Objectives:	What is a deadlock? How does deadlock occur? How can we determine the cause of a deadlock?
Abstract:	Deadlocks are not well understood and the trace files suggest that their root cause is contention for the same data by multiple sessions "because of error in the design of an application." In fact, sessions can deadlock even if they are not contending for the same data and a session can even deadlock with itself! We demolish this and other misconceptions about deadlock by playing "Is That Your Final Answer?" The trace file does not contain enough information to diagnose the problem and we suggest a better way. We demonstrate multiple ways in which deadlock can occur and discuss the implications for database performance. We end with an amusing demonstration of the phenomenon of "livelock" involving members of the audience.
Audiernce Focus:	Developers
Expertise:	Intermediate
Track:	Development
Date:	Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Time:	4:30 PM - 5:30 PM