

Note the similarities in the deadlock graph to our examples above. SQL Server Management Studio Deadlock Graph The XML can then be opened via SQL Server Management Studio by clicking on it, which will then open the deadlock graph. You can run the following query to get a list of deadlock event XML and the time the deadlock occurred (Query and image taken from Microsoft’s documentation).
SQL SERVER DEADLOCK ERROR HOW TO
We’ll talk more about how to deal with deadlocks later on, but next, let’s look at how to get deadlock information from SQL Server.
SQL SERVER DEADLOCK ERROR UPDATE
Meanwhile, the locks held by the query are released and Update User Skill Count is able to acquire the lock it needed and complete without any knowledge that anything happened. An exception propagated up to the caller informing it that the process was terminated due to deadlock. In this case, the Update PersonSkill query was chosen as the deadlock victim and terminated. A query is terminated and the other query is able to grab its lock In deadlock resolution, SQL Server will choose a victim at random (more on this later) and kill the process. Thankfully, SQL Server has a deadlock resolution mechanism to prevent processes from keeping the database busy waiting for something that will never happen. However, the Update User Skill Count is currently waiting for Update PersonSkill to complete and release its lock on PersonSkills so we now have a scenario where two queries each have something the other needs and will not release their locks until they complete, creating a deadlock.

Both queries need a lock that the other one is holding onto, creating a Deadlock Ordinarily, the Update User Skill Count query would complete, release its lock and then the Update PersonSkill query could acquire its lock on People and complete its task. Unfortunately, the row in question in the People table is already exclusively locked by the Update User Skill Count query. Another query holds the lock to the requested row

In order to do this, the query needs a lock on the People table and a lock on a range of data in the PersonSkill table, which the query already has a lock for. In this scenario, we have a query that needs to update a People entry as well as a PersonSkill entry associated with that person and a skill. So, what does this look like? A query holding a lock on a page of rows in one table while needing a lock on a row in another table.
SQL SERVER DEADLOCK ERROR CODE
The error is then propagated to the executing code which can determine how to proceed. When this occurs, SQL Server must terminate one of the two processes, resulting in the query failing to execute and the transaction failing.

Understanding DeadlocksĪ deadlock occurs when two processes are competing for multiple resources in a way that does not resolve itself. This article discusses what deadlocks are, how to interpret deadlock graphs, and some options for handling deadlocks. When you work with SQL Server long enough on a database with enough traffic, you’re eventually going to encounter deadlocks. This is a continuation of a series of articles I’ve written on SQL Server concepts.
