If a process terminates improperly, it can maintain a lock on a record or shared-memory structure. This can impact database concurrency. The OpenEdge Watchdog utility detects processes that have terminated improperly and cleans up after them.

At regular intervals, the Watchdog utility checks for processes that have terminated unexpectedly. If it finds one, it releases any locks or shared-memory structures that the process might hold.

The Watchdog utility checks for inactive processes approximately once every 10 seconds. It also checks for self-service clients that are no longer active, releases all the appropriate record locks, backs out of any live transactions, and releases any shared-memory locks. If a server process terminates unexpectedly, the Watchdog utility disconnects and cleans up the server's remote clients.

For more information about the Watchdog utility, see the description and other details about the PROWDOG utility in OpenEdge Data Management: Database Administration.