FIX: "A time-out occurred while waiting for buffer latch" error when many transactions concurrently update a database in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2008 if the database uses the snapshot isolation level

Consider the following scenario:

• You enable the row versioning feature on a database in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2008.
• You configure the database to use the snapshot isolation level.
• You run many transactions that update the database concurrently.

In this scenario, error messages that resemble the following are logged in the SQL Server Errorlog file.

Error message 1

Error message 2

Error message 3

This issue occurs because the formatting of the version store pages starts after allocation. However, the pages are latched. Therefore, high contention for pages occurs.

Cumulative update information

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 4 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3. For more information about this cumulative update package, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 fix release. Microsoft recommends that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 1 for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 R2 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

SQL Server 2008 R2

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 8. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package for SQL Server 2008 R2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 R2 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This issue might not occur if you increase the number of data files for the Tempdb database to maximize disk bandwidth. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

For more information about row versioning-based isolation levels, visit the following MSDN website:
For more information about the Incremental Servicing Model for SQL Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about the naming schema for SQL Server updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: