Duplicate Deferred Processing Can Cause Locked Errors

Release Date: 12/26/2024

Version: 7.x & Up

We monitor a user's record locking activities through Elliott events. On a weekend, we received 494 deferred processing locked errors like the following:

After investigation, we found out that there are two "deferred" users in the PSQL Monitor that lock IMITMFIL at the same time:

The condition is due to the fact that there are two duplicate deferred processes running on the server at the same time. This causes a racing condition, and the two deferred processes lock each other up which causes a deadlock condition. We logged onto to the server and resolved this. To avoid this kind of “deadlock” deferred processing from happening, it is crucial that you avoid duplicate deferred processing.

How can you tell if you have duplicate deferred processes? From the task manager (right click on the task bar at the bottom of your desktop and choose “Task Manager”) point of view, you don’t want to have two EL860DP.EXE (Elliott 8.6 Defer Processing) running at the same time. See sample screen below:

If you see the Defer Processing UI on your desktop, it will be represented by EL860DP.EXE. If you close the Defer Processing UI, while it disappears from your desktop user interface, the Defer Processing task does not really go away. Instead, it is hidden on the bottom right corner and continues to perform processing.

Therefore, if you see the Defer Processing UI on your desktop, while also seeing processing on your icon on the bottom right corner, then it implies you have duplicate deferred processing. See the following sample screen:

If you don’t have Defer Processing UI on your desktop, and you have duplicate icons on the bottom right corner, then it is also a duplicate scenario. See example below:

In many situations, the defer processing icon may be hidden in the “up” bottom group. See sample screen below:

To really stop and close the deferred processing, you need to right click on the Defer Processing icon and choose “Close Defer Processing.”

EMK

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