There are cases where the backend may need to close the connection to prevent unexpected situations, prevent bad actors or simply just free up resources. Closing a connection gracefully allows clients and backends to clean up and finish any pending requests.

In this episode of the backend engineering show I discuss graceful connections in both HTTP/1.1 via the connection header and HTTP/2 via the GOAWAY frame.

0:00 Intro
4:58 Why shutdown connection?
6:46 HTTP/1.1 Graceful shutdown
12:26 Cost of HTTP/2
17:40 HTTP/2 GoAWAY frame
23:40 Summary

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVKPrDrEwTI&t=1s

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/net/%2B/master/socket/client_socket_pool_manager.cc#76

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40555364

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40501721

Graceful shutdown in HTTP

The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser

Graceful shutdown in HTTP