Patent ID: 7912922

Claim:
A database instance global identification method, comprising: generating, at a database server, a first unique instance identifier (“UII”) upon startup of a database instance, wherein the first UII will not conflict with any UII assigned to any other running database instance, and wherein the first UII is opaque, such that the first UII does not in itself include anything to identify a machine or service name or an instance name of the database instance; sending the first UII to a client in response to a request from the client to connect to the database before authentication of the client only if the request by the client is a first request to connect to the database; wherein the UII reduces the capability exchange overhead by maintaining a proper index; discarding the first UII upon shutdown of the database instance; and generating, at the database server, a second UII upon restart of the database instance, wherein the second UII is different from the first UII, and wherein the second UII will not conflict with any UII assigned to any other running database instance.