What is ZooKeeper?

ZooKeeper is an open-source distributed coordination service designed to provide efficient and reliable coordination for distributed applications. Its main functions include:

1. Coordination services: ZooKeeper can act as a “coordinator” in distributed systems, assisting in information sharing and synchronization between different nodes to ensure data consistency.
2. Naming service: ZooKeeper can provide a naming service that allows clients to locate specific resources or services in a distributed environment.
3. Configuration management: ZooKeeper can be used to store and manage configuration information for distributed systems, enabling dynamic configuration updates.
4. Distributed lock: ZooKeeper offers a mechanism for distributed locking, helping multiple processes or nodes coordinate access to shared resources and preventing race conditions.
5. Leader Election: ZooKeeper supports leader election algorithms to ensure that only one node acts as the “leader” in a distributed system, thereby ensuring high availability of the system.

In general, ZooKeeper offers a dependable distributed coordination mechanism, making the development and management of distributed systems simpler and more reliable.