Ensuring relaxed atomicity for flexible transactions in multidatabase systems

ABSTRACT

Global transaction management requires cooperation from local sites to ensure the consistent and reliable execution of global transactions in a distributed database system. In a heterogeneous distributed database (or multidatabase) environment, various local sites make conflicting assertions of autonomy over the execution of global transactions. A flexible transaction model for the specification of global transactions makes it possible to deal robustly with these conflicting requirements. This paper presents an approach that preserves the semi-atomicity (a weaker form of atomicity) of flexible transactions, allowing local sites to autonomously maintain serializability and recoverability. We offer a fundamental characterization of the flexible transaction model and precisely define the semi-atomicity. We investigate the commit dependencies among the subtransactions of a flexible transaction. These dependencies are used to control the commitment order of the subtransactions. We next identify those restrictions that must be placed upon a flexible transaction to ensure the maintenance of its semi-atomicity. As atomicity is a restrictive criterion, semi-atomicity enhances the class of executable global transactions.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.4 Systems
          Subjects: Transaction processing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.4 Systems
          Subjects: Distributed databases
      H.2.7 Database Administration
          Subjects: Logging and recovery

General Terms:
Design, Reliability