Patent ID: 8423515

Claim:
A method of failover with limited data loss, comprising: storing at a primary database system a set of data; sending the set of data from the primary database system to a standby database system; determining, by using a processor, whether the standby database system is available to participate in the failover based at least in part upon an acceptable threshold, wherein the act of determining comprises: identifying a data lag between the primary and standby database systems, wherein the data lag is associated with a difference between data at the standby database system and data at the primary database system; computing whether a data loss that would result from the data lag when the standby database system participates in the failover is within the acceptable threshold; allowing the standby database system to participate in the failover when the data loss does not exceed the acceptable threshold; and not allowing the standby database to participate in the failover when the data loss exceeds the acceptable threshold.