Hands-on 5: Write Ahead Log System

Intro to wal-sys

This hands-on assignment will give you some experience using a Write Ahead Log (WAL) system. This system corresponds to the WAL scheme described in Chapter 9.C of the course notes. You should carefully read that section before attempting this assignment. You can do this hands-on on any computer that has a Perl language interpreter, but we will be able to answer your questions more easily if you run this on an Athena workstation. You can download the WAL system from here (if your browser displays the file in a window instead of saving it, use "File -> Save As" to save the file). The downloaded file is a Perl script named wal-sys. Before trying to run it, change its permissions to make it executable, for example by typing:

athena% chmod +x wal-sys

The wal-sys script can be run as follows:

athena% wal-sys [-reset]

Alternatively, you can run the script as:

athena% perl ./wal-sys [-reset]

Wal-sys is a simple WAL system that models a bank's central database. Wal-sys implements redo logging for error-recovery as described in Chapter 8.C of the course notes. Wal-sys creates and uses two files, named LOG and DB, in the current working directory. The "LOG" file contains the log entries, and the "DB" file contains all of the installed changes to the database.

After you start wal-sys, you can enter commands to manage recoverable actions and accounts. There are also commands to simulate a system crash and to print the contents of the "LOG" and "DB" files. All the commands to wal-sys are case sensitive. Since wal-sys uses the standard input stream, you can use the system in batch mode. To do this, place your commands in a file ("cmd.in" for example) and redirect the file to wal-sys's standard input:

athena% wal-sys -reset < cmd.in.

When using batch mode, make sure that each command is followed by a newline character (including the last one).

Commands interpreted by wal-sys

• begin action_id
  Begin a recoverable action denoted by action_id. The action_id is a positive integer that uniquely identifies a given recoverable action.

• create_account action_id account_name starting_balance
  Create a new account with the given account_name and starting_balance. The first argument specifies that this operation is part of recoverable action action_id. The account_name can be any character string with no white spaces.

• credit_account action_id account_name credit_amount
  Add credit_amount to account_name's balance. This command logs the credit and holds it in a buffer until an end command is executed for recoverable action action_id.

• debit_account action_id account_name debit_amount
  Reduce account_name's balance by debit_amount. Like credit, this command logs the debit and holds it in a buffer until an end command is executed for recoverable action action_id.

• commit action_id
  Commit the recoverable action action_id. This command logs a commit record.

• checkpoint
  Log a checkpoint record.

• end action_id
  End recoverable action action_id. This command installs the results of recoverable action action_id to the "DB". It also logs an end record.

The following commands help us understand the dynamics of the WAL system:

• show_state
  Print out the current state of the database. This command displays the contents of the "DB" and "LOG" files.

• crash
  Crash the system. In this hands-on, we are only concerned about crash recovery, so this is the only command we will use to exit the program.

Using wal-sys

athena% wal-sys -reset

begin 1
create_account 1 studentA 1000
commit 1
end 1
begin 2
create_account 2 studentB 2000
begin 3
create_account 3 studentC 3000
credit_account 3 studentC 100
debit_account 3 studentA 100
commit 3
show_state
crash

Use a text editor to examine the "DB" and "LOG" files and answer the following questions (do not run wal-sys again until you have answered these questions):

1) Wal-sys displays the current state of the database contents after you type show_state. Why doesn't the database show studentB?

2) When the database recovers, which accounts should be active, and what values should they contain?

3) Can you explain why the "DB" file does not contain a record for studentC and contains the pre-debit balance for studentA?

Recovering the database

athena% wal-sys
> show_state
> crash

4) What do you expect the state of "DB" to be after wal-sys recovers? Why?

5) Run wal-sys again to recover the database. Examine the "DB" file. Does the state of the database match your expectations? Why or why not?

6) During recovery, wal-sys reports the action_ids of those recoverable actions that are "Losers", "Winners", and "Done". What is the meaning of these categories?

Checkpoints

athena% wal-sys -reset

begin 1
create_account 1 studentA 1000
commit 1
end 1
begin 2
create_account 2 studentB 2000
checkpoint
begin 3
create_account 3 studentC 3000
credit_account 3 studentC 100
debit_account 2 studentB 100
commit 3
show_state
crash

7) Why are the results of recoverable action 2's create_account 2 studentB 2000 command not installed in "DB" by the checkpoint command on the following line?

Examine the "LOG" output file. In particular, inspect the CHECKPOINT entry. Also, count the number of entries in the "LOG" file. Run wal-sys again to recover the database.

8) How many lines were rolled back? What is the advantage of using checkpoints?

Note down the action_ids of "Winners", "Losers", and "Done". Use the show_state command to look at the recovered database and verify that the database recovered correctly. Crash the system, and then run wal-sys again to recover the database a second time.

9) Does the second run of the recovery procedure (for sequence 2) restore "DB" to the same state as the first run? What is this property called?

10) Compare the action_ids of "Winners", "Losers", and "Done" from the second recovery with those from the first. The lists are different. How does the recovery procedure guarantee the property from Question 9 even though the recovery procedure can change? (Hint: Examine the "LOG" file).

11) How long did it take you to complete this assignment?

Optional: Wal-sys has a hitherto unmentioned option: if you type wal-sys -undo it will perform undo logging and undo recovery. Try the above sequences again with undo logging to see what changes.