A partial index availability system places, in a restricted state, all pages in the index associated with a structure modification, when an error occurs in processing a log of the said structure modification. This maintains traversability of the rest of the index that is not in restricted state. The system locates and marks a left sentinel and a right sentinel associated with a non-leaf page that is in a restricted state preventing an undo of a transaction. The sentinels prevent a transaction from accessing an uncommitted change associated with the non-leaf page. After a recovery procedure is run the entire index is made available. During the period between the placement of the index pages in LPL or rebuild pending to the time of final removal of these pages from their restrictive states as a result of a recovery procedure being run, the users are given access to the non-restricted portion of the index.