Why do We Need Checkpoints?
Whenever transaction logs are created in a real-time environment, it eats up lots of storage space. Also keeping track of every update and its maintenance may increase the physical space of the system. Eventually, the transaction log file may not be handled as the size keeps growing. This can be addressed with checkpoints. The methodology utilized for removing all previous transaction logs and storing them in permanent storage is called a Checkpoint.
Checkpoints in DBMS
Pre-Requisite: Transaction Management
The Checkpoint is used to declare a point before which the DBMS was in a consistent state, and all transactions were committed. During transaction execution, such checkpoints are traced. After execution, transaction log files will be created. Upon reaching the savepoint/checkpoint, the log file is destroyed by saving its update to the database. Then a new log is created with upcoming execution operations of the transaction and it will be updated until the next checkpoint and the process continues.