Thundering herd problem

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The thundering herd problem is an issue that occurs when a number of processes waiting for an event scramble en masse when the event occurs. This may render the computer unusable. Though the phrase is mostly used in computer science, it could be an abstraction of the observation seen when cattle are released from the shed or when Wildebeest are crossing the Mara River. In both instances, the movement is suboptimal and leads to some animals being killed.

[edit] External links

• A discussion of this observation on Linux
• A short description of the problem