To allow the Lock Manager to request locks at row-partition granularities, Vantage employs a value called a rowkey, which combines a row partition identifier (the internal partition number or IPN) with a rowhash value. The rowkey allows the Lock Manager to consider row partitions in determining the type of lock to use for a given transaction. The Lock Manage can thereby limit locks, when appropriate, to rows in a single row-partition, allowing concurrent access to the non-locked partitions of the table.
Partition-aware locks are identified in the output of Lock Display by having a PLLKind descriptor.