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Resumable add table constraints

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Applies to: SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

The resumable operation for online index creation and rebuild are already supported for SQL Server 2019, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Managed Instance. The resumable operations allow index operations to be executed while the table is online (ONLINE=ON) and also:

  • Pause and restart an index create or rebuild operation multiple times to fit a maintenance window

  • Recover from index creation or rebuild failures, such as database failovers or running out of disk space.

  • Enable truncation of transaction logs during an index creation or rebuild operation.

  • When an index operation is paused, both the original index and the newly created one require disk space and need to be updated during Data Manipulation Language (DML) operations.

The new extensions for SQL Server 2022, SQL Database, and SQL Managed Instance allow a resumable operation for the Data Definition Language (DDL) command ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT and adding a Primary or Unique Key. For more information on adding a Primary or Unique Key, see ALTER TABLE table_constraint.

Note

Resumable add table constraints apply only to PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE KEY constraints. Resumable add table constraints is not supported for FOREIGN KEY constraints.

Resumable operations

In previous versions of SQL Server, the ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT operation can be executed with the ONLINE=ON option. However, the operation may take many hours for a large table to complete, and can consume a great number of resources. There's also the possibility of failures or interruption during such execution. We've introduced resumable capabilities to ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT for users to pause the operation during a maintenance window, or to restart it from where it was interrupted during an execution failure, without restarting the operation from the beginning.

Supported scenarios

The new resumable capability for ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT supports the following customer scenarios:

  • Pause or resume running ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT operation, such as pausing it for a maintenance window, and resuming the operation once the maintenance window is complete.

  • Resume ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT operation after failovers and system failures.

  • Executing ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT operation on a large table despite the small log size available.

Note

The resumable operation for ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT requires the ALTER command to be executed online (WITH ONLINE = ON).

This feature is especially useful for large tables.

T-SQL Syntax for ALTER TABLE

For information on the syntax used to enable resumable operations on a table constraint, see the syntax and options in ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL).

Remarks for ALTER TABLE

  • A new clause WITH <resumable_options have been added to the current T-SQL syntax in ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL).

  • The option RESUMABLE is new and has been added to the existing ALTER TABLE (Transact-SQL) syntax.

  • MAX_DURATION = time [MINUTES] used with RESUMABLE = ON (requires ONLINE = ON). MAX_DURATION indicates time (an integer value specified in minutes) that a resumable online add constraint operation is executed before being paused. If not specified, the operation continues until completion.

T-SQL syntax for ALTER INDEX

To pause, resume, or abort the resumable table constraint operation for ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT, use the T-SQL syntax ALTER INDEX (Transact-SQL).

For resumable constraints the existing ALTER INDEX ALL command is used.

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <table_name>  
      { RESUME [WITH (<resumable_index_options>,[...n])]
        | PAUSE
        | ABORT
      }
<resumable_index_option> ::=
 { 
    MAXDOP = max_degree_of_parallelism
    | MAX_DURATION =<time> [MINUTES]
    | <low_priority_lock_wait>  
 }
 <low_priority_lock_wait>::=  
{  
    WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY ( MAX_DURATION = <time> [ MINUTES ] ,   
                          ABORT_AFTER_WAIT = { NONE | SELF | BLOCKERS } )  
}

Remarks for ALTER INDEX

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <Table> PAUSE

  • Pause a resumable and online add table constraint operation that is being executed

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <Table> RESUME [WITH (<resumable_index_options>,[...n])]

  • Resume an add table constraint operation that is paused manually or due to a failure.

MAX_DURATION used with RESUMABLE=ON

  • The time (an integer value specified in minutes) that the resumable add table constraint operation is executed after being resumed. Once the time expires, the resumable operation is paused if it's still running.

WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY used with RESUMABLE=ON and ONLINE = ON

  • Resuming an online add table constraint operation after a pause must wait for blocking operations on this table. WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY indicates that the add table constraint operation will wait for low priority locks, allowing other operations to proceed while the resumable operation is waiting. Omitting the WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY option is equivalent to WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY (MAX_DURATION = 0 minutes, ABORT_AFTER_WAIT = NONE). For more information, see WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY.

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <Table> ABORT

  • Abort a running or paused add table constraint operation that was declared as resumable. The abort operation must be explicitly executed as an ABORT command to terminate a resumable constraint operation. Failure or pausing a resumable table constraint operation doesn't terminate its execution. Rather, it leaves the operation in an indefinite paused state.

For more information on PAUSE, RESUME, and ABORT options available for resumable operations, see ALTER INDEX (Transact-SQL).

View the status for resumable operation

To view the status for the resumable table constraint operation, use the view sys.index_resumable_operations.

Permissions

Requires ALTER permission on the table.

No new permissions for resumable ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT are required.

Examples

Here are some examples on using resumable add table constraint operations.

Example 1

Resumable ALTER TABLE operation for adding a primary key clustered on column (a) with MAX_DURATION of 240 minutes.

ALTER TABLE table1
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Constrain PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (a)
WITH (ONLINE = ON, MAXDOP = 2, RESUMABLE = ON, MAX_DURATION = 240);

Example 2

Resumable ALTER TABLE operation for adding a unique constraint on two columns (a and b) with MAX_DURATION of 240 minutes.

ALTER TABLE table2
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Constrain UNIQUE CLUSTERED (a,b)
WITH (ONLINE = ON, MAXDOP = 2, RESUMABLE = ON, MAX_DURATION = 240);

Example 3

ALTER TABLE operation for adding a primary key clustered being paused and resumed.

The table below shows two sessions (Session #1 and Session #2) being executed chronologically using the following T-SQL statements. Session #1 executes a resumable ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT operation creating a primary key on column Col1. Session #2 checks the execution status for the running constraint. After some time, it pauses the reusable operation. Session #2 checks the status for the paused constraint. Finally, Session #1 resumes the paused constraint and Session #2 checks the status again.

Session #1 Session #2
Execute resumable add constraint

ALTER TABLE TestConstraint
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_TestConstraint PRIMARY KEY (Col1)
WITH (ONLINE = ON, MAXDOP = 2, RESUMABLE = ON, MAX_DURATION = 30);
Check the constraint status

SELECT sql_text, state_desc, percent_complete
FROM sys.index_resumable_operations;
Output showing the operation

sql_textstate_descpercent_complete
ALTER TABLE TestConstraint (...)RUNNING43.552
Pause the resumable constraint

ALTER INDEX ALL ON TestConstraint PAUSE;
Error

Msg 1219, Level 16, State 1, Line 6
Your session has been disconnected because of a high priority DDL operation.

Msg 1750, Level 16, State 1, Line 6
Could not create constraint or index. See previous errors.

Msg 0, Level 20, State 0, Line 5
A severe error occurred on the current command.
The results, if any, should be discarded.
Check the constraint status

SELECT sql_text, state_desc, percent_complete
FROM sys.index_resumable_operations;
Output showing the operation

sql_textstate_descpercent_complete
ALTER TABLE TestConstraint (...)PAUSED65.339
ALTER INDEX ALL ON TestConstraint RESUME;
Check the constraint status

SELECT sql_text, state_desc, percent_complete
FROM sys.index_resumable_operations;
Output showing the operation

sql_textstate_descpercent_complete
ALTER TABLE TestConstraint (...)RUNNING90.238

Once the operation is completed, execute the following T-SQL statement to check the constraint:

SELECT constraint_name, table_name, constraint_type 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE CONSTRAINT_TYPE='PRIMARY KEY';
GO

Here's the result set:

constraint_name table_name constraint_type
PK_Constraint TestConstraint PRIMARY KEY

See also