Graceful Shutdown in Go: Properly Stopping Services Under Load

In production environments, especially in Kubernetes, services are constantly being stopped and started: deploying new versions, scaling, node switching. Improper shutdown leads to lost requests, unsent data, and desynchronized state.

Graceful shutdown is not just handling SIGTERM. It’s a comprehensive termination strategy that guarantees:

• Completion of active request processing
• Proper closure of database and cache connections
• Saving intermediate results
• Sending all metrics and logs

Let’s explore how to implement this correctly.