A method and system for recovering after a crash of an instance in a database is disclosed. According to the method, a plurality of dead transactions associated with the crashed instance are identified. Statistical data is compiled from the identified plurality of dead transactions. Based on the statistical data, it is determined that a particular number of recovery servers should be used to recover the plurality of dead transactions. The plurality of dead transactions are then recovered using the particular number of recovery servers. The particular number of recovery servers can execute in parallel to recover the plurality of dead transactions.