Sql-server – SELECT/INSERT Deadlock

deadlocksharepointsql server

This instance hosts the SharePoint 2007 databases (SP). We have been experiencing numerous SELECT/INSERT deadlocks against one heavily utilized table within SP content database. I have narrowed down the resources involved, both processes are requiring locks on the non-clustered index.
The INSERT needs an IX lock on the SELECT resource and the SELECT needs a S lock on the INSERT resource. The deadlock graph depicts and three resources, 1.) two from the SELECT (producer/consumer parallel threads), and 2.) the INSERT.
I have attached the deadlock graph for your review. Because this is Microsoft code and table structures we cannot make any changes.
However, I have read, on the MSFT SP site, that they recommend setting MAXDOP Instance level configuration option to 1. Since this instance is shared amongst many other databases/applications this setting cannot be disabled.

Therefore, I decided to try and prevent these SELECT statements from going parallel. I know this is not a solution but more a temporary modification to help with troubleshooting. Therfore, I increased the “Cost Threshold for Parallelism” from our standard 25 to 40 upon doing so, even though the workload has not changed (SELECT/INSERT occurring frequently) the deadlocks have disappeared. My question is why?

SPID 356 INSERT has an IX lock on a page belonging to the non-clustered index
SPID 690 SELECT Execution ID 0 has S lock on a page belonging to the same non clustered index

Now

SPID 356 wants an IX lock on SPID 690 resource but cannot ontain it because SPID 356 is being blocked by SPID 690 Execution ID 0 S lock
SPID 690 Execution ID 1 wants a S lock on SPID 356 resource but cannot obtain it because SPID 690 Execution ID 1 is being blocked by SPID 356 and now we have our deadlock.

Execution Plan can be found on my SkyDrive

Full Deadlock Details can be found here

If someone can help me understand why I would really appreciate it.

EventReceivers Table.
Id uniqueidentifier no 16
Name nvarchar no 512
SiteId uniqueidentifier no 16
WebId uniqueidentifier no 16
HostId uniqueidentifier no 16
HostType int no 4
ItemId int no 4
DirName nvarchar no 512
LeafName nvarchar no 256
Type int no 4
SequenceNumber int no 4
Assembly nvarchar no 512
Class nvarchar no 512
Data nvarchar no 512
Filter nvarchar no 512
SourceId tContentTypeId no 512
SourceType int no 4
Credential int no 4
ContextType varbinary no 16
ContextEventType varbinary no 16
ContextId varbinary no 16
ContextObjectId varbinary no 16
ContextCollectionId varbinary no 16

index_name index_description index_keys
EventReceivers_ByContextCollectionId nonclustered located on PRIMARY SiteId, ContextCollectionId
EventReceivers_ByContextObjectId nonclustered located on PRIMARY SiteId, ContextObjectId
EventReceivers_ById nonclustered, unique located on PRIMARY SiteId, Id
EventReceivers_ByTarget clustered, unique located on PRIMARY SiteId, WebId, HostId, HostType, Type, ContextCollectionId, ContextObjectId, ContextId, ContextType, ContextEventType, SequenceNumber, Assembly, Class
EventReceivers_IdUnique nonclustered, unique, unique key located on PRIMARY Id

Best Answer

On the face of it, this looks like a classic lookup deadlock. The essential ingredients for this deadlock pattern are:

  • a SELECT query that uses a non-covering nonclustered index with a Key Lookup
  • an INSERT query that modifies the clustered index and then the nonclustered index

The SELECT accesses the nonclustered index first, then the clustered index. The INSERT access the clustered index first, then the nonclustered index. Accessing the same resources in a different order acquiring incompatible locks is a great way to 'achieve' a deadlock of course.

In this case, the SELECT query is:

SELECT query

...and the INSERT query is:

INSERT query

Notice the green highlighted non-clustered indexes maintenance.

We would need to see the serial version of the SELECT plan in case it is very different from the parallel version, but as Jonathan Kehayias notes in his guide to Handling Deadlocks, this particular deadlock pattern is very sensitive to timing and internal query execution implementation details. This type of deadlock often comes and goes without an obvious external reason.

Given access to the system concerned, and suitable permissions, I am certain we could eventually work out exactly why the deadlock occurs with the parallel plan but not the serial (assuming the same general shape). Potential lines of enquiry include checking for optimized nested loops and/or prefetching - both of which can internally escalate the isolation level to REPEATABLE READ for the duration of the statement. It is also possible that some feature of parallel index seek range assignment contributes to the issue. If the serial plan becomes available, I might spend some time looking into the details further, as it is potentially interesting.

The usual solution for this type of deadlocking is to make the index covering, though the number of columns in this case might make that impractical (and besides, we are not supposed to mess with such things on SharePoint, I am told). Ultimately, the recommendation for serial-only plans when using SharePoint is there for a reason (though not necessarily a good one, when it comes right down to it). If the change in cost threshold for parallelism fixes the issue for the moment, this is good. Longer term, I would probably look to separate the workloads, perhaps using Resource Governor so that SharePoint internal queries get the desired MAXDOP 1 behaviour and the other application is able to use parallelism.

The question of exchanges appearing in the deadlock trace seems a red herring to me; simply a consequence of the independent threads owning resources which technically must appear in the tree. I cannot see anything to suggest that the exchanges themselves are contributing directly to the deadlocking issue.

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