Locking granularity in multiprocessor database systems

The effects of locking granularity in a shared-nothing multiprocessor database system are analyzed. The analysis shows that when the system is lightly loaded fine granularity (one lock per database entity) is needed when transactions access the database randomly. However, when transactions access the database sequentially, coarse granularity is desired. When the system is heavily loaded, coarse granularity is desirable. The results also indicate that horizontal partitioning results in better performance than random partitioning.<
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