A network failure in a distributed database can have the effect that not all SERVERDBs of the database can communicate with each other. Data stored on a SERVERDB to which network communication is no longer possible cannot be read nor modified.
If the network of SERVERDBs has divided into two subnetworks because of the failure of network communication, the majority concept is applied. This means that SERVERDBs belonging to the larger subnetwork, the majority, can still modify the replicated (metadata) data. SERVERDBs that could not be accessed when these modifications were made are informed about the modifications after reestablishing the network communication.
As a result, SERVERDBs that do not belong to the majority may only be able to modify local (metadata) data. Data retrieval of local and replicated data is possible. It can happen that data of replicated tables has been modified in the majority and these modifications could not be made in the local copy of data because of the missing network communication, so that the data is no longer up to date. A warning informs the user about such a situation (cf. SQLWARNA in the Precompiler manual).