A mechanism for performing a two-phase commit is provided. The mechanisms perform a two-phase commit in a manner that reduces the number of messages transmitted between a coordinating database system and the participating database systems, and the number of log flushes performed to complete a two-phase commit. To determine whether a particular participating database system is prepared to commit, the coordinating database system first examines external log tracking data that resides on the coordinating database system. External log tracking data, which indicates various states of logs on other database systems, is used to determine whether or not a particular participating database system is prepared to commit.