Concurrency problems and locking techniques in SQL Server 2000 and VB.NET

Session
SAD335

Concurrency problems and
locking techniques in SQL
Server 2000 and VB.NET
Fernando G. Guerrero
SQL Server MVP
.NET Technical Lead
QA plc

October 2002

Quick info about Fernando
(2 milliseconds)

• MCSD, MCSE+Internet (W2K), MCDBA, MCT,

QA
SQL Server MVP

• This is where I work: QA, The best learning
environment in Europe

• Writing for SQL Sever Magazine and SQL
Server Professional

• This is my main web site: www.callsql.com

• This is my book (so far):
– Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming by
Example (ISBN : 0789724499, co-authored with Carlos
Eduardo Rojas)

• Currently writing on ADO.NET and SQL Server
2000

SQL Server Magazine LIVE!

Agenda
• Concurrency problems
• Isolation levels
• Locks
• Transactions

SQL Server Magazine LIVE! 3

Concurrency problems
• Lost Updates
• Uncommitted Dependency
• Inconsistent Analysis
• Phantom Reads


Lost Updates (1)
Peter Paul
Peter UnitPric UnitPric
Paul
e e
10.0 10.0

Mary
5
(SQL Server)

Lost Updates (2)
Peter Paul
Peter UnitPric @UP * UnitPric
Paul
e 1.2 e
10.0 12.0 10.0
DECLARE @UP money

SELECT @UP = UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = 25

Mary
6
(SQL Server)

Lost Updates (3)
Peter Paul
Peter UnitPric @UP * UnitPric @UP *
Paul
e 1.2 e 1.1
10.0 12.0 10.0 11.0
DECLARE @UP money
DECLARE @UP money
FROM Products
FROM Products

Mary
7
(SQL Server)

Lost Updates (4)
Peter Paul
Paul
e 1.2 e 1.1

DECLARE @UP money 12.0 12.0 12.0 11.0 DECLARE @UP money
SELECT @UP = UnitPrice SELECT @UP = UnitPrice
FROM Products FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = 25 WHERE ProductID = 25

UPDATE Products
SET UnitPrice =
@UP * 1.2

Mary
8
(SQL Server)

Lost Updates (5)
Peter Paul
Paul
e 1.2 e 1.1

DECLARE @UP money 11.0 12.0 11.0 11.0 DECLARE @UP money
SELECT @UP = UnitPrice SELECT @UP = UnitPrice
FROM Products FROM Products
UPDATE Products
SET UnitPrice = @UP * 1.2
WHERE ProductID = 25 UPDATE Products
SET UnitPrice =
@UP * 1.1

Mary
9
(SQL Server)

Uncommitted Dependency (1)
Peter Paul
Paul
e e
10.0 10.0

Mary
10
(SQL Server)

Peter Paul
Paul
e e
12.0 12.0
BEGIN TRANSACTION

UPDATE PRODUCTS
SET UnitPrice =
UnitPrice * 1.2

Mary
11
(SQL Server)

Peter Paul
Peter UnitPric UnitPric @UP
Paul
e e
12.0 12.0 12.0
BEGIN TRANSACTION
DECLARE @UP money
UPDATE PRODUCTS
SET UnitPrice = UnitPrice * 1.2
FROM Products (NOLOCK)

Mary
12
(SQL Server)

Peter Paul
Paul
e e

BEGIN TRANSACTION 12.0
10.0 12.0
10.0 12.0 DECLARE @UP money
UPDATE PRODUCTS SELECT @UP = UnitPrice
SET UnitPrice = UnitPrice * 1.2 FROM Products

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

Mary
13
(SQL Server)

Peter Paul
Paul
e e

BEGIN TRANSACTION 10.0 10.0 12.0 DECLARE @UP money
UPDATE PRODUCTS SELECT @UP = UnitPrice
SET UnitPrice = UnitPrice * 1.2 FROM Products
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
INSERT [Order details]
(
OrderID,
ProductID,
UnitPrice,
Quantity,
Discount)
VALUES (25365, 25,
Mary @UP, 10, 0.1)
14
(SQL Server)

