diff --git a/website/source/docs/internals/gossip.html.markdown b/website/source/docs/internals/gossip.html.markdown index 5a432f61cc..d916f08855 100644 --- a/website/source/docs/internals/gossip.html.markdown +++ b/website/source/docs/internals/gossip.html.markdown @@ -45,14 +45,14 @@ however as a developer to understand how this library is leveraged. ## Lifeguard Enhancements -Consul's Gossip Protocol, shared with HashiCorp's Serf, forms the basis of its powerful -distributed failure detector. Unfortunately, the algorithm on which it is based makes an -assumption that the local node is healthy in the sense that soft real-time processing of -packets is possible. In Consul versions prior to 0.7, this can sometimes manifest in a -severely degraded node falsely accusing others of being failed, causing occasional flaps -in the `serfHealth` check status for one or more healthy nodes. Consul 0.7 adds two Serf -Lifeguard enhancements to this algorithm to help performance in the presence of degraded -nodes. +SWIM makes the assumption that the local node is healthy in the sense +that soft real-time processing of packets is possible. However, in cases +where the local node is experiencing CPU or network exhaustion this assumption +can be violated. The result is that the `serfHealth` check status can +occassionally flap, resulting in false monitoring alarms, adding noise to +telemetry, and simply causing the overall cluster to waste CPU and network +resources diagnosing a failure that may not truly exist. -Please see [Serf's gossip protocol guide](https://www.serf.io/docs/internals/gossip.html#lifeguard) -for more details. +Lifeguard completely resolves this issue with novel enhancements to SWIM. +Please see the [Serf's gossip protocol guide](https://www.serf.io/docs/internals/gossip.html#lifeguard) +section on Lifeguard for more details.