I'm trying to help out our apprentice DBA (at the moment, our only DBA, but that's not a problem because MS tools are so simple to administer, we don't need expertise...) Okay, enough sarcasm.

Is there some sort of global timeout setting in SQL Server, or if we don't want a transaction to go on forever, the client process needs to define its timeout with sql commands (like set timeout)? We've looked through Books OnLine, but everything points to session- or client-defined settings.

Thanks for your help.

Brian Bronson

I know there are several commands that a client can use to set its own timeout settings for its connection. I'm wondering if there is some way to set a global timeout on the database or server itself. This would be applied to all connections (perhaps unless they specify their own timeouts).

The problem we are having is that a client process locks a table and then goes off into never-never land. It doesn't die, so the connection remains, as does the lock. Any client-connection-specified timeouts wouldn't apply because the database DID respond promptly. Unfortunately, the database never tells the client process "Hey, you've had that table locked for 2 days; go away and let somebody else play with it."

I hope I'm getting my point across. I'm hampered because not only am I not a real DBA, I don't even play one on television!

Brian Bronson

after a certain server-specified timeout setting.

Brian Bronson