Relational and Non-relational Databases

Overview

Author: Mario Lassnig, CERN PH-ADP-CO, [1]

In this workshop, the students will learn how to use relational and non-relational databases to build multi-threaded applications. The focus of the workshop is to teach efficient, safe, and fault-tolerant principles when dealing with high-volume and high-throughput database scenarios.

A basic understanding of the following things is required:

• A programming language (preferably Python or any C-like)
• Basic SQL (CREATE, DROP, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE)
• Linux shell scripting (bash or zsh)

The course will cover the following three topics:

• When to use relational databases, and when not
  • Relational primer
  • Non-relational primer
  • How to design the data model

• Using SQL for fun and profit
  • Query plans and performance analysis
  • Transactional safety in multi-threaded environments
  • How to deal with large amounts of sparse metadata
  • Competetive locking and selection strategies

• Building a fault-tolerant database application
  • Distributed transactions across relational and non-relational databases
  • SQL injection and forceful breakage
  • Application-level mitigation for unexpected database issues