I am not able to understand how select will behave while its part of exclusive transaction. Please consider following scenarios –
Scenario 1
Step 1.1
create table Tmp(x int)
insert into Tmp values(1)
Step 1.2 – session 1
begin tran
set transaction isolation level serializable
select * from Tmp
Step 1.3 – session 2
select * from Tmp
Even first session hasn't been finished, session 2 will be able to read tmp table. I thought Tmp will have exclusive lock and shared lock should not be issued to select query in session 2. And it’s not happening. I have made sure that default isolation level is READ COMMITED.
Thanks in advance for helping me in understanding this behavior.
EDIT : Why I need select in exclusive lock?
I have a SP which actually generate sequential values. So flow is -
read max values from Table and store value in variables
Update table set value=value+1
This SP is executed in parallel by several thousand instances. If two instances execute SP at same time, then they will read same value and will update value+1. Though I would like to have sequential value for every execution. I think its possible only if select is also part of exclusive lock.
If you want a transaction to be serializable, you have to change that option before you start the outermost transaction. So your first session is incorrect and is still actually running under read committed (or whatever other level was in effect for that session).
But even if you correct the order of statements, it still will not acquire an exclusive lock for a plain SELECT statement.
If you want the plain SELECT to acquire an exclusive lock, you need to ask for it:
select * from Tmp with (XLOCK)
or you need to execute a statement that actually requires an exclusive lock:
update Tmp set x = x
Your first session doesn't need an exclusive lock because it's not changing the data. If your first (serializable) session had run to completion and either rolled back or committed, before your second session was started, that session's results would still be the same because your first session didn't change the data - and so the "serializable" nature of the transaction was correct.
Related
I need to implement a serializable isolation level in SQL Server but I've tried many ways and I don't get it.
I need to lock 1 row in one transaction (It doesn´t matter if lock the complete table). So, another transaction can´t even select the row (don´t read).
The last thing I tried:
For transaction 1:
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT code FROM table1 WHERE code = 1
-- Here I select in another instance the same row
COMMIT TRAN
For transaction 2:
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT code FROM table1 WHERE code = 1
COMMIT TRAN
I would expect that transaction 2 wait until transaction 1 commit the operation, but the transaction 2 gives me the row.
Anyone can explain me if I miss something?
SQL Server conforms to the strict definition of a Serializable query. That is, there must be a result that can logically be generated IF both queries ran in serial order - Transaction 1 finishing before Transaction 2 can start, or vice versa.
This results in some effects that can be different than you would expect. There is a great explanation of the Serializable isolation level over at SQLPerformance.com that makes clear some of what this logical serializability ends up meaning. (Very helpful site, that one.)
For your above queries, there is no logical requirement to prevent the second query from reading the same row as the first query. No matter in what order the queries are run, they will both return the same data without modifying it. Since the Query Analyzer can identify this, there is no reason to place a read lock on the data. However, if one of the queries performed an update on the data, then (warning - logic assumption here, since I don't actually know the internals of how SQL Server handles this) the QA would set a stronger lock on the selected rows.
TL;DR - SQL Server wants to minimize blocking, so it uses logical analysis to see what types of locks are needed for a serializable isolation level, and it (tries to) use the minimum number and strength of locks needed to achieve its goal.
Now that we've dealt with that - there are only two ways that I can think of to lock a row so that no one else can read it: using XLOCK + TABLOCK (locking the whole table - not a recommended practice) or having some form of a field on each row that is updated when you start your process - something like an SPID field, or a bit flag for Locked. When you update it within your transaction, only SELECTs with NOLOCK hints will be able to read it.
Clearly, neither of these are optimal. I recommend the "This row is busy - go away" flag, as that's probably the approach I would take for an (almost) absolute lock on a row.
According to the documentation:
SERIALIZABLE Specifies the following:
Statements cannot read data that has been modified but not yet committed by other transactions.
No other transactions can modify data that has been read by the current transaction until the current transaction completes.
Other transactions cannot insert new rows with key values that would fall in the range of keys read by any statements in the
current transaction until the current transaction completes.
If you're not making any changes to data with an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE inside transaction 1, SQL will release the Shared Lock after the read completes.
What you might want to try is adding a table hit to prevent the row lock from being released until the end of transaction 1.
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT code
FROM table1 WITH(ROWLOCK, HOLDLOCK)
WHERE code = 1
COMMIT TRAN
Maybe you can solve this with some hack like this?
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
BEGIN TRANSACTION
UPDATE someTableForThisHack set val = CASE WHEN val = 1 THEN 0 else 1 End
SELECT code from table1.....
COMMIT TRANSACTION
So you create a table someTableForThisHack and insert one row to it.
