A DBMS performs several important functions that guarantee integrity and consistency of data in the database. Most of these functions are transparent to end-users. There are the following important functions and services provided by a DBMS:
(i) Data Storage Management: It provides a mechanism for management of permanent storage of the data. The internal schema defines how the data should be stored by the storage management mechanism and the storage manager interfaces with the operating system to access the physical storage.
(ii) Data Manipulation Management: A DBMS furnishes users with the ability to retrieve, update and delete existing data in the database.
(iii) Data Definition Services: The DBMS accepts the data definitions such as external schema, the conceptual schema, the internal schema, and all the associated mappings in source form.
(iv) Data Dictionary/System Catalog Management: The DBMS provides a data dictionary or system catalog function in which descriptions of data items are stored and which is accessible to users.
(v) Database Communication Interfaces: The end-user’s requests for database access are transmitted to DBMS in the form of communication messages.
(vi) Authorization / Security Management: The DBMS protects the database against unauthorized access, either international or accidental. It furnishes mechanism to ensure that only authorized users an access the database.
{vii) Backup and Recovery Management: The DBMS provides mechanisms for backing up data periodically and recovering from different types of failures. This prevents the loss of data,
(viii) Concurrency Control Service: Since DBMSs support sharing of data among multiple users, they must provide a mechanism for managing concurrent access to the database. DBMSs ensure that the database kept in consistent state and that integrity of the data is preserved.
(ix) Transaction Management: A transaction is a series of database operations, carried out by a single user or application program, which accesses or changes the contents of the database. Therefore, a DBMS must provide a mechanism to ensure either that all the updates corresponding to a given transaction are made or that none of them is made.
(x) Database Access and Application Programming Interfaces: All DBMS provide interface to enable applications to use DBMS services. They provide data access via Structured Query Language (SQL). The DBMS query language contains two components: (a) a Data Definition Language (DDL) and (b) a Data Manipulation Language (DML).
Dinesh Thakur holds an B.C.A, MCDBA, MCSD certifications. Dinesh authors the hugely popular