Understanding Distributed Consensus in etcd and Kubernetes

The Raft consensus algorithm is at the core of etcd, allowing you to run highly available services across your Kubernetes cluster. But how exactly does quorum work, what happens when a node goes down, …

The Raft consensus algorithm is at the core of etcd, allowing you to run highly available services across your Kubernetes cluster. But how exactly does quorum work, what happens when a node goes down, and how do all of the machines agree on the actual state of your services? Where is the Raft log stored, and how can you inspect it? Come away with deeper understanding of two of Raft’s main responsibilities, log replication and leader election, and be better equipped to make informed choices about your service declarations and cluster configurations.