I have a stored procedure which does the following:
selects top N from table
sets these rows as processed
returns these rows to the client
Here is roughly how I am doing it in Sybase ASE:
set rowcount #count
begin tran get_items
insert into #temp_table
select item
from available_item
where is_processed = 0
update available_item
set is_processed = 1
from available_item, #temp_table
where available_item.item = #temp_table.item
# select the processed items...
commit trans
I am wondering whether there is a race condition here. If two separate processes execute this stored procedure at the same time, could they select and mark processed the same data? Or does having it in a transaction stop this?
If not, is there a way to hold locks on selected rows?
Some of the details will depend on your tables locking scheme. Allpages, pages and row level locking will have different impacts on your ability to run concurrent updates on a single table. I am assuming a page/row level scheme to allow for concurrency.
Your query will grab an initial shared page/row lock, which will be upgraded to an update lock, which will then be followed by an exclusive row lock on the updated pages/rows. No other processes will be able to make changes to the selected pages/rows for the duration of the transaction, but another process could read the selected rows prior to your update, which could lead to some inconsistency.
To get around this possibility, you can specify the isolation level in the transaction to either isolation level 2 (repeatable reads), or isolation level 3 (serialization). You may want to read up on the specifics of each level to decide which you want to enforce, and the trade-offs associate with it.
In your transaction, you would use it like this:
set rowcount #count
set transaction isolation level 2
...
Something to note, is that depending on the number of records you grab in your query, you could trigger a lock upgrade which could prevent your concurrent transactions from executing, even if they are not looking at the same rows as your first transaction. By default, the server will attempt to escalate to a table lock if it acquires locks on more than 200 pages/rows. This can be changed either to an explicit value or a range of values and percentage, and is configurable at the server, database or table level.
Relevant Documentation:
Transaction: Maintaining Data Consistency and Recovery
Performance and Tuning Series: Locking and Concurrency Control
Transact-SQL Users Guide 15.7 > Transactions: Maintaining Data Consistency and Recovery
I am pulling the data from several tables and then passing the data to a long running process. I would like to be able to record what data was used for the process and then query the database to check if any of the tables have changed since the process was last run.
Is there a method of solving this problem that should work across all sql databases?
One possible solution that I've thought of is having a separate table that is only used for keeping track of whether the data has changed since the process was run. The table contains a "stale" flag. When I start running the process, stale is set to false. If any creation, update, or deletion occurs in any of the tables on which the operation depends, I set stale to true. Is this a valid solution? Are there better solutions?
One concern with my solution is situations like this:
One user starts inserting a new row into one of the tables. Stale gets set to true, but the new row has not actually been added yet. Another user has simultaneously started the long running process, pulling the data from the tables and setting the flag to false. The row is finally added. Now the data used for the process is out of date but the flag indicates it is not stale. Would transactions be able to solve this problem?
EDIT:
This is some SQL for my idea. Not sure if it works, but just to give you a better idea of what I was thinking:
# First transaction reads the data and sets the flag to false
BEGIN TRANSACTION
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
UPDATE flag SET stale = false
SELECT * FROM DATATABLE
COMMIT TRANSACTION
# Second transaction updates the data and sets the flag to true
BEGIN TRANSACTION
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
UPDATE data SET val = 15 WHERE ID = 10
UPDATE flag SET stale = true
COMMIT TRANSACTION
I do not have much experience with transactions or handwriting xml, so there are probably issues with this. From what I understand two serializable transactions can not be interleaved. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Is there a way to accomplish this with only the first transaction? The process will be run rarely, but the updates to the data table will occur more frequently, so it would be nice to not lock up the data table when performing updates.
Also, is the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION syntax specific to MS?
The stale flag will probably work, but a timestamp would be better since it provides more metadata about the age of the records which could be used to tune your queries, e.g., only pull data that is over 5 minutes old.
To address your concern about inserting a row at the same time a query is run, transactions with an appropriate isolation level will help. For row inserts, updates, and selects, at least use a transaction with an isolation level that prevents dirty reads so that no other connections can see the updated data until the transaction is committed.
If you are strongly concerned about the case where an update happens at the same time as a record pull, you could use the REPEATABLE READ or even SERIALIZABLE isolation levels, but this will slow DB access down.
Your SQLServer sampled should work. For alternate databases, Here's an example that works in PostGres:
Transaction 1
BEGIN TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
-- run queries that update the tables, then set last_updated column
UPDATE sometable SET last_updatee = now() WHERE id = 1;;
COMMIT;
Transaction 2
BEGIN TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
-- select data from tables, then set last_queried column
UPDATE sometable SET last_queried = now() WHERE id = 1;
COMMIT;
If transaction 1 starts, and then transaction 2 starts before transaction 1 has completed, transaction 2 will block during on the update, and then will throw an error when transaction 1 is committed. If transaction 2 starts first, and transaction 1 starts before that has finished, then transaction 1 will error. Your application code or process should be able to handle those errors.
