A processor-based method of creating a secondary index for a B-tree in a database includes creating an empty secondary index; traversing the B-tree to find the left most data page to begin processing; capturing the current system time; placing a read-lock on the data page; retrieving a first primary key value for the data page; writing the first primary key value to a control information for the B-tree; creating a secondary index entry and writing it into the secondary index; and releasing the read-lock.