Patent ID: 7401103

Claim:
In a sync community that includes one or more replicas, a method for replicating the one or more replicas, the method comprising a first replica performing: sending a request changes message to a second replica in a sync community, wherein the request changes message includes a knowledge including information representing a plurality of changes that the first replica is aware of by including information representing a change ID for each change that the first replica is aware of, wherein each change ID includes a replica ID associated with the change and a version specific to a specific change, wherein knowledge of at least two or more changes is included in a vector, the vector representing a plurality of change IDs, wherein each vector includes at least one replica ID identifying a replica associated with the plurality of changes, and at least one magnitude representing the number of changes in the plurality of changes; receiving one or more convey changes messages from the second replica, wherein each convey changes message includes at least one change that the first replica is not aware of based on a comparison by the second replica between the knowledge of the first replica and a knowledge of the second replica; and applying one or more of the one or more convey changes messages from the second replica to data at the first replica.