Inconsistent Analysis (1)
Peter
Peter Paul

Mary
15
(SQL Server)

Peter
Peter @Count 830 Paul
@Total
@Average
@Total /
DECLARE @Count int,
@Count

@Total money,
@Average money

SELECT @Count =
COUNT(DISTINCT
OrderID)
FROM [Order Details] Mary
(SQL Server)

Peter
@Total
DECLARE @Count int,
@Total money, @Average
@Average money
SELECT @Count = @Total /
COUNT(DISTINCT OrderID) @Count
FROM [Order Details]
UPDATE [Order details
SET Quantity = 600
WHERE OrderID = 10272
AND ProductID = 20

Mary
17
(SQL Server)

Peter
@Total 1304284.2
DECLARE @Count int, 4 UPDATE [Order details]
@Total money, SET Quantity = 600
@Average money @Average WHERE OrderID = 10272
SELECT @Count = AND ProductID = 20
COUNT(DISTINCT OrderID) @Total / 1571.43
@Count
SELECT @Total =
SUM(UnitPrice *
Quantity *
(1 – Discount))

Mary
18
(SQL Server)

Peter
@Total 1304284.2
@Average money @Average WHERE OrderID = 10272
@Count
SELECT @Total =
SUM(UnitPrice *
Quantity *
(1 – Discount))
FROM [Order Details] UPDATE [Order
details]
SET Discount = 0.4
WHERE ProductID =
Mary20
19
(SQL Server)

Peter
@Total 1304284.2
@Average money @Average 1542.78 WHERE OrderID = 10272
@Count UPDATE [Order details]
SET Discount = 0.4
SELECT @Total = WHERE ProductID = 20
SUM(UnitPrice *
Quantity *
(1 – Discount))

SELECT @Average =
AVG(TotalPrice)
FROM (…) AS TotOrders
Mary
20
(SQL Server)

Phantom Reads (1)
OrderID ProductI UnitPrice
Peter D Paul
10259 37 20.8
10337 37 20.8
10408 37 20.8
10523 37 26.0
10847 37 26.0
10966 37 26.0

SELECT OrderID,
ProductID,
UnitPrice
Mary
21
(SQL Server)

Phantom Reads (2)
Peter D Paul
10259 37 20.80
10337 37 20.80
SELECT OrderID,
ProductID, 10408 37 20.80
UnitPrice
FROM [Order Details] 10523 37 26.00
10847 37 26.00
10966 37 26.00
10615 37
INSERT [Order
31.54

details]
(OrderID,
ProductID,
UnitPrice,
MaryQuantity,
(SQL Server) Discount)

Phantom Reads (3)
Peter D Paul
10259 37 20.80
10337 37 20.80
SELECT OrderID, INSERT [Order details]
ProductID, 10408 37 20.80 (OrderID, ProductID,
UnitPrice UnitPrice, Quantity,
FROM [Order Details] 10523 37 26.00
Discount)
10847 37 26.00 VALUES (10615, 37,
31.54, 20, 0.1)
10966 37 26.00
10615 37 31.54
SELECT OrderID,
ProductID,
UnitPrice
Mary
23
(SQL Server)

Isolation levels
• Transact-SQL:
– READ COMMITTED
– READ UNCOMMITTED
– REPEATABLE READ
– SERIALIZABLE
• Extra .NET Isolation Levels:
– Chaos (not valid for SQLClient)
– Unspecified (not settable for SQLClient)


Isolation levels vs. Concurrency
problems
P Problem
Isolation
S Solution
Level
X

SERIALIZABLE
solved by standard

UNCOMMITTED

REPEATABLE
COMMITTED
exclusive locks

READ

READ
READ
inside
transactions
Concurrency
Problem

Lost
Update
X X X X
Dirty Read P S S S
Inconsiste
SQL Server Magazine LIVE! nt P P S S 25
Analysis