Other databases use similar syntax - MySQL (with InnoDB plugin) requires you to set the isolation level before you start the transaction.
SQL Server is SQL Azure, basically it's SQL Server 2008 for normal process.
I have a table, called TASK, constantly have new data in (new task), and removed (task complete)
For new data in, I use INSERT INTO .. SELECT ..., most of time takes very long, lets say dozen of minutes.
For old data out, I first use SELECT (WITH NOLOCK) to get task, UPDATE to let other thread know this task already starts to process, then DELETE once finished.
Dead lock sometime happens on SELECT, most time happens on UPDATE and DELETE.
this is not time critical task, so I can start process the new data once all INSERT finished. Is there any kind of LOCK to ask SELECT not to select it before the INSERT finished? Or any kind of other suggestion to avoid Conflict. I can redesign table if needed.
later the sqlserver2005,resolve lock is easy.
for conflict
1.you can use the service broker.
2.use the isolution level.
dbcc useroptions ,at last row ,you can see the deflaut isolution level is read_committed,this is the session level.
we can change the level to read_committed_snapshot for conflict,in sqlserver, not realy row lock like oracle.but we can use this method implement.
ALTER DATABASE DBName
SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON;
open this feature,must in single user schame.
and you can test it.
for session A ,session B.
A:update table1 set name = 'new' with(Xlock) where id = 1
B:you still update other row and select all the data from table.
my english is not very good,but for lock ,i know.
in sqlserver,for function ,there are three locks.
1.optimistic lock ,use the timestamp(rowversion) control.
2.pessimism lock ,force lock when use the date.use Ulock,Xlock and so on.
3.virtual lock,use the proc getapplock().
if you need lock schame in system architecture,please me email : mjjjj2001#163.com
Consider using service broker if this is a processing queue.
There are a number of considerations that affect performance and locking. I surmise that the data is being updated and deleted in a separate session. Which transaction isolation level is in use for the insert session and the delete session.
Has the insert session and all transactions committed and closed when the delete session runs? Are there multiple delete sessions running concurrently? It is very important to have an index on the columns you are using to identify a task for the SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE statements, especially if you move to a higher isolation level such as REPEATABLE READ or SERIALIZED.
All of these issues could be solved by moving to Service Broker if it is appropriate.
I'm working on a web app connected to oracle. We have a table in oracle with a column "activated". Only one row can have this column set to 1 at any one time. To enforce this, we have been using SERIALIZED isolation level in Java, however we are running into the "cannot serialize transaction" error, and cannot work out why.
We were wondering if an isolation level of READ COMMITTED would do the job. So my question is this:
If we have a transaction which involves the following SQL:
SELECT *
FROM MODEL;
UPDATE MODEL
SET ACTIVATED = 0;
UPDATE MODEL
SET ACTIVATED = 1
WHERE RISK_MODEL_ID = ?;
COMMIT;
Given that it is possible for more than one of these transactions to be executing at the same time, would it be possible for more than one MODEL row to have the activated flag set to 1 ?
Any help would be appreciated.
your solution should work: your first update will lock the whole table. If another transaction is not finished, the update will wait. Your second update will guarantee that only one row will have the value 1 because you are locking the table (it doesn't prevent INSERT statements however).
You should also make sure that the row with the RISK_MODEL_ID exists (or you will have zero row with the value '1' at the end of your transaction).
To prevent concurrent INSERT statements, you would LOCK the table (in EXCLUSIVE MODE).
You could consider using a unique, function based index to let Oracle handle the constraint of only having a one row with activated flag set to 1.
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX MODEL_IX ON MODEL ( DECODE(ACTIVATED, 1, 1, NULL));
This would stop more than one row having the flag set to 1, but does not mean that there is always one row with the flag set to 1.
If what you want is to ensure that only one transaction can run at a time then you can use the FOR UPDATE syntax. As you have a single row which needs locking this is a very efficient approach.
declare
cursor c is
select activated
from model
where activated = 1
for update of activated;
r c%rowtype;
begin
open c;
-- this statement will fail if another transaction is running
fetch c in r;
....
update model
set activated = 0
where current of c;
update model
set activated = 1
where risk_model_id = ?;
close c;
commit;
end;
/
The commit frees the lock.
The default behaviour is to wait until the row is freed. Otherwise we can specify NOWAIT, in which case any other session attempting to update the current active row will fail immediately, or we can add a WAIT option with a polling time. NOWAIT is the option to choose to absolutely avoid the risk of hanging, and it also gives us the chance to inform the user that someone else is updating the table, which they might want to know.
This approach is much more scalable than updating all the rows in the table. Use a function-based index as WW showed to enforce the rule that only one row can have ACTIVATED=1.