Patent 7627614 was granted and assigned to Oracle on December, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Techniques are provided for detecting lost writes so that data corruption can be avoided. According to one technique, lost writes are detected by comparing version numbers that are indicated in redo log entries with version numbers that are indicated in corresponding blocks in a standby database. According to one technique, which may be used in conjunction with the above technique, lost writes are detected by logging read operations that occur relative to a primary database, and comparing version numbers that are indicated in read log entries with version numbers that are indicated in corresponding blocks in a standby database. According to one technique, lost writes are detected by comparing, in response to read operations, (a) version numbers that are stored in a persistent in-memory cache with (b) version numbers that are indicated in corresponding blocks that are read from a primary database.