READ COMMITTED
• Default isolation level
• Avoids Dirty Reads
– m yTr =
an
m yconn.Begi ans i Iol i
nTr acton( s atonLevelReadCom m it
. t
ed)
–S ELECT … FRO M … W I (
TH READCO M M I
TTED)
TH READPAS T)
– S TRANS
ET ACTI N IO LATI N LEVEL READ CO M M I
O S O TTED
• Requests Shared locks for the duration of the
reading operation
• Requests Exclusive locks for each modification 26

READ UNCOMMITTED
• Isolation level only suitable for “sneaking
around”
– m yTr =
an
nTr acton( s atonLevelReadUnCom m
.
it
ted)
TH READUNCO M M ITTED)
–S ELECT … FRO M … W I ( LO CK)
TH NO
– S TRANS
ET ACTI N IO LATI N LEVEL READ UNCO M M I
O S O TTED
• Doesn’t request Shared locks at all
• Requests Exclusive locks for each modification

REPEATABLE READ
• Quite a restrictive isolation level
• Avoids all concurrency problems, except
Phantom Reads
– m yTr =
an
nTr acton( s atonLevelRepeat eRe
. abl
ad)
TH REPEATABLEREAD)
– S TRANS
ET ACTI N IO LATI N LEVEL REPEATABLE READ
O S O
transaction
• Requests Exclusive locks for each modification 28

SERIALIZABLE
• The most restrictive isolation level
• Avoids all concurrency problems
– m yTr =
an
nTr acton( s atonLevelS i i e)
. eralzabl
–S ELECT … FRO M … W I ( ERI ZABLE)
TH S ALI
–S ELECT … FRO M … W I ( LDLO CK)
TH HO
– S TRANS
ET ACTI N IO LATI N LEVEL S ALI
O S O ERI ZABLE
transaction
• Requests Exclusive locks for each modification

Transactions
• Transact-SQL transactions
• Distributed transactions
• .NET Manual transactions
• .NET Automatic transactions


Transact-SQL transactions
• Transaction Statements
• Nested transactions
• Transactions and Stored Procedures
• Transactions and Triggers


Managing transactions with
Transact-SQL Statements
• BEGIN TRAN
• COMMIT TRAN
• ROLLBACK TRAN


Transaction Savepoints
• SAVE TRAN TranName
• ROLLBACK TRAN TranName


Nested transactions
• @@TRANCOUNT tells you how many
transaction levels you are in
• For SQL Server there is only one actual
transaction
• Commit happens only when all nested
transactions are ended
• Rollback cancels all nested transactions at
once

Transactions and Stored
Procedures
• After Rollback execution continues, but you are
outside transaction boundaries
• If Rollback happens inside a procedure, the
calling process receives error 266, Level 16:
– Transaction count after EXECUTE indicates that a
COMMIT or ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement is
missing. Previous count = 1, current count = 0.
• Good idea to use save points and inform the
outer process using output parameters


Transactions and Triggers
• After Rollback execution continues inside
the trigger, but you are outside transaction
boundaries and the process terminates
when the trigger does.
• Consider using INSTEAD OF triggers to
minimize rollbacks
• Consider using cancelling operations
instead of rollbacks


Distributed transactions


.NET Manual transactions


.NET Automatic transactions
• Apply the TransactionAttribute to your class.
• Derive your class from the
ServicedComponent Class.
• Sign the assembly with a strong name.
– To sign the assembly using attributes create a
key pair using the Sn.exe utility.
– sn -k MCTCon.snk


.NET Automatic transactions (2)
<Assembly: ApplicationName("MCTCON")>
<Assembly: AssemblyKeyFileAttribute("MCTCON.snk")>

<Transaction(TransactionOption.Required)> Public Class clsProduct
Inherits ServicedComponent

