Patent ID: 7475281

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for synchronizing replicas of a database, the method comprising: sending update data from a first replica to a second replica, the first replica being associated with a first acquire server unit and a first acquire client unit, and the second replica being associated with a second acquire server unit and a second acquire client unit; automatically detecting a failure of the update data from the first replica to be applied to the second replica, wherein the detecting comprises: requesting, by the first acquire client unit from the second acquire server, metadata comprising export parameters; receiving, by the first acquire client unit from the second acquire server, the metadata; automatically determining a cause of the failure and where the cause of the failure occurred, wherein the determining comprises: determining, by the first acquire client, if the failure was due to a packet being lost, wherein the packet contains the update data, wherein the first acquire client determines if the failure was due to a packet being lost by requesting from the second acquire server, the result of the last failed import to confirm that the packet was actually lost; parsing, by the first acquire client, the metadata received from the second acquire server, wherein the parsed metadata indicates if an account is locked out; and determining, by the first acquire client, if the second replica is updated with current update data; automatically resolving the cause of the failure, wherein the resolving comprises: requesting, by the first acquire client, for a packet to be resent if the cause of the failure is due to the packet being lost; resending, by the first acquire client, a packet containing the update data if the second replica is not updated with current update data; unlocking, by the first acquire client, an account if the cause of the failure is due to the account being locked out; deleting, by the first acquire client, an object if the cause of the failure is due to the object not being deleted during a previous export; and notifying, by the first acquire client, an appropriate authority of the failure if corrective actions need to be taken by the appropriate authority; resending the update data; applying the update data to the second replica; and recording update data in an operations log.