Bulkhead Pattern

Timeouts limit how long a call can wait, but they do not stop many slow calls from exhausting shared resources like threads or connections.

The bulkhead pattern contains this damage by isolating resources per dependency, endpoint, or service area. If one dependency fails, it can only exhaust its own compartment instead of taking down the whole service.

This chapter covers thread pools, semaphores, connection pools, isolated instances, and how to size bulkheads without wasting capacity.