Distributed systems people are suspicious of timers. Whenever we discuss an algorithm that requires two servers to measure the same duration, the first question is always, “Can we rely on timers?” I think the answer is “yes”, as long as you add a safety margin a little over 1/500th. Table Of Contents Example: Leader Leases Rely on Timers Leader-based consensus protocols like Raft try to elect one leader at a time, but it’s possible to have multiple leaders for a short period. (In th...
