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LWLock: MultiXactMemberSLRU

Waiting to access the multixact member SLRU cache
PostgreSQL wait event dossier
ClassLWLock EventMultiXactMemberSLRU VersionsPG 13-18 Evidence3 source location(s)

Official description

Waiting to access the multixact member SLRU cache

PG 13 PG 14 PG 15 PG 16 PG 17 PG 18

Trigger mechanism

This lock protects the SLRU cache for pg_multixact/members, which stores the transaction members of multitransaction IDs used by shared row locks. Concurrent row-lock creation and old member lookups meet here.

Normal or trouble?

  • Normal: Brief waits occur in workloads that use SELECT FOR SHARE/KEY SHARE or create multixacts through foreign-key checks.
  • Investigate: Sustained contention points to heavy shared row locking, multixact churn, lagging freeze, or slow pg_multixact storage.

Diagnostic SQL

Sessions waiting on LWLock/MultiXactMemberSLRU
SELECT pid, backend_type, usename, datname, application_name,
       state, now() - query_start AS query_age,
       now() - xact_start AS xact_age,
       wait_event_type, wait_event,
       pg_blocking_pids(pid) AS blocking_pids,
       left(query, 160) AS query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'LWLock'
  AND wait_event = 'MultiXactMemberSLRU'
ORDER BY query_age DESC NULLS LAST;
Current LWLock cohort
SELECT wait_event, count(*) AS waiting_sessions,
       count(*) FILTER (WHERE state = 'active') AS active_waiters,
       max(now() - query_start) AS oldest_query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'LWLock'
GROUP BY wait_event
ORDER BY waiting_sessions DESC, wait_event;
Lock and relation context for these sessions
SELECT a.pid, l.locktype, l.mode, l.granted, l.fastpath,
       d.datname, n.nspname, c.relname,
       l.page, l.tuple, l.virtualxid, l.transactionid,
       l.classid, l.objid, l.objsubid
FROM pg_stat_activity AS a
LEFT JOIN pg_locks AS l ON l.pid = a.pid
LEFT JOIN pg_database AS d ON d.oid = l.database
LEFT JOIN pg_class AS c
  ON c.oid = l.relation
 AND l.database = (
       SELECT oid FROM pg_database WHERE datname = current_database()
     )
LEFT JOIN pg_namespace AS n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE a.wait_event_type = 'LWLock'
  AND a.wait_event = 'MultiXactMemberSLRU'
ORDER BY a.pid, l.granted, l.locktype, l.mode;

Response

  1. Find statements and tables creating many shared row locks.
  2. Check multixact age and autovacuum progress.
  3. Reduce lock fan-out and unblock multixact freeze; investigate member SLRU I/O if paired with buffer waits.

Source evidence

Typical incident pattern

A high-fan-out foreign-key workload locks many parent rows while a long transaction delays multixact cleanup, driving member-cache contention.