serialization_failure (SQLSTATE 40001) occurs when concurrent transactions conflict under Serializable or Repeatable Read isolation and PostgreSQL aborts one to keep data consistent.
serialization_failure (SQLSTATE 40001) in PostgreSQL signals that your serializable or repeatable-read transaction conflicted with another concurrent transaction. Roll back, wait briefly, and retry the whole transaction to resolve the conflict.
PostgreSQL serialization_failure
serialization_failure is PostgreSQL’s SQLSTATE 40001 error raised when a transaction running in Serializable or Repeatable Read isolation cannot be safely committed because another concurrent transaction changed overlapping data.
PostgreSQL rolls back the entire transaction so that the database remains logically identical to one that executed transactions in strict serial order.
Applications must catch the error, retry, or downgrade isolation.
The error appears when PostgreSQL’s Serializable Snapshot Isolation engine detects a potential serialization anomaly, such as write skew or phantom reads, between two or more transactions.
Typical triggers include concurrent updates to the same rows, simultaneous inserts that would violate a unique key when visible together, and long-running read transactions that clash with writers.
Wrap business logic in a retry loop.
After catching SQLSTATE 40001, roll back, sleep with jitter, and re-execute the transaction. Most conflicts vanish on the first or second retry.
If strict serializability is unnecessary, switch the session to READ COMMITTED isolation or add SELECT … FOR UPDATE locks to serialize hot-row access explicitly.
Financial ledgers that increment balances in parallel can collide.
Use UPDATE … SET balance = balance + X WHERE … FOR UPDATE to lock the row and retry on failure.
Bulk UPSERTs in multiple workers often overlap.
Split work by customer_id ranges or temporal partitions to reduce contention and the error frequency.
Keep serializable transactions short, touch only required rows, and commit quickly to shrink the conflict window.
Employ exponential back-off with jitter in retry logic to avoid thundering-herd retries that cause repeated failures.
deadlock_detected (SQLSTATE 40P01) aborts a transaction when lock acquisition order cycles.
Resolve by locking objects in a consistent order.
unique_violation (SQLSTATE 23505) arises on conflicting inserts when using lower isolation. Add ON CONFLICT handling or unique index checks.
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Yes. Retrying preserves serializability and usually succeeds quickly. Aborting the business operation risks data loss.
Most applications succeed within 3-5 retries. Add a sensible cap and surface an error if the cap is exceeded.
Read Committed avoids serialization failure but allows anomalies. Evaluate business rules before lowering isolation.
Galaxy’s AI copilot flags long transactions and suggests retry templates, while its built-in query history makes debugging failed retries easy.
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