The Two-Phase Commit Protocol
Understand two-phase commit (2PC) for distributed transactions, its guarantees, its blocking weaknesses, and why microservices favor sagas instead.
The Need for Atomic Distributed Writes
When one business action spans two databases, you want all-or-nothing: both commit or both roll back. A single local transaction cannot span separate systems, so we need a coordination protocol.
Enter Two-Phase Commit
Two-phase commit (2PC) is a classic protocol where a coordinator drives multiple participants to a unanimous decision: commit or abort.
All lessons in this course
- ACID vs. BASE Principles
- Understanding Eventual Consistency
- Transaction Management in Microservices
- The Two-Phase Commit Protocol