Getting “Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restartin

Question

I'm running the following MySQL UPDATE statement:

mysql> update customer set account_import_id = 1;
ERROR 1205 (HY000): Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction

I'm not using a transaction, so why would I be getting this error? I even tried restarting my MySQL server and it didn't help.

The table has 406,733 rows.

Answer 1

Make sure the database tables are using InnoDB storage engine and READ-COMMITTED transaction isolation level.

You can check it by SELECT @@GLOBAL.tx_isolation, @@tx_isolation; on mysql console.

If it is not set to be READ-COMMITTED then you must set it. Make sure before setting it that you have SUPER privileges in mysql.

You can take help from http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/set-transaction.html.

By setting this I think your problem will be get solved.

---

You might also want to check you aren't attempting to update this in two processes at once. Users ( @tala ) have encountered similar error messages in this context, maybe double-check that...

Answer 2

HOW TO FORCE UNLOCK for locked tables in MySQL:

Breaking locks like this may cause atomicity in the database to not be enforced on the sql statements that caused the lock.

This is hackish, and the proper solution is to fix your application that caused the locks. However, when dollars are on the line, a swift kick will get things moving again.

1) Enter MySQL

mysql -u your_user -p

2) Let's see the list of locked tables

mysql> show open tables where in_use>0;

3) Let's see the list of the current processes, one of them is locking your table(s)

mysql> show processlist;

4) Kill one of these processes

mysql> kill <put_process_id_here>;

Answer 3

The number of rows is not huge... Create an index on account_import_id if its not the primary key.

CREATE INDEX idx_customer_account_import_id ON customer (account_import_id);

Answer 4

mysql> set innodb_lock_wait_timeout=100

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> show variables like 'innodb_lock_wait_timeout';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name            | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| innodb_lock_wait_timeout | 100   |
+--------------------------+-------+

Now trigger the lock again. You have 100 seconds time to issue a SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS\G to the database and see which other transaction is locking yours.

Answer 5

Take a look on if your database is fine tuned. Especially the transactions isolation. Isn't good idea to increase the innodb_lock_wait_timeout variable.

Check your database transaction isolation level in the mysql cli:

mysql> SELECT @@GLOBAL.tx_isolation, @@tx_isolation, @@session.tx_isolation;
+-----------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
| @@GLOBAL.tx_isolation | @@tx_isolation  | @@session.tx_isolation |
+-----------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
| REPEATABLE-READ       | REPEATABLE-READ | REPEATABLE-READ        |
+-----------------------+-----------------+------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

You could get improvements changing de isolation level, use the oracle like READ COMMITTED instead REPEATABLE READ (InnoDB Defaults)

mysql> SET tx_isolation = 'READ-COMMITTED';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SET GLOBAL tx_isolation = 'READ-COMMITTED';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> 

Also try use SELECT FOR UPDATE only in if necesary.

Answer 6

You are using a transaction; autocommit does not disable transactions, it just makes them automatically commit at the end of the statement.

What is happening is, some other thread is holding a record lock on some record (you're updating every record in the table!) for too long, and your thread is being timed out.

You can see more details of the event by issuing a

SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS

after the event (in sql editor). Ideally do this on a quiet test-machine.