A distributed database system with a plurality of nodes is provided, each node storing a replica of at least one partition of data. A method of handling the distributed database system comprises: partitioning data into a number of partitions; replicating each partition into a number of replicas; for each partition, distributing the number of replicas amongst database nodes; activating more than one node; monitoring at each active node events of: latest updating of each replica, replica status, status of local resources in charge of each replica, and connectivity status of each replica; upon activation or deactivation of a node, determining which node is considered current master node for each partition in charge of current master replica; for any request received in a node to read/write data, determining the current master node in charge of the current master replica, and routing said request to said current master node.