Dim myConnection As SqlConnection

<AutoComplete()> Public Sub RaisePrice(ByVal ProductID As Integer, ByVal
amount As Integer)
OpenConnection()
Updateproduct(ProductID, amount)
CloseConnection()

End Sub

.NET Automatic transactions (3)


Locks
• Dynamic locking strategy
• Locking SQL Server resources
• Types of locks
• Hunting for locks


Dynamic locking strategy
• SQL Server tries to minimize locking costs
balancing:
– Lock granularity
– Lock maintenance cost
• SQL Server 2000 defaults to row lock
when necessary
• Uses latches, lightweight synchronization
objects, for internal operations, minimizing
expensive locks

Locking SQL Server resources
• SQL Server 2000 can lock:
– Data Row
– Index Key
– Any page
– Extent
– Table
– Database


Types of locks
• Shared (S)
• Update (U)
• Exclusive (X)
• Intent:
– intent shared (IS)
– intent exclusive (IX)
– shared with intent exclusive (SIX)
• Schema:
– schema modification (Sch-M)
– schema stability (Sch-S).
• Bulk Update (BU)

A typical case of Deadlock
involving two connections (demo)


A Deadlock situation involving
more than two connections
(demo)


Binding connections (demo)


Hunting for locks
• Profiler can detect locks
• Performance Monitor counts locks
• Transaction Log registers transactions. It
doesn’t register locks
• Convert sp_lock into fn_lock
SELECT *
FROM ::fn_lock()
WHERE Status = 'WAIT'


Using Profiler to detect locks
(demo)


Using Performance Monitor to
count locks (demo)


Detecting transactions in the
Transaction Log (demo)


Locking techniques from ADO.NET
• Optimistic concurrency
• Pessimistic concurrency
• User-defined concurrency


Optimistic concurrency
• Default behavior from DataAdapter
• Based on sp_executesql
• SET clause with all new values:
– Updated columns
– Unchanged columns
• WHERE clause with all old values:
– Updated columns
– Unchanged columns


Pessimistic Concurrency
• Implemented through SqlCommand
objects and stored procedures
• Not scaleable:
– Requires maintaining connection open
– Open transaction
– Too much locking for too much time
• Necessary in some scenarios


User-defined concurrency
• Trace changes on individual columns
• Avoid unnecessary trigger execution
• Avoid unnecessary locks
• Fewer conflicts
• Requires careful design


User-defined concurrency from
ADO.NET (demo)


Application locks
• Give applications access to the SQL
Server Lock Manager
• sp_getapplock 'resource_name',
'lock_mode', 'lock_owner', 'lockTimeout‘
• sp_releaseapplock 'resource_name‘,
'lock_owner' ]


Application locks (demo)


Do you want to know more?
• “Inside SQL Server 2000” (Kalen Delaney, MSPress)
• “Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000” (Itzik
Ben-Gan & Tom Moreau, APress)
• “SQL Server 2000 Programming” (Robert Vieira, WROX)
• “Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming by Example”
(Fernando G. Guerrero & Carlos Eduardo Rojas, QUE)
• SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit (MSPress & TechNet)
• Visit the Microsoft public newsgroups:
– msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.sqlserver.*
• Download the source code of this session from:
– http://www.callsql.com/en/articles


Do you want to know even
more?
• Visit the Microsoft public newsgroups:
– msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.sql
server.*
– msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dot
net.*


Thank you!
Questions?
• Download the source code of this
session from:
– http://www.callsql.com/en/articles
• You can contact me at:
– fernan@guerrerog.org


Thank you!
• Please drop off your
session evaluations in
the basket at the back
of the room!
• Your comments are
greatly appreciated!


Concurrency problems and locking techniques in SQL Server 2000 and VB.NET

More Related Content

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to Concurrency problems and locking techniques in SQL Server 2000 and VB.NET (20)

More from Fernando G. Guerrero (6)

Recently uploaded (20)

Concurrency problems and locking techniques in SQL Server 2000 and VB.NET