Failure Controlling Methods:Failures can be handled using different recovery methods that are talk about later in the unit. But the first question is doing we really require recovery techniques as a failure control mechanism? The recovery methods are somewhat expensive both in terms of memory space and in time for small systems. In such a case it is more useful to better avoid the failure by some checks instead of deploying recovery method to make database consistent. Also, recovery from failure includes manpower that can be used in some other productive work if failure can be avoided. It is, thus, main to find out some general precautions that help in controlling failure. Some of these precautions might be:
- Having a better secondary storage system like RAID.
- Having a regulated power supply.
- Taking periodic backup of database states and keeping track of transactions after every recorded state.
- setting important integrity checks in the databases as well as user interfaces.
- Properly testing the transaction programs prior to use etc.
Though, it may be noted that if the database system is significant it must use a DBMS that is suitably equipped with recovery measures.