Database server

Database server and its Working

What is a database server?

The back-end system of a database application which uses the client/server architecture is referred to as the Database server. The database server i.e. the back-end system, helps in performing tasks like data analysis, archiving, data manipulation, storage and also some other tasks which aren’t user specific. It is because of database that the computer exists. By managing the data, the database server turns raw data into facts and figures. Raw data is also stored in theses servers, the very data which works with specialized software.

So basically, a collection of information which gets organized is a database. The information is organized so as to become easily accessible, manageable and become updated. And so the computer program which provides database services to computer programs or to the computers is a database server. A database server gives these services by use of a client-server model.

Types of database server software:

There are many different types of database server software. Some are open sources and some are commercial software. The open source software include: MySQL, PostgresSQL, MongoDB etc. and the commercial software are Oracle, MSSQL etc.

Types of database Server:

Different kinds of database models are supported by different types of database servers:

1. Flat file database model:

This type of database model has a single and a two-dimensional array of data elements. An example of a flat file can be an Excel spreadsheet

2. Relational database models:

These are the database models which are designed to enable the database management systems to not be dependent on any specific application. When customers, Sales and inventory, are brought together they have different raw data elements, but they can work together to supply many different reports.

3. Object database models:

They help in bringing the application programming world and the database world closer together. Applications of object database models are Visual Studio programming and SQL.

4. Hierarchical relational database models:

In such database models, the data is organized into a structure looking like a tree. Applications can be a financial database.

Communication process of the client-server model:

Explaining it by the example of a computer that has a contently running program which understands some special language (for e.g. Structured Query Language), however it only listens to someone specific for say, security measures, rather than anyone trying to talk to it. Now that someone (a person who is allowed to talk to the Database Server) sends a command, it will be processed and the necessary data will be updated or selected from/to database storage and hence the result will be sent back to requester.

Data storage technique:

The different kind of database servers uses many different data storage techniques (these are also called as engines) and typically can utilize multiple engines simultaneously depending on your need. In most of the cases, all the data is stored physically as files on the computer where the database server is being run, or is stored on any remote storage.