I’m occasionaly getting this exception on our production server: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.

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Asked: June 14, 20262026-06-14T15:28:58+00:00 2026-06-14T15:28:58+00:00

I’m occasionaly getting this exception on our production server: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.

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I’m occasionaly getting this exception on our production server:

System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
   at System.Threading.Monitor.Enter(Object obj)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.TransactedConnectionPool.TransactionEnded(Transaction transaction, DbConnectionInternal transactedObject)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDelegatedTransaction.SinglePhaseCommit(SinglePhaseEnlistment enlistment)
   at System.Transactions.TransactionStateDelegatedCommitting.EnterState(InternalTransaction tx)
   at System.Transactions.CommittableTransaction.Commit()
   at System.Transactions.TransactionScope.InternalDispose()
   at System.Transactions.TransactionScope.Dispose()
   //... continues here with references to my DAL code

What is the reason for this exception to happen?

I have already did some research on this but with no conrete success yet. I also read this questions here:

And now I know that if I could avoid escalating my transactions to DTC I would get rid of this problem. But what if I could not? I have multiple databases to update or read from in one transaction so I have to use DTC. I’m getting this error ocassionaly on actions that usually works well.

Technical background

It is ASP MVC2 and LINQ2SQL application on .NET 3.5
We have three virtuals with load balanacing based on IP address, each having IIS7
Single virutal with SQL server 2008 – it is shared by web servers

I should point out that I was not able to reproduce this exception on my development machine (development server + SQL express 2008) and on our testing machine (virtual with single IIS7 and SQL server 2008 together) either.

I’m suspecting our production servers configuration that there is some threading/processing issue (like two processes are trying to use the same connection).

UPDATE

I have found another link. It is stating that ado.net connection dispose bug is probably back. But it is a pity there is no resolution in the end and I have found nobody else describing similar issue.