A general discussion of physical area layout, distinguishing between uniform and mixed areas, is included. The student is introduced to hashed indexes together with the calculations necessary to determine SPAM thresholds, page sizes and area sizing. The laboratory work includes specifying the database as a multi file database. The robust capability for physical design present in Rdb means the DBA must make many choices for each piece of the database. This section discusses the choices, makes recommendations that will work well for most applications, and addresses how to decide which pieces should not use the general recommendations.
Topics covered include export import, backup restore and load unload sequences.
A discussion of which method is preferable in which context is also included. The laboratory includes restructuring of the student's database. Any computer system has the potential to fail at some point. Rdb's backup and journaling capability reduce the chance of data loss when failures occur. This section discusses Rdb's capabilities in the area of performance monitoring and tuning.