At 08:38 PM 4/05/2009, you wrote:

>Hi!
>
>I realize that I should fix my applications so that deadlocks don't
>occur at all. Unfortunately, the occurence of deadlocks is so extremely
>rare that I really have no hope of finding the cause. So instead I am
>looking for a way to fix the effects. I know that a Backup/Restore cycle
>removes my deadlocks. But - is there an alternative way that would not
>require an exclusive access to the database?

The first user that encounters the deadlock can roll back his/her work and simply end the deadlock. Monitor the users and get them to report what they were doing when they encountered the deadlock. If you're lucky, it might then be nailed down to one, or just a few, operations that you can fix without having to scour and test the entire codebase.

But you don't need a backup/restore to resolve these occasional deadlocks. You can do a full database shutdown (not even with exclusive access) - rename the database file if you have users who can log in as SYSDBA or owner - then run a gbak backup or a sweep to clean out garbage - rename back to the proper name - and put it back online.

./heLen