IDENTIFYING A COMMON POINT IN TIME ACROSS MULTIPLE LOGS

Nodes in a distributed system maintain virtual times according to specified rules. Each node can associate its virtual time with transactional messages that are transferred to other nodes and with log entries that are written to a log. A reference entry, which corresponds to an arbitrary point in time, is selected from a first log associated with a first node. A reference virtual time associated with the reference entry is identified. A matching entry, with an associated virtual time that appropriately corresponds to the reference virtual time, is selected from a second log associated with a second node. The first node is caused to roll-forward to the arbitrary time by processing the first log up to the reference entry. The second node is caused to roll-forward to the arbitrary time by processing the second log up to the matching entry.