Patent ID: 7752183

Claim:
A method for using checksums to link transactions across machines, comprising: receiving transaction information for a current transaction, wherein transaction information comprises checksum and topology information, wherein the topology information comprises a first checksum for the current transaction, a second checksum for a parent transaction of the current transaction, and a third checksum for a root transaction of the current transaction, wherein the first checksum, the second checksum, and the third checksum in the topology information are used to identify a root/parent/current transaction relationship, and wherein the first checksum serves as a unique identifier of the current transaction; populating a data record in a first data structure in a transaction database with the first checksum and attribute information for the current transaction; and populating a data record in a second data structure in the transaction database with the topology information, wherein populating the data record in the second data structure preserves the root/parent/current transaction relationship.