A distributed database system providing data and space management methodology. In a distributed system consisting a plurality of servers sharing access to data pages, a method for setting a timestamp indicating when modifications to data pages are made in a non-regressing fashion includes steps of: maintaining a local sequence at each server and an allocation page timestamp on an allocation page; upon allocation of a data page, applying a timestamp to the data page which is greater than the allocation page timestamp; upon modification of a given data page at a particular server, setting the timestamp on the given data page to the greater of the local sequence at the particular server and an existing timestamp already on the given data page; and when data pages are deallocated, adjusting the allocation page timestamp to a value greater than the timestamp value on any deallocated data page.