Understanding and Resolving SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 Blocking Problems

// from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224453/

SUMMARY
This article is an update for SQL Server 7.0 of the following article, which applies to SQL Server 6.x, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
162361 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/162361/EN-US/) INF: Understanding and Resolving SQL Server Blocking Problems
Much of the information contained in the above article has already been updated and included in SQL Server 7.0 Books Online in the "Understanding and Avoiding Blocking" topic. Carefully review this information before proceeding with this article; it will not be repeated here. This article focuses on how to monitor SQL Server to capture pertinent system information and how to analyze that information to successfully resolve blocking issues.

This article uses the same standard terminology as defined in the above information. In this discussion, the term "connection" refers to a single logged-on session of the database. Each connection appears as a system process ID (SPID). Each of these SPIDs is often referred to as a process, although it is not a separate process context in the usual sense. Rather, each SPID consists of the server resources and data structures necessary to service the requests of a single connection from a given client. A single client application may have one or more connections. From the perspective of SQL Server, there is no difference between multiple connections from a single client application on a single client computer and multiple connections from multiple client applications or multiple client computers. One connection can block another connection, regardless of whether they emanate from the same application or separate applications on two different client computers.