Editing Database design (section)

==Physical design==

=== Physical data modeling ===
{{Main|Physical schema}}
The physical design of the database specifies the physical configuration of the database on the storage media. This includes detailed specification of [[data element]]s and [[data type]]s.

=== Other physical design ===
This step involves specifying the [[Index (database)|indexing]] options and other parameters residing in the DBMS [[data dictionary]]. It is the detailed design of a system that includes modules & the database's hardware & software specifications of the system. Some aspects that are addressed at the physical layer:

* Performance – mainly addressed via indexing for the read/update/delete queries, data type choice for insert queries
* Replication – what pieces of data get copied over into another database, and how often. Are there multiple-masters, or a single one?
* High-availability – whether the configuration is active-passive, or active-active, the topology, coordination scheme, reliability targets, etc all have to be defined.
* Partitioning – if the database is distributed, then for a single entity, how is the data distributed amongst all the partitions of the database, and how is partition failure taken into account.
* Backup and restore schemes.

At the application level, other aspects of the physical design can include the need to define stored procedures, or materialized query views, [[Online analytical processing|OLAP]] cubes, etc.