Chapter 15 : Concurrency Control
Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See [Link] for conditions on re-use
Outline
Lock-Based Protocols
Timestamp-Based Protocols
Validation-Based Protocols
Multiple Granularity
Multiversion Schemes
Insert and Delete Operations
Concurrency in Index Structures
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
What is concurrency control?
The technique is used to protect data when multiple users
are accessing same data concurrently (same time) is
called concurrency control
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Lock-Based Protocols
A lock is a mechanism to control concurrent access to a data
item
Data items can be locked in two modes :
1. exclusive (X) mode. Data item can be both read as well as
written. X-lock is requested using lock-X instruction.
2. shared (S) mode. Data item can only be read. S-lock is
requested using lock-S instruction.
Lock requests are made to the concurrency-control manager.
Transaction can proceed only after request is granted.
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Lock-Based Protocols (Cont.)
Lock-compatibility matrix
A transaction may be granted a lock on an item if the requested
lock is compatible with locks already held on the item by other
transactions
Any number of transactions can hold shared locks on an item,
But if any transaction holds an exclusive on the item no other
transaction may hold any lock on the item.
If a lock cannot be granted, the requesting transaction is made to
wait till all incompatible locks held by other transactions have
been released. The lock is then granted.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Lock-Based Protocols (Cont.)
Example of a transaction performing locking:
T2: lock-S(A);
read (A);
unlock(A);
lock-S(B);
read (B);
unlock(B);
display(A+B)
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Pitfalls of Lock Based Protocol
Locking as above is not sufficient to guarantee serializability — if A
and B get updated in-between the read of A and B, the displayed sum
would be wrong.
A locking protocol is a set of rules followed by all transactions while
requesting and releasing locks. Locking protocols restrict the set of
possible schedules.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
The Two-Phase Locking Protocol
This protocol ensures conflict-serializable schedules.
Phase 1: Growing Phase
Transaction may obtain locks
Transaction may not release locks
Phase 2: Shrinking Phase
Transaction may release locks
Transaction may not obtain locks
The protocol assures serializability. It can be proved that the
transactions can be serialized in the order of their lock points
(i.e., the point where a transaction acquired its final lock).
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Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlocks
Consider the partial schedule
Neither T3 nor T4 can make progress — executing lock-S(B)
causes T4 to wait for T3 to release its lock on B, while executing
lock-X(A) causes T3 to wait for T4 to release its lock on A.
Such a situation is called a deadlock.
To handle a deadlock one of T3 or T4 must be rolled back
and its locks released.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlocks
A set of processes is deadlocked if each process in the set is
waiting for an event that only another process in the set can
cause.
When deadlock occurs, the system must roll back one of the two
transactions. Once a transaction has been rolled back, the data items
that were locked by that transaction are unlocked. These data items
are then available to the other transaction, which can continue with its
execution
Conditions for Deadlocks
Mutual exclusion condition
each resource assigned to 1 process or is available
Hold and wait condition
- process holding resources can request additional
No preemption condition
- previously granted resources cannot forcibly taken away
Circular wait condition
- must be a circular chain of 2 or more processes
- each is waiting for resource held by next member of the chain
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlocks (Cont.)
Two-phase locking does not ensure freedom from deadlocks.
In addition to deadlocks, there is a possibility of starvation.
Starvation occurs if the concurrency control manager is badly
designed. For example:
A transaction may be waiting for an X-lock on an item,
while a sequence of other transactions request and are
granted an S-lock on the same item.
The same transaction is repeatedly rolled back due to
deadlocks.
Concurrency control manager can be designed to prevent
starvation.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlocks (Cont.)
The potential for deadlock exists in most locking protocols.
Deadlocks are a necessary evil.
When a deadlock occurs there is a possibility of cascading roll-
backs.
Cascading roll-back is possible under two-phase locking. To
avoid this, follow a modified protocol called strict two-phase
locking -- a transaction must hold all its exclusive locks till it
commits/aborts.
Rigorous two-phase locking is even stricter. Here, all locks
are held till commit/abort. In this protocol transactions can be
serialized in the order in which they commit.
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T1 T2 T3 (cascading rollback)
X(A)
R(A)
W(A)
.
.
.
Unlock S(A) S(A)
. R(A) R(A)
.
.
Commit Fail
Rollback
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T1 T2 (Irrecoveribility)
X(A)
R(A)
W(A)
.
.
.
Unlock S(A)
. R(A)
. ---
. ---
. Commit
Commit Fail Rollback
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
T1 T2
X(A)
X(B)
X(B)
X(A)
Infinite Waiting (deadlock)
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T1 T2 T3
. S(A)
. .
. .
X(A) .
. S(A)
.
