Method and apparatus for propagating commit times between a plurality of database servers

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A method and system for removing propagation delays between a plurality of database servers that have access to a common database is provided.
According to the method, each database server is associated with a logical clock.
In response to initiating a commit of a transaction executing on a database server, a commit time for the transaction is determined and broadcast to one or more other database servers.
Upon receiving the commit time, the database servers compare the transmitted commit time to the time indicated by their logical clock.
If the commit time is greater than the time indicated by their logical clock, the database server sets its logical to reflect a time that is at least as recent as the time reflected by the transmitted commit time.
According to another aspect of the invention, the node broadcasting the timestamp overlaps the broadcast with a log force.
According to another aspect of the invention, the broadcast commit times are sent as broadcast commit messages which include an unique broadcast ID that can be used to identify a particular broadcast commit message.
When a broadcast commit message is received by a database server, the receiving database server sends an acknowledge message to the sending database server that includes the unique broadcast ID.