Simultaneous Entity Updates
Learn about conflict resolution approaches used during simultaneous object updates in the Reltio platform.
The Reltio platform detects and resolves conflicts when two or more requests attempt to modify the same object at the same time. This topic covers when conflicts occur, the supported resolution strategies, configuration options for retry-based conflict handling, and how to resolve the common error TOO_MANY_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_FOR_OBJECT (2008).
Contact Reltio Support to configure additional retry and backoff settings in your tenant's physical configuration, as described in Configure Entity Update Retry
How simultaneous updates create conflicts
A conflict occurs when the state of an object changes between the start and write phases of a request. If Request A starts and reads the object state, and before Request A writes, Request B modifies the object and commits, the system detects a mismatch and identifies it as a conflict when Request A attempts to write.
Not all simultaneous operations cause a conflict. If Request A completes (including writing) before Request B starts processing, both updates complete successfully in sequence.
Conflict resolution methods
The system supports two approaches for resolving update conflicts:
- Merge-style resolution (default)
When a conflict is detected, the platform applies internal merge logic to reconcile concurrent changes so the result is similar to executing a single request containing all updates. It intelligently combines or preserves attribute-level changes based on predefined rules.
- Retry-based resolution
When a conflict occurs, the platform retries the entire request so the final result matches sequential execution (order not guaranteed). This behavior isenabled using
repeatAllOperationsOnConflictand is also used for nested partial overrides. Retries follow an exponential backoff strategy, and if they fail after multiple attempts, the platform returns aTOO_MANY_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_FOR_OBJECT (2008)error. For more information, see Troubleshooting Concurrent Requests Errors