Patent ID: 7979399

Claim:
A method for managing journal size on a first compute node storing a portion of an in-memory database distributed across a plurality of compute nodes, comprising: while executing a first database operation on the first compute node, generating one or more journal entries reflecting the performance of the first database operation; writing the one or more entries to a journal of database operations performed on the first compute node, wherein the journal of database operations is stored in a memory associated with the first compute node and wherein the memory further stores the portion of the in-memory database distributed across the plurality of compute nodes; upon determining a size of the journal has exceeded a first specified threshold size, identifying one or more entries to prune from the journal; pruning the identified one or more entries from the journal; while executing a second database operation on the first compute node, generating one or more journal entries reflecting the performance of the second database operation; and upon determining a size of the journal has exceeded a second specified threshold size, writing the entries reflecting the performance of the second database operation to a disk-based archive.