1. Question: What is Teradata?
- Answer: Teradata
is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that is designed for
large-scale data warehousing and analytics. It is known for its parallel
processing architecture and scalability.
2. Question: Explain Teradata's Parallel Processing
Architecture.
- Answer: Teradata
uses a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architecture, where data is
distributed across multiple nodes (or AMPs - Access Module Processors). Each
AMP is responsible for processing a subset of data independently, enabling
parallelism and high performance.
3. Question: What is a Teradata Primary Index?
- Answer: The
Primary Index in Teradata is used for data distribution across AMPs. It
determines how rows are distributed among the AMPs, which is crucial for
efficient query performance. A good Primary Index minimizes data movement
during query execution.
4. Question: What is the Teradata BYNET?
- Answer: The BYNET
is Teradata's communication network that facilitates communication and data
exchange between AMPs in a parallel processing environment. It plays a key role
in coordinating queries and data movements.
5. Question: How does Teradata handle data distribution and
retrieval in parallel processing?
- Answer: Teradata
distributes data across AMPs based on the Primary Index. During query
execution, each AMP processes its portion of the data independently, and the
results are combined to produce the final result set.
6. Question: What is Teradata's role in data warehousing and
analytics?
- Answer: Teradata
is designed for data warehousing and analytics, providing a platform for
storing, managing, and analyzing large volumes of data. It supports complex
queries, ad-hoc analysis, and reporting for decision support.
7. Question: Explain Teradata's Multi-Value Compression
feature.
- Answer:
Multi-Value Compression in Teradata is a feature that reduces the storage space
required for frequently repeated values in a column. It helps in optimizing
storage and improving query performance.
8. Question: What is the Teradata Virtual Processor (VProc)?
- Answer: A Virtual
Processor in Teradata represents a processing unit within a node. Teradata uses
multiple Virtual Processors to parallelize query execution across nodes,
contributing to the MPP architecture's efficiency.
9. Question: What is the purpose of the Teradata CLI
(Call-Level Interface)?
- Answer: The
Teradata Call-Level Interface (CLI) is an API that allows applications to
interact with Teradata databases. It provides a set of functions for
establishing connections, executing SQL queries, and managing transactions.
10. Question: How does Teradata support workload management
and resource allocation?
- Answer: Teradata
offers workload management features to prioritize and allocate resources for
different workloads. Workload management ensures that critical queries get the
necessary resources and performance is optimized across various query types.
These questions provide a basic understanding of Teradata
and its key features, particularly in the context of its parallel processing
architecture and capabilities for data warehousing and analytics.
