Why Three Replicas Are Better Than Two
When deploying microservices on Kubernetes, how many replicas should I run? Intuition suggests that two replicas is enough to give you high availability; if one pod dies, the other keeps the service online. Industry standard, however, suggests running three replicas. Why is this the case? In this post, I will explain reasons to choose three replicas over two, and some best practices based on the realities specific to Kubernetes. The Math Behind Preferring Three Replicas The suggestion to run three replicas is often followed by hand-wavy “because it is more resilient”. Rather than rely on intuition, let’s try putting some numbers behind the reasoning. ...