Workload Management in Database Management Systems: A Taxonomy

Workload management is the discipline of effectively monitoring, managing and controlling work flow across computing systems. In particular, workload management in database management systems (DBMSs) is the process or act of monitoring and controlling work (i.e., requests) executing on a database system in order to make efficient use of system resources in addition to achieving any performance objectives assigned to that work. In the past decade, workload management studies and practice have made considerable progress in both academia and industry. New techniques have been proposed by researchers, and new features of workload management facilities have been implemented in most commercial database products. In this paper, we provide a systematic study of workload management in today's DBMSs by developing a taxonomy of workload management techniques. We apply the taxonomy to evaluate and classify existing workload management techniques implemented in the commercial databases and available in the recent research literature. We also introduce the underlying principles of today's workload management technology for DBMSs, discuss open problems, and outline some research opportunities in this research area.