FIX: Resource Contention Occurs When You Update Multiple Tables That Have a Timestamp Column (328550)

SYMPTOMS

Unexpected resource contention can occur when you modify multiple tables that contain a timestamp column. This contention may lead to blocking on the computer that is running SQL Server. The waittime's that are associated with the system process IDs (SPIDs) during this contention are generally small at any particular snapshot; however, the contention might lead to longer than expected run times for an UPDATE or an INSERT statement.

A section of the sysprocesses table output with the resource contention is shown here (6:1:9 corresponds to DbID:6, FileID:1, PageId:9):

spid	kpid	blocked	waittype	         waittime     	lastwaittype	waitresource
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
53	5644	0	0x00000414	437		0x00000414	6:1:9
61	4424	0	0x00000414	453		0x00000414	6:1:9
65	4440	0	0x00000414	359		0x00000414	6:1:9
68	3908	0	0x00000414	453		0x00000414	6:1:9
73	1660	0	0x00000414	453		0x00000414	6:1:9
78	728	0	0x00000414	437		0x00000414	6:1:9
80	5956	0	0x00000414	344		0x00000414	6:1:9
88	4732	0	0x00000414	437		0x00000414	6:1:9
90	3972	0	0x00000414	359		0x00000414	6:1:9
92	3556	0	0x00000414	437		0x00000414	6:1:9

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290211 INF: How To Obtain the Latest SQL Server 2000 Service Pack

NOTE: The following hotfix was created before the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date        Time    Version    Size       File name
   -------------------------------------------------------

   8/30/2002   19:46   8.00.680   7,293 KB   Sqlservr.exe

NOTE: Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains the files may also contain additional files.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
This problem was first corrected in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3.

REFERENCES

SQL Server Books Online; topics: "'Timestamp' - Transact-SQL Reference"; "'Using Special Data' - Accessing and Changing Relational Data"; "'Special Data' - Creating and Maintaining Databases"; "'@@DBTS - Transact-SQL Reference"