1. A method for operating a plurality of nodes within a network, the method comprising: monitoring, using a monitoring node, a subgroup of the plurality of nodes, the subgroup including the monitoring node and a non-monitoring node, the non-monitoring node configured to not manage a distributed database distributed among all monitoring nodes of the plurality of nodes, other non-monitoring nodes of the plurality of nodes, and the monitoring nodes of the plurality of nodes and configured to not store replicated data from other ones of the plurality of nodes.