Click here to Skip to main content
15,881,816 members
Articles / Database Development / SQL Server / SQL Server 2008
Alternative
Tip/Trick

List blocking processes in SQL server

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
5.00/5 (1 vote)
15 Oct 2011CPOL 12K   1  
Here's an alternate version that doesn't use sp_who yet provides a little more information. It also provides the option to kill the blocking processes themself.IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ListBlocking]') AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))EXEC...
Here's an alternate version that doesn't use sp_who yet provides a little more information. It also provides the option to kill the blocking processes themself.

SQL
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects 
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ListBlocking]') 
AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ListBlocking] AS'
GO

/*===================================================================

Description:    Wrapper to sp_who2 to show only those processes that 
                are blocking. 
                
                Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224453 for
                more info on locking.

===================================================================*/ 

ALTER procedure ListBlocking
(
    @KillOrphanedProcesses bit = 0, -- Kill any orphaned (SPID = -2) processes
    @KillBlockingProcesses bit = 0  -- Kill all blocking processes 
)
as

-- 0. Setup

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#BlockingProcess') IS NOT NULL drop table #BlockingProcess

-- More items can be added to this if you wish
CREATE TABLE #BlockingProcess 
(
    BlockingProcessID int IDENTITY(1,1),
    ProcessID varchar(20),
    EventType varchar(100),
    Parameters varchar(100),
    EventInfo varchar(500),
    CPUTime int,
    DiskIO int,
    TransactionCount int,
    Command varchar(max),
    ObjectName varchar(100),
    TransactionIsolation varchar(50)
)

DECLARE @BlockingSPID           int,
        @CPUTime                int, 
        @DiskIO                 int,
        @TransactionCount       int,
        @Command                varchar(max), 
        @ObjectName             varchar(100), 
        @TransactionIsolation   varchar(50)

SET NOCOUNT ON

-- 1. Get a list of blocking processes. 
SELECT * 
INTO #ProcessRaw
FROM
(
    -- This SELECT based on Derek Dieter's sp_who3 code from  
    -- http://sqlserverplanet.com/dmv-queries/a-better-sp_who2-using-dmvs-sp_who3/
    SELECT SPID             = BlockingRequest.session_id, 
           Status           = Session.status,
           BlockedBy        = BlockingRequest.blocking_session_id,
           Command          = SUBSTRING(SqlText.text, BlockingRequest.statement_start_offset/2,
                                    (CASE WHEN BlockingRequest.statement_end_offset = -1
                                        THEN LEN(CONVERT(nvarchar(MAX), SqlText.text)) * 2
                                        ELSE BlockingRequest.statement_end_offset
                                        END - BlockingRequest.statement_start_offset)/2),
           ObjectName       = OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(SqlText.objectid,dbid) + '.' 
                            + OBJECT_NAME(SqlText.objectid, SqlText.dbid),
           StartTime        = BlockingRequest.start_time,
           ElapsedMS        = BlockingRequest.total_elapsed_time,
           CPUTime          = BlockingRequest.cpu_time,
           IOReads          = BlockingRequest.logical_reads + BlockingRequest.reads,
           IOWrites         = BlockingRequest.writes,
           LastWaitType     = BlockingRequest.last_wait_type,
           Protocol         = Connection.net_transport,
           TransactionIsolation =
                CASE Session.transaction_isolation_level
                    WHEN 0 THEN 'Unspecified'
                    WHEN 1 THEN 'Read Uncommitted'
                    WHEN 2 THEN 'Read Committed'
                    WHEN 3 THEN 'Repeatable'
                    WHEN 4 THEN 'Serializable'
                    WHEN 5 THEN 'Snapshot'
                END,
           ConnectionWrites = Connection.num_writes,
           ConnectionReads  = Connection.num_reads,
           ClientAddress    = Connection.client_net_address,
           Authentication   = Connection.auth_scheme,
           [Login]          = Session.login_name,
           Host             = Session.host_name,
           DBName           = DB_Name(BlockingRequest.database_id),
           CommandType      = BlockingRequest.command
        FROM sys.dm_exec_requests Request
        LEFT JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests BlockingRequest 
               ON BlockingRequest.session_id = Request.blocking_session_id
        LEFT JOIN sys.dm_exec_sessions Session 
               ON Session.session_id = BlockingRequest.session_id
        LEFT JOIN sys.dm_exec_connections Connection 
               ON Connection.session_id = Session.session_id
        OUTER APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(BlockingRequest.sql_handle) as SqlText
        WHERE Request.session_id > 50
          AND Request.blocking_session_id <> 0
        --AND Session.login_name <> 'sa'
) as BlockingProcess
ORDER BY BlockingProcess.BlockedBy DESC, BlockingProcess.SPID


-- 2. Loop through this list either killing them or getting more information on them

