Chapter 9. Distribution and fault tolerance
This chapter covers
- Implementing a distributed, fault-tolerant application
- Cookies and security
- Connecting to nodes in a local area network (LAN)
In the previous chapter, we looked at the basics of distribution in Elixir. In particular, you now know how to set up a cluster. We also looked at Tasks, which are an abstraction over GenServers that makes it easy to write short-lived computations.
The next concept we’ll explore is fault tolerance with respect to distribution. For this, you’ll build an application that will demonstrate how a cluster handles failures by having another node automatically stepping up to take the place of a downed node. To take things further, it will also demonstrate how a node yields control when a previously downed node of higher priority rejoins the cluster. In other words, you’ll build an application that demonstrates the failover and takeover capabilities of distributed Elixir.