Service Discovery Patterns — Client-side vs Server-side

Registration

Service starts → registers with Consul/Eureka. Sends heartbeats. Deregisters on shutdown. Auto-deregister if no heartbeat.

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Service starts → registers with Consul/Eureka. Sends heartbeats. Deregisters on shutdown. Auto-deregister if no heartbeat.

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Client queries registry. Gets list of instances. Load balances itself. Fewer hops. Client must handle updates.