1. A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable storage device including computer usable code for recovery in a database, the computer usable code comprising: computer usable code for detecting a failure in a first computing node, the first computing node serving the database in a cluster of computing nodes; computer usable code for creating, using a processor and a memory, a snapshot of data of the database; computer usable code for applying, using the processor and the memory, a subset of log entries to the snapshot, the applying modifying the snapshot to result in a modified snapshot; computer usable code for preserving an access of the first computing node to the data of the database; and computer usable code for aborting, responsive to receiving a signal of activity from the first computing node during the applying and after a grace period has elapsed, the applying such that the first computing node can continue serving the database in the cluster.