Fujitsu Mainframe Server GlobalServer network solutions regarding 'Relational Databases and SQL/ODBC access - Symfoware.'

Symfoware

Symfoware is the latest development of Fujitsu's well regarded, high performance relational database engine - RDB II.

SymfoWARE has three main functional areas:

1. High performance relational database providing the facilities of RDB II.
2. Database definition and administration performed using a GUI application, Object Manager.
3. Full remote database access facilities using RDA-SV.

The performance of the database has been improved by a change in the storage technique from that used in RDBII. RDBII used a set of indexes to access the data in the database. Although this is efficient, it requires that during database insert/update/deletion, the indexes must be locked as well as the data. A single index block may contain the indexes to a considerable part of the database, and so the area effectively locked may be quite large. This can also lead to deadlocks where different applications are holding different index blocks.

The symfoWARE database uses a hashing algorithm to access data. This results in more efficient access to the database - a single I/O access after calculating the hash function, instead of multiple accesses to retrieve the indexes. It also results in minimal data locking, since only data areas to be processed are locked, not the indexes to them.

Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC) allows a user at a personal computer or other client software to access a database with a single access interface regardless of database location. The system and database type of the server are irrelevant to the user. The picture below shows a network containing a number of different types of server each containing one or more databases.

Using ODBC compliant software on a PC the user can access a symfoWARE database on a GlobalServer system without being aware that the server system is a mainframe. No special applications need be written on the mainframe to support such access as it is provided through symfoWARE and the database definition.

Database definition and modification is performed from a PC using GUI menus and screens. This simplifies the process of database administration and allows a more intuitive view of database structure and so on.

With ODBC compliance, symfoWARE databases are accessible from client PCs on the network. A user may develop applications using standard PC tools which are ODBC compliant. These include ACCESS, EXCEL, VB, PowerBuilder, PowerCOBOL85, Centura and so on.

As well as these standard types of tool, the user may also develop web-based applications using available tools for the PC. The symfoWARE database will be available using these in the same way as more conventional applications development facilities.