Cascading failures are a concern for site reliability engineers (SREs) because they often stem from positive feedback and grow over time. In this course, you'll examine the various cascading failure triggers, such as overloads, CPU, and memory issues. You'll also explore the resource exhaustion issues resulting from cascading failures and the adverse effects on overall performance and stability.
You'll outline steps to prevent server overloads, ensure efficient queue management, deal with latency, and manage slow startups. You'll explore terms such as ""load shedding"" and ""code retries."" You'll also identify the benefits of setting deadlines and how propagating cancellations can reduce or eliminate unneeded work and preserve resources for other needs. Finally, you'll outline the steps involved in testing cascading failures and in addressing them immediately.