MSSQLSERVER_3961

Topic Status: Some information in this topic is preview and subject to change in future releases. Preview information describes new features or changes to existing features in Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2).

Details

Product Name

SQL Server

Event ID

3961

Event Source

MSSQLSERVER

Component

SQLEngine

Symbolic Name

XACT_METADATA_INVALID

Message Text

Snapshot isolation transaction failed in database '%.*ls' because the object accessed by the statement has been modified by a DDL statement in another concurrent transaction since the start of this transaction. It is disallowed because the metadata is not versioned. A concurrent update to metadata can lead to inconsistency if mixed with snapshot isolation.

Explanation

This error can occur if you are querying metadata under snapshot isolation and there is a concurrent DDL statement that updates the metadata that is being accessed under snapshot isolation. SQL Server does not support versioning of metadata. For this reason, there are restrictions on what DDL operations can be performed within an explicit transaction running under snapshot isolation. An implicit transaction, by definition, is a single statement which makes it possible to enforce the semantics of snapshot isolation even with DDL statements. The following DDL statements are not permitted under snapshot isolation after a BEGIN TRANSACTION statement: ALTER TABLE, CREATE INDEX, CREATE XML INDEX, ALTER INDEX, DROP INDEX, DBCC REINDEX, ALTER PARTITION FUNCTION, ALTER PARTITION SCHEME, or any common language runtime (CLR) DDL statement. These statements are permitted when you are using snapshot isolation within implicit transactions. An implicit transaction, by definition, is a single statement which makes it possible to enforce the semantics of snapshot isolation even with DDL statements.

User Action

Change the snapshot isolation level to a non-snapshot isolation level such as read committed before querying metadata.