Controlling and recovering long-lived transactions

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to performing sub-transactions of a long-lived transaction (LLT) in a sequence (e.g., according to an LLT flow) and writing a log entry at the performance of each of the sub-transactions that specifies results of the sub-transaction. Some embodiments do not require generating any compensating transactions during performance of the sub-transactions. Some embodiments are further directed to detecting that an interruption occurs to the LLT and repeating, or initiating re-performance of the LLT from the beginning of the sequence following the flow of the LLT from its beginning. During the re-performance of the LLT, some embodiments are further directed to checking the log entry at each sub-transaction to determine whether the sub-transaction was performed successfully before the interruption. If the log indicates that the long-lived transaction completed successfully, some embodiments are further directed to skipping performance of the sub-transaction until reaching a sub-transaction that does not have a valid log entry, then returning an error and recovering the LLT using instructions for compensating transactions that are already written into the LLT flow.