Patent ID: 7340452

Claim:
A method for processing a database statement within a multiple-server system, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the database statement at a first database server; determining that at least one operation required by the database statement can be parallelized; within the first database server, generating a master plan about how to execute the database statement; generating a first set of one or more signatures based on the master plan; within a second database server, generating a remote plan about how to execute the database statement; generating a second set of one or more signatures based on the remote plan; comparing the first set of one or more signatures to the second set of one or more signatures to determine whether the remote plan is equivalent to the master plan; and if the remote plan is equivalent to the master plan, then one or more slaves on the second database server using said remote plan to participate in parallel execution of the at least one operation; wherein the remote plan is equivalent to the master plan if and only if use of the remote plan by the one or more slaves, while the one or more slaves participate in parallel execution of the at least one operation, will produce correct results for said at least one operation.