What is a Circuit Breaker?
We often hear that electronic devices may cease to function due to a circuit break. Essentially, a circuit breaker is an electronic switch designed to safeguard an electronic circuit from damage caused by overcurrent, overload, or short circuit. Its primary function is to interrupt the flow of current after detecting a fault through protective measures.
What is a Circuit Breaker in Microservices Architecture?
As we discussed, the concept of a circuit breaker in terms of electronic devices. Similarly, we need to implement a circuit breaker in microservices architecture. The question arises: why do we need a circuit breaker in microservices architecture and how can we implement it? Let’s illustrate with an example.
In the above diagram, we can observe several microservices and their dependencies on each other. Service A depends on service B, and service B depends on services F and E. Service F relies on a third-party application over which we have no control.
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