Patent ID: 7620660

Claim:
A method for controlling a disk storage of a computing device by way of a relational database, said method comprising: recoverably updating the relational database with a change to a portion of said relational database to control the disk storage by: acquiring a log semaphore in a share mode, the log semaphore being a newly created synchronization point in an active portion of a recovery log comprising log records and stored on the disk storage; determining whether a copy of said portion of said database is not stored on the active portion of the recovery log on the disk storage; if a copy of said portion of said database is not stored on said active portion of said recovery log, releasing said log semaphore and adding to said recovery log on the disk storage a pre-image log record comprising a copy of said portion of said database on the disk storage before said change, otherwise releasing said log semaphore; adding to said recovery log on the disk storage an update log record comprising information about said change; and updating said database on the disk storage to reflect said change, wherein a plurality of different pages may be updated concurrently, the log semaphore in the recovery log on the disk storage allowing the recovery log on the disk storage to be shared between an updater performing the updating and a checkpoint periodically performing maintenance operations on the recovery log on the disk storage.