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Visual Basic 6 Client/Server Programming Gold Book:Table of ...

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thousands or millions <strong>of</strong> detail records that are queried and summarized but are<br />

not typically updated. Executive information systems (EIS) and data<br />

warehouses are examples <strong>of</strong> these types <strong>of</strong> applications. Either way, the needs<br />

are quite a bit different than those for an OLTP system.<br />

If you have a busy OLTP system, you might want to consider such factors as<br />

how a given database performs record locking. Sybase, for instance, uses what<br />

is called page-level locking—all records on a database page are locked when<br />

an update is to occur. Oracle, on the other hand, performs row-level<br />

locking—only those rows that are to be updated get locked. The record locking<br />

has implications if several users are trying to update different records on the<br />

same page. With the Sybase product, the users have to wait until the first user<br />

has released the lock on that page. Micros<strong>of</strong>t SQL <strong>Server</strong> 6.0 performs<br />

page-level locking, whereas SQL <strong>Server</strong> 6.5 does pseudo row-level locking:<br />

The rows immediately before and after the row to be updated are also locked.<br />

SQL <strong>Server</strong> 7.0 performs true row-level locking.<br />

On the other hand, the nature <strong>of</strong> your data may be such that a page contains<br />

few rows, which makes the issue <strong>of</strong> row-level versus page-level locking less<br />

important.<br />

If you are planning a DSS, you should consider how well the database handles<br />

very large volumes <strong>of</strong> data. Most <strong>of</strong> the major vendors support some sort <strong>of</strong><br />

variation on massively parallel processing (MPP), where a long-running query<br />

is executed in multiple threads to better handle the intensive querying and to<br />

speed up processing.<br />

Determining which database will best handle your needs for an OLTP or a<br />

DSS is not an easy undertaking. My recommendation is to talk to peers who<br />

have used the products in environments similar to your own. In addition, check<br />

out the computer press for its independent benchmarking results. Lastly,<br />

consider searching the Internet (but avoid the vendor’s own biased claims).<br />

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