Commit
Finite Waiting (Starvation)
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Implementation of Locking
A lock manager can be implemented as a separate process to
which transactions send lock and unlock requests
The lock manager replies to a lock request by sending a lock
grant messages (or a message asking the transaction to roll
back, in case of a deadlock)
The requesting transaction waits until its request is answered
The lock manager maintains a data-structure called a lock
table to record granted locks and pending requests
The lock table is usually implemented as an in-memory hash
table indexed on the name of the data item being locked
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Lock Table
Dark blue rectangles indicate granted
locks; light blue indicate waiting requests
Lock table also records the type of lock
granted or requested
New request is added to the end of the
queue of requests for the data item, and
granted if it is compatible with all earlier
locks
Unlock requests result in the request
being deleted, and later requests are
checked to see if they can now be
granted
If transaction aborts, all waiting or granted
requests of the transaction are deleted
lock manager may keep a list of locks
held by each transaction, to
implement this efficiently
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Strategies of deadlock handling
Deadlock prevention.
Prevents deadlocks by restraining requests made to ensure
that at least one of the four deadlock conditions cannot occur.
Deadlock avoidance.
Dynamically grants a resource to a process if the resulting
state is safe. A state is safe if there is at least one execution
sequence that allows all processes to run to completion.
Deadlock detection and recovery.
That Allows deadlocks to form; then finds and breaks them.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlock Handling
System is deadlocked if there is a set of transactions such that
every transaction in the set is waiting for another transaction in
the set.
Deadlock prevention protocols ensure that the system will
never enter into a deadlock state. Some prevention strategies :
Require that each transaction locks all its data items before it
begins execution (predeclaration).
Impose partial ordering of all data items and require that a
transaction can lock data items only in the order specified by
the partial order.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
More Deadlock Prevention Strategies
Following schemes use transaction timestamps for the sake of
deadlock prevention alone.
wait-die scheme — non-preemptive
older transaction may wait for younger one to release data item.
(older means smaller timestamp) Younger transactions never
Younger transactions never wait for older ones; they are rolled
back instead.
a transaction may die several times before acquiring needed data
item
If Ti requests a lock on a data item which is already locked
by Tj , then Ti is permitted to wait if ts(Ti) <ts (Tj). If
ts (Ti) >ts (Tj) , then Ti is aborted and restarted with the sa
me timestamp.
— if ts(Ti) <ts (Tj) then Ti waits else Ti dies
— non-preemptive: Ti never preempts Tj
— prefers younger transactions
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wound-wait scheme — preemptive
older transaction wounds (forces rollback) of younger transaction
instead of waiting for it. Younger transactions may wait for older
ones.
may be fewer rollbacks than wait-die scheme.
If Ti requests a lock on a data item which is already locked
by Tj , then Tj is permitted to wait if ts (Ti) >ts (Tj) . If
ts(Ti)<ts(Tj), then Tj is aborted and the lock is granted to Ti.
— if ts(Ti)<ts(Tj) then Tj is wounded else Ti waits
— preemptive: Ti preempts Tj if it(Tj) is younger
— prefers older transactions
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlock prevention (Cont.)
Both in wait-die and in wound-wait schemes, a rolled back
transactions is restarted with its original timestamp. Older transactions
thus have precedence over newer ones, and starvation is hence
avoided.
Timeout-Based Schemes:
a transaction waits for a lock only for a specified amount of time. If
the lock has not been granted within that time, the transaction is
rolled back and restarted,
Thus, deadlocks are not possible
simple to implement; but starvation is possible. Also difficult to
determine good value of the timeout interval.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlock Detection
Deadlocks can be described as a wait-for graph, which consists of a
pair G = (V,E),
V is a set of vertices (all the transactions in the system)
E is a set of edges; each element is an ordered pair Ti Tj.
If Ti Tj is in E, then there is a directed edge from Ti to Tj, implying
that Ti is waiting for Tj to release a data item.
When Ti requests a data item currently being held by Tj, then the edge
Ti Tj is inserted in the wait-for graph. This edge is removed only
when Tj is no longer holding a data item needed by Ti.
The system is in a deadlock state if and only if the wait-for graph has a
cycle. Must invoke a deadlock-detection algorithm periodically to look
for cycles.
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Deadlock Detection (Cont.)
Wait-for graph without a cycle Wait-for graph with a cycle
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Deadlock Recovery
When deadlock is detected :
Some transaction will have to rolled back (made a victim) to
break deadlock. Select that transaction as victim that will incur
minimum cost.
Rollback -- determine how far to roll back transaction
Total rollback: Abort the transaction and then restart it.
More effective to roll back transaction only as far as
necessary to break deadlock.
Starvation happens if same transaction is always chosen as
victim. Include the number of rollbacks in the cost factor to
avoid starvation
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 15.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Deadlocks
Consider the following two transactions:
T1: write (X) T2: write(Y)
write(Y) write(X)
Schedule with deadlock
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In database more than one transactions occur at a time. This set of
transactions is called schedule.
Serializability is a concept that helps us to check which schedules are
serializable.
A serial schedule is always a serializable schedule because in serial
schedule a transaction only starts when other transactions finishes
execution.
A serializable schedule is the one that always leaves the database in
consistent state.
Two types of serializable schedule/serializability
i) Conflict serializability
Ii) View serializability
A schedule is called conflict serializable if we can convert it into a
serial schedule after swapping its non-conflicting operation.
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