An insert lock, sometimes termed an anti-phantom lock, is a very short-term lock placed on a scan position to reserve the right to insert a row. The lock is held only for the duration of the insertion itself; once the row is properly inserted within a database page it is write-locked to ensure consistency, and the insert lock is released. A transaction that acquires an insert lock on a row prevents other transactions from acquiring a phantom lock on the same row. Insert locks are necessary because the server must anticipate an isolation level 3 scan operation by any active connection, which could potentially occur with any new request. Note that phantom and insert locks do not conflict with each other when they are held by the same transaction.