22-25 April 2026
SQLBits 2014

Latches, Spinlocks, and Lock Free Data Structures

Join this session to make a deep dive into how SQL Server implements physical locking with lightweight synchronization objects like Latches and Spinlocks.
You know locking and blocking very well in SQL Server? You know how the isolation level influences locking? Perfect! Join me in this session to make a further deep dive into how SQL Server implements physical locking with lightweight synchronization objects like Latches and Spinlocks. We will cover the differences between both, and their use-cases in SQL Server. You will learn about best practices how to analyze and resolve Latch- and Spinlock contentation for your performance critical workload. At the end we will talk about lock free data structures, what they are, and how they are used by the new In-Memory OLTP technology that is part of SQL Server 2014.

Speakers

Klaus Aschenbrenner

sqlpassion.at/blog

Klaus Aschenbrenner's previous sessions

SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP Deep Dive
Hekaton is the Greek word for 100 - the goal of In-Memory OLTP in SQL Server 2014 is to improve query performance up to 100 times. In this session we will look under the cover of Hekaton and the Multi Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) principles.
 
Headache guaranteed: Deadlocking in SQL Server!
SQL Server needs its locking mechanism to provide the isolation aspect of transactions. As a side-affect your workload can run into deadlock situations - headache for you as a DBA is guaranteed!
 
Latches, Spinlocks, and Lock Free Data Structures
Join this session to make a deep dive into how SQL Server implements physical locking with lightweight synchronization objects like Latches and Spinlocks.
 
The dangerous beauty of Bookmark Lookups
Join me in this session to get a basic understanding of Bookmark Lookups, and why they can be dangerous in SQL Server.
 
Troubleshooting the most difficult SQL Server problems
Do you have enough from "normal" performance tuning sessions? You can't hear anything about Indexing and Execution Plans anymore? Then you are right in this session!
 
Troubleshooting TempDb
For the most DBAs and DEVs the TempDb is a crystal ball. But the TempDb is the most critical component in a SQL Server installation and is used by your applications and also internally by SQL Server.
 
SQL Server 2008 Database Internals
Do you already wanted to know how SQL Server 2008 stores a database file physically on the hard drive? In this session you will learn the internal structure of a SQL Server 2008 database file.
 
Understanding SQL Server Execution Plans
Do you know SQL Server Execution Plans? Yes! - and can you read/analyze them? No... For the beginner it is not very easy to understand and explain execution plans generated by SQL Server for your queries.
 
Advanced SQL Server 2008 Troubleshooting
It's Friday, 05:00pm. You are just receiving an email that informs you that your SQL Server has enormous performance problems! What can you do? How can you identify the problem and resolve it fast?
 
Service Broker: Message in a bottle
Service Broker: Message in a bottle