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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
<chapter>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>1997</year><year>2016</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>Overview</title>
<prepared>Claes Wikström, Hans Nilsson and Håkan Mattsson</prepared>
<responsible>Bjarne Däcker</responsible>
<docno></docno>
<approved>Bjarne Däcker</approved>
<checked>Bjarne Däcker</checked>
<date></date>
<rev>C</rev>
<file>Mnesia_overview.xml</file>
</header>
<p>The management of data in telecommunications systems has many
aspects of which some, but not all, are addressed by traditional
Database Management Systems (DBMSs). In particular, the
high level of fault tolerance required in many nonstop
systems, combined with requirements on the DBMS to run in the same
address space as the applications, have led us to implement a new
DBMS, called Mnesia.</p>
<p>Mnesia is implemented in, and tightly coupled to Erlang.
It provides the functionality that is necessary for the
implementation of fault-tolerant telecommunications systems.</p>
<p>Mnesia is a multiuser distributed DBMS specifically designed for
industrial-grade telecommunications applications written in Erlang,
which is also the intended target language.
Mnesia tries to address all the data management issues required for
typical telecommunications systems and has a number of features not
normally found in traditional DBMSs.</p>
<p>Telecommunications applications need a mix of a broad range
of features generally not provided by traditional DBMSs.
Mnesia is designed to meet requirements such as:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Fast real-time key-value lookup
</item>
<item>Complex non-real-time queries
(mainly for operation and maintenance tasks)
</item>
<item>Distributed data
(due to the distributed nature of the applications)
</item>
<item>High fault tolerance
</item>
<item>Dynamic reconfiguration
</item>
<item>Complex objects
</item>
</list>
<p>Mnesia addresses the typical data management issues required for
telecommunications applications which sets it apart from most other DBMSs.
It combines many concepts found in traditional DBMSs, such as transactions
and queries, with concepts found in data management systems for
telecommunications applications such as:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Fast real-time operations
</item>
<item>Configurable replication for fault tolerance
</item>
<item>Dynamic reconfiguration without service disruption
</item>
</list>
<p>Mnesia is also unique due to its tight coupling to
Erlang. It almost turns Erlang into a database programming
language, which yields many benefits. The foremost is that
the impedance mismatch between the data format used by the DBMS
and the data format used by the programming language, which is used
to manipulate the data, completely disappears.</p>
<section>
<title>The Mnesia Database Management System</title>
<section>
<title>Features</title>
<p>Mnesia has the following features that combine to
produce a fault-tolerant distributed database management
system (DBMS) written in Erlang:
</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Database schema can be dynamically reconfigured at runtime.
</item>
<item>Tables can be declared to have properties such as location,
replication, and persistence.
</item>
<item>Tables can be moved or replicated to several nodes to improve
fault tolerance. Other nodes in the system can still access the
tables to read, write, and delete records.
</item>
<item>Table locations are transparent to the programmer.
Programs address table names and the system itself keeps track of
table locations.
</item>
<item>Transactions can be distributed and multiple
operations can be executed within a single transaction.
</item>
<item>Multiple transactions can run concurrently and their execution
is fully synchronized by Mnesia, ensuring that no
two processes manipulate the same data simultaneously.
</item>
<item>Transactions can be assigned the property of being executed on
all nodes in the system, or on none.
</item>
<item>Transactions can be bypassed using dirty operations,
which reduce overheads and run fast.
</item>
</list>
<p>All of the above features are described in detail
in the coming sections.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>Query List Comprehension</title>
<p>Query List Comprehension (QLC) can be used with Mnesia
to produce specialized functions that enhance its operational
ability. QLC has its own documentation as part
of the OTP documentation set. The main QLC advantages
when used with Mnesia are:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>QLC can optimize the query compiler for Mnesia,
essentially making the system more efficient.
</item>
<item>QLC can be used as a database programming
language for Mnesia. It includes a notation called list
comprehensions which can be used to execute complex database
queries over a set of tables.
</item>
</list>
<p>For more information about QLC, please see the
<seeerl marker="stdlib:qlc">qlc</seeerl> manual page
in STDLIB.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>When to Use Mnesia</title>
<p>Mnesia is a great fit for applications that:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Need to replicate data.
</item>
<item>Perform complex data queries.
</item>
<item>Need to use atomic transactions to
safely update several records simultaneously.
</item>
<item>Require soft real-time characteristics.
</item>
</list>
<p>Mnesia is not as appropriate for applications that:</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>Process plain text or binary data files.
</item>
<item>Merely need a lookup dictionary that
can be stored on disc. Such applications may use the standard
library module <c>dets</c>, which is a disc-based version
of the <c>ets</c> module. For more information about <c>dets</c>,
please see the <seeerl marker="stdlib:dets">dets</seeerl>
manual page in STDLIB.
</item>
<item>Need disc logging facilities.
Such applications may use the module <c>disk_log</c>.
For more information about <c>disk_log</c>, please see the
<seeerl marker="kernel:disk_log">disk_log</seeerl>
manual page in Kernel.
</item>
<item>Require hard real-time characteristics.
</item>
</list>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
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