Patent ID: 8090695

Claim:
A method for restoring a search index of a mailbox database, the method comprising: automatically performing a first event-indexing process, at a source server system in a high-availability server system, the first event-indexing process updating a search index of a mailbox database based on events stored in an event list by processing the events in the event list, at least some of the events representing changes to an event-mode mailbox in the mailbox database; determining, at the source server system, whether a watermark indicates all events in the event list have been processed; when the watermark does not indicate that all events in the event list have been processed, automatically advancing, at the source server system, the watermark such that the watermark indicates an event in the event list that sequentially follows the event previously indicated by the watermark; and after advancing the watermark, automatically processing, at the source server system, the event indicated by the watermark, thereby updating the search index based on the event indicated by the watermark when the event indicated by the watermark is applicable to the event-mode mailbox; in response to a restoration event, automatically suspending, at the source server system, the first event-indexing process; after suspending the first event-indexing process, automatically sending, from the source server system to a target server system in the high-availability server system, a first set of data that the target server system uses to generate a copy of the search index at the target server system; after suspending the first event-indexing process, automatically sending the watermark from the source server system to the target server system, the watermark indicating a mailbox event in the event list that the first event-indexing process has most recently processed; after sending the first set of data and the watermark, automatically resuming, at the source server system, the first event-indexing process and the first crawl-indexing process; and after sending the first set of data and the watermark, automatically instructing, at the source server system, the target server system to begin performing a second event-indexing process that processes events stored in a copy of the event list at the target server system, thereby updating the copy of the search index based on ones of the events stored in the copy of the event list that represent changes to an event-mode mailbox in a copy of the mailbox database at the target server system, starting with an event in the copy of the event list that follows the watermark.