What is Circuit Breaker in Microservices?
In the context of microservices architecture, a circuit breaker is a design pattern used to enhance the resilience and stability of applications. The circuit breaker acts as a protective mechanism that detects failures and prevents an application from repeatedly trying to execute an operation that is likely to fail.
The circuit breaker pattern has three primary states:
- Closed: The circuit is functioning normally, and all requests are allowed to pass through. During this state, the system monitors the responses to determine if any failures occur.
- Open: If the failure rate exceeds a predefined threshold, the circuit enters the open state. In this state, requests are automatically rejected, preventing further strain on the service. This giving the system time to recover.
- Half-Open: After a timeout period, the circuit breaker transitions to a half-open state, allowing a limited number of test requests to pass through. If these succeed, the circuit moves back to the closed state; if they fail, it returns to the open state.
Utilizing a circuit breaker pattern is essential for preventing cascading failures in microservices. When one service fails, it can affect others leading to a complete system outage. By implementing a circuit breaker, developers can manage service failures gracefully and improve system resilience.
Overall, the circuit breaker pattern is a crucial approach in modern software development that enables robust fault tolerance and enhances the user experience.