Question: What is the difference between a database buffer and a cache?

Answer

In understanding the optimization of database operations, it's crucial to differentiate between two commonly used terms: database buffer and cache. These components are fundamental in enhancing performance by reducing the number of disk I/O operations.

Database Buffer

A database buffer is a portion of memory reserved within the database management system (DBMS) to hold data that is frequently accessed or recently read from the database files on disk. The primary purpose of the database buffer is to minimize the direct disk I/O operations necessary for query execution, which significantly improves performance. When a query requests data, the DBMS first checks if the required data is in the buffer; if so, it fetches it directly from there (a "buffer hit"), otherwise, it reads it from disk into the buffer (a "buffer miss").

Examples of database buffers include:

• Buffer pool in MySQL: A critical memory area where InnoDB caches table and index data.

-- Adjusting the size of the buffer pool
SET GLOBAL innodb_buffer_pool_size = SIZE_BYTES;

• Shared buffers in PostgreSQL: The amount of memory the database server uses for caching blocks of data.

-- Viewing the current shared_buffers setting
SHOW shared_buffers;

-- Setting shared_buffers typically requires editing postgresql.conf and restarting PostgreSQL:
-- shared_buffers = '4GB'

Cache

The term cache, in the broader sense, refers to a temporary storage area where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access. Unlike the database buffer, which is managed internally by the DBMS, a cache can exist at various levels and locations within an application's architecture. This can range from hardware (processor caches), over operating systems, up to application-level caching mechanisms such as Memcached or Redis. Caches are not limited to database queries or results but may also store computed values, session states, HTML pages, etc.

Examples of caches include:

• Memcached: A high-performance, distributed memory object caching system intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.

import memcache
mc = memcache.Client(['127.0.0.1:11211'], debug=0)
mc.set("some_key", "Some value")
value = mc.get("some_key")

• Redis: An open-source, in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache, and message broker.

import redis
r = redis.Redis(host='localhost', port=6379, db=0)
r.set('foo', 'bar')
print(r.get('foo'))

Conclusion

While both database buffers and caches serve to improve the efficiency of data retrieval and reduce the reliance on slower disk-based storage, they operate at different levels and have distinct scopes within an application's ecosystem. A database buffer is specifically optimized for database operations and is managed by the DBMS, whereas a cache is a more general concept that can be applied across different layers of an application for various types of data.