced (mid-May) |
Assignments
will be made available on Mondays at 9am, and are due on
Mondays 11:59pm on their hand-in weeks.
Organization
Database Systems is a 13-week course that meets twice a week and is subdivided into system design, algorithms and architecture topics as listed in the syllabus below in 1 week units. Classes consist of lectures, discussions and reading, with a series of programming assignments comprising the bulk of a student's grade. Further details on the assignments can be found below. In addition, there will be two short quizzes making up an in-class midterm and final. The primary source of course material will be lecture slides made available on the course's Blackboard page. The textbooks below are not required, but may be of use as reference material for in-depth study of topics.Textbooks (recommended, not required):
Database Management Systems. (3rd edition)
Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~dbbook/
(the "Cow" book)
Database Systems Concepts.
Avi Silberschatz, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan. (6th edition)
http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/db-book/
(the "Boat" book)
Assignments:
There will be 5 x 2-week programming assignments in this course on the following topics:
- Database storage, implementing a heap file and buffer pool.
- Indexing, implementing a B+-tree.
- Query processing, implementing query operators.
- Query optimization, implementing the System-R optimizer.
- Transactions, implementing a locking and deadlock detection scheme.
Collaboration:
You may discuss Java related issues, potential "bugs" in your code, and clarifications on the assignment handouts with other students. We will use Piazza rather than Blackboard's discussion forums for this purpose. Your activity on Piazza, in-class questions and office hour interactions will determine the class participation component of your grade. All code that you turn in must be your own. Please adhere to the Computer Science Academic Integrity Code and the University's Ethics Code.
Office hours:
We encourage you to use office hours to ask further questions on course material and any detailed assignment questions specific to your solution that should not be shared with other students. You can also email Yanif for a 1-on-1 if you're unable to meet any of the course staff during office hours due to scheduling conflicts.