An idle database with a starved application is the tell. The connections are held, not used. More database capacity does not release leaked connections.
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Checkout is failing with 'connection pool exhausted', but the database CPU sits at 10 percent. Where is the problem?
An idle database with a starved application is the tell. The connections are held, not used. More database capacity does not release leaked connections.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in researched DevOps, SRE and platform engineering interview loops, written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, and never padded to hit a word count.
UP NEXT ON YOUR JOURNEY
Next in this trackA busy node drops new connections intermittently; dmesg shows 'nf_conntrack: table full'. Walk me through what is happening.Next in this trackOne dependency slowed down and three services fell over completely. Walk me through the mechanics, then how you stop the next one.Next in this trackYour last three incidents had nearly identical action items. What is broken about your post-mortem process?
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