Patent ID: 6978400

Claim:
A method for reducing the number of data elements check pointed in a system having at least one data store, operations on said at least one data store being recorded in a log, the method comprising the steps of: recording a point in the log; determining the oldest data element in each of the at least one data store responsive to determining that according to at least one predetermined criterion it is time to take a checkpoint; determining for each of the at least one data store whether a logged representation of the data store's oldest data element is more recent than the point recorded; responsive to determining that a data store's logged representation is more recent than the point recorded, realising that it is not necessary to force data elements from that data store to disk if the point recorded is made the point of restart for that data store; and wherein the point recorded is the point at which it is determined that it is time to take a checkpoint and wherein the step of determining the oldest data element in each of the at least one data store is responsive to waiting a predetermined period of time over and above time at which the point is recorded.