How to monitor deadlocks

When do you start troubleshooting a SQL Server 2005/2008 deadlocks and how? The alert is turned on SSMS via SQL Server performance condition alert, objects->SQLServer:Locks, Counter->Lock Waits/Sec, Instance:_Total, alert if counter: rises above value 3. Is this a proactive way of monitoring it? What is the acceptable value? I would highly apprecate your help. Thank you!!!

You can use Event Notifications to get notified whenever a deadlock happens on the server:

See:

• Immediate deadlock notifications without changing existing code by Mladen Prajdić

• Using SQL Profiler to Resolve Deadlocks in SQL Server by Jonathan Kehayias

Additional links:

• The Anatomy of a Deadlock - Jonathan Kehayias

• Anatomy of a Deadlock - Part Deux - Jonathan Kehayias

• Read/Write deadlock - by Remus Rusanu

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#2228, answer score: 7