1. A method for recovering a node of a distributed transactional system that comprises a plurality of nodes that includes a first node and a second node, comprising: in response to the second node being brought on-line, performing: creating a copy of at least a portion of a first data store maintained by the first node without ceasing to process transactions against the first data store at the first node; after the second node receives the copy of the first data store, the second node creating a second data store based on the copy of the first data store; while the second node creates the second data store, the second node storing committed transaction data received from each of the plurality of nodes other than the second node, wherein the committed transaction data describes transactions committed against data stores maintained by the sender of the committed transaction data; and after creating the second data store at the second node, the second node (a) identifying a reference commit number, where the reference commit number is a most recent global commit number for transactions in the second data store, (b) disregarding any transactions identified by the committed transaction data that are associated with a global transaction number that is not more recent than the reference commit number, and (c) replaying, against the second data store, any transactions identified by the committed transaction data that are associated with a global transaction number that is more recent than the reference commit number.