Hi Stephen,
Stephen Krämer wrote:
Hi all,
I'm afraid my questions are somewhat trivial, still as a
"wet-lab-biologist" I just can't find the answers myself. I need these
informations for a presentation about biomart in which I'm supposed to
judge the reliability of the biomart system:
1. Did I get this right: BioMart uses a "Data-Warehouse"-architecture
which means that the user doesn't access the "original databases" but
modified copies of them on the biomart-servers? What does the term
"federated databases" mean in this context (which is used in many of the
presentations on the biomart website)?
yes, BioMart database is a replica of original database in a reverse
star schema often referred to as mart schema.
2. How do you ensure that BioMart does not shut down? Do you use a "load
balancer"-server to sort crashed servers out? Or do you have some kind
of backup-servers? Or can BioMart access the original databases, if the
"copies on the biomart servers" don't work?
this is entirely up to your system admins. Poeple have all sorts of
setups inculding load-balancers as well as cronjobs and by changing
default settings httpd.conf e.g
StartServers xx
MaxClients xx
MaxRequestsPerChild xx
Cheers
Syed
Thanks very much,
Stephen
