Patent ID: 8346723

Claim:
A method for patching less than all of a plurality of replicated database instances, the method comprising: applying, by a computer system, a patch to a first version of a table in a first database instance of the plurality of replicated database instances, wherein the first version of the table is replicated in a corresponding first version of the table in a second database instance of the plurality of replicated database instances and wherein applying the patch to the first version of the table in the first database instance results in a second version of the table in the first database instance; consolidating, by the computer system, transformations caused by applying the patch to the first version of the table in the first database instance based on differences between the first version of the table in the first database instance and the second version of the table in the first database instance; and performing, by the computer system, a replication process between the first database instance and the second database instance, wherein the second version of the table in the first database instance is a source of the replication process and the first version of the table in the second database instance is a target of the replication process, wherein the replication process applies the consolidated transformations to the table in the second database instance without applying the patch to the second database instance.