Patent ID: 8015154

Claim:
A method implemented in a parallel database system having a plurality of nodes, comprising: sending a first broadcast message from a first node of the parallel database system to other nodes of the database system; in response to the first broadcast message, at least some of the other nodes each starting a reconcile software module to perform a database software version reconciliation task with respect to database software executable in each node, wherein the database software version reconciliation task involves checking a version of the database software executable in each of the other nodes; in response to the first broadcast message, the at least some of the other nodes each sending, to the first node, a unique identifier of the respective one of the at least some of the other nodes; sending a second broadcast message containing a random number from the first node to the other nodes; and in response to the second broadcast message, the other nodes confirming that the first node is authorized based on the random number.