DECLARE BlockingProcessCursor CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR 
    SELECT SPID, CPUTime, IOWrites + IOReads as DiskIO,
           Command, ObjectName, TransactionIsolation
    FROM #ProcessRaw
    GROUP BY SPID, CPUTime, IOWrites + IOReads, Command, ObjectName, TransactionIsolation
OPEN BlockingProcessCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM BlockingProcessCursor 
INTO @BlockingSPID, @CPUTime, @DiskIO, @Command, @ObjectName, @TransactionIsolation

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN

    -- For each blocked process get what information we can on the process and what's blocking it
    SET @TransactionCount = 0

    --  -2 = The blocking resource is owned by an orphaned distributed transaction.
    IF @BlockingSPID = '-2' 
    BEGIN
    
        -- For orphaned processes we need to get the Unit of work if we're to do anything with it
        DECLARE @UnitOfWork varchar(50)
        select top 1 @UnitOfWork = ISNULL(req_transactionUOW, '')
        from master..syslockinfo
        where req_spid = -2
            
        if @KillOrphanedProcesses = 1
        BEGIN
            if @UnitOfWork <> '' exec('KILL ''' + @UnitOfWork + '''')
            
            INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
            VALUES('', '', '- Killed UOW ' + @UnitOfWork + ' -')
        END
        ELSE
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
            VALUES('', '', '- Orphaned. UOW = ' + @UnitOfWork + ' -')
        END
    END
    
    -- -3 = The blocking resource is owned by a deferred recovery transaction.
    ELSE IF @BlockingSPID = '-3' 
    BEGIN
        INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
        VALUES('', '', '- deferred recovery transaction -')
    END
    
    -- -4 = Session ID of the blocking latch owner could not be determined at this 
    --      time because of internal latch state transitions.
    ELSE IF @BlockingSPID = '-4' 
    BEGIN
        INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
        VALUES('', '', '- Latch owner could not be determined -')
    END

    -- Nothing unusual here. A process is being blocked by another processes, so let's get the
    -- info on the process that's doing the blocking
    ELSE
    BEGIN

        SELECT @TransactionCount = open_tran FROM master.sys.sysprocesses WHERE SPID=@BlockingSPID

        IF @BlockingSPID <> 0
        BEGIN
            if @KillBlockingProcesses = 1
            BEGIN
                exec('KILL ' + @BlockingSPID)

                INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
                VALUES('', '', '- Killed Process ' + @BlockingSPID + ' -')
            END
            ELSE
            BEGIN
                INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
                EXEC ('DBCC INPUTBUFFER(' + @BlockingSPID + ') WITH NO_INFOMSGS')
            END
        END
        ELSE
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO #BlockingProcess (EventType, Parameters, EventInfo)
            VALUES ('', '', ' - Unable to determin PID - ')
        END
    END         
    
    -- Add some aggregate info on the blocking processes
    UPDATE #BlockingProcess 
    SET ProcessID            = @BlockingSPID,
        CPUTime              = @CPUTime,
        DiskIO               = @DiskIO,
        TransactionCount     = @TransactionCount,
        Command              = @Command,
        ObjectName           = @ObjectName, 
        TransactionIsolation = @TransactionIsolation
    WHERE BlockingProcessID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()
    
    FETCH NEXT FROM BlockingProcessCursor 
    INTO @BlockingSPID, @CPUTime, @DiskIO, @Command, @ObjectName, @TransactionIsolation
END

CLOSE BlockingProcessCursor
DEALLOCATE BlockingProcessCursor


-- 3. Display the results
SELECT ProcessID, EventInfo, Command, ObjectName, TransactionCount, TransactionIsolation, 
       CPUTime, DiskIO 
FROM #BlockingProcess

SET NOCOUNT OFF

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Founder CodeProject
Canada Canada
Chris Maunder is the co-founder of CodeProject and ContentLab.com, and has been a prominent figure in the software development community for nearly 30 years. Hailing from Australia, Chris has a background in Mathematics, Astrophysics, Environmental Engineering and Defence Research. His programming endeavours span everything from FORTRAN on Super Computers, C++/MFC on Windows, through to to high-load .NET web applications and Python AI applications on everything from macOS to a Raspberry Pi. Chris is a full-stack developer who is as comfortable with SQL as he is with CSS.

In the late 1990s, he and his business partner David Cunningham recognized the need for a platform that would facilitate knowledge-sharing among developers, leading to the establishment of CodeProject.com in 1999. Chris's expertise in programming and his passion for fostering a collaborative environment have played a pivotal role in the success of CodeProject.com. Over the years, the website has grown into a vibrant community where programmers worldwide can connect, exchange ideas, and find solutions to coding challenges. Chris is a prolific contributor to the developer community through his articles and tutorials, and his latest passion project, CodeProject.AI.

In addition to his work with CodeProject.com, Chris co-founded ContentLab and DeveloperMedia, two projects focussed on helping companies make their Software Projects a success. Chris's roles included Product Development, Content Creation, Client Satisfaction and Systems Automation.

Comments and Discussions

 
-- There are no messages in this forum --