Patent ID: 8190572

Claim:
A method, for use with a primary online transactional processing (OLTP) database, to maintain a secondary storage usable by a backup OLTP database, wherein primary storage, of the primary OLTP database, is configured to interoperate with a first database server of the primary OLTP database, secondary storage of the backup OLTP database is configured to interoperate with a second database server of the backup OLTP database, and the primary storage includes data files of a file system underlying the primary OLTP database, the method comprising: as transaction indications for the primary OLTP database are recorded in at least one transaction log file, in the primary storage of the primary OLTP database, causing the first database server to mirror the transaction indications to the secondary storage using mirroring functions provided by the first and second database servers; at a file system level of the primary storage of the primary OLTP database and at a file system level of the secondary storage, occasionally causing changes identified in the data files of the primary OLTP database, including changes in the underlying data stored in the data files, to be copied from the primary storage to the secondary storage via a synchronizer configured to compare a snapshot of the data files of the primary OLTP database to a snapshot of data files of the backup OLTP database without reference to the transaction indications, and to transfer any changes in the data files of the primary OLTP database identified by the comparison from the primary storage to the secondary storage independently of the first database server, wherein further transaction indications continue to be mirrored to the secondary storage during the comparison of the snapshots and the transfer of the changes in the data files of the primary OLTP database, and wherein the further transaction indications are not applied to either the primary OLTP database or the backup OLTP database during the comparison of the snapshots and the transfer of the changes in the data files of the primary OLTP database; and applying the further transaction indications to the backup OLTP database after the transfer of the changes in the data files of the primary OLTP database.