Thursday 30 August 2012

SQL Server Architecture 2005 Onwards


I am writing this Article to understand the architecture of MS SQL Server .we will start with understanding the architecture with the help of a diagram.

So major components of SQL Server are.
1)      Relational Engine
2)      Storage Engine
3)      SQL OS
Now we will discuss and understand each of them.
1)      Relational Engine: - It is also called the query processor. It includes the components of SQL Server that determine exactly what your query needs to do and the best way to do it. It manages the execution of queries as it requests data from the storage engine and processes the results returned.
                          
              Different Tasks of Relational Engine

a.     Query Processing  
b.    Memory Management
c.     Thread and task Management
d.    Buffer Management.
e.     Distributed Query Management.

2)      Storage Engine: - Storage Engine is responsible for storage and retrieval of the data on to the storage system (Disk, SAN etc.). But to understand more lets focus on the following diagram.

Sales
Data Files

Log Files

When we talk about any database in sql server there are 2 types of files which are created at the disk level, Data file and log file. Data file physically store the data in data pages and log file which is used to store transaction performed on the database also known as write ahead log. Now we will discuss first about data file and then log file.
Data File:- let’s see first the structure of the data file and then discuss details about them.

It stores data in the form of Data page (8KB) and these data pages are logically organized in extents.
Extents : They Are logical unit in the database and is the combination of 8 data pages I.e. 64 KB form an extent .Now extents can be of two types Mixed and Uniform. Mixed extents hold different type of pages like index, System, Object data. Uniform extent is dedicated to one type .
Pages: We should know that what type of data pages can store in SQL Server. So here are some of them.
·         Data Page :- It hold the data entered by the user but not the data which of type text, ntext, image, nvarchar(max), varchar(max), varbinary(max), and xml data,
·         Index :- Stores the index entries.
·         Text/Image :- It stores LOB ( Large Object data) like text , ntext, image,  nvarchar(max),  varchar(max),  varbinary(max), and xml data
·         GAM & SGAM(Global Allocation Map & Shared Global Allocation Map):- They are used to store information about whether extents are allocated or not.
·         PFS (Page Free Space) :- Information about page allocation and free space available on pages.
·         IAM (Index allocation Map):- Information about extents used by a table or index per allocation unit
·         BCM (Bulk Changed Map):- Keeps information about the extents changed in a Bulk Operation.
·         DCM (Differential Change Map):- Information about extents that have changed since the last BACKUP DATABASE statement per allocation unit.
 
Log File:- it also known as write ahead log. Which stores modification to the database (DML and DDL).  First let’s see the internal Structure of the file.

          Sufficient information is logged to be able to:
§  Roll back transactions if requested
§  Recover the database in case of failure
          Write Ahead Logging is used to create log entries
§  Transaction logs are written in chronological order in a circular way
§  Truncation policy for logs is based on the recovery model
Default behavior of the log file is when checkpoint process occur also known as lazy writer process it truncate Virtual log of only committed transactions since last checkpoint.
SQL OS: - Which lies between Host machine (Windows OS) and SQL Server. Entire thinks that you are preforming on database engine is taken care by SQLOS.  It is highly configurable operating system with powerful API (application programming interface), enabling automatic locality and advanced parallelism. SQLOS provides operating system services such as memory management deals with buffer pool, log buffer, deadlock detection using the blocking and locking structure, exception handling, hosting for external components such as Common Language Runtime, CLR and other services.


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