replica set
compound.compound. a group of identical copies of a computer program or database running at the same time. If one copy fails, the others keep working so the service stays online.
compound. a group of identical instances of a software component or database maintained across multiple nodes to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. Typically managed by a controller that automatically replaces any instance that fails or becomes unresponsive.
The system uses a replica set to prevent data loss.
To ensure the website stayed online during the update, the engineers configured a replica set of three database nodes.
By maintaining a distributed replica set, the architecture achieves high availability, as the orchestrator can instantly spin up new containers to replace those that fail health checks.
A compound of the noun replica, derived from the Italian replica meaning a repetition or reply, and the noun set, from the Old English settan. The term emerged as a standard designation within distributed systems and container orchestration to describe a group of redundant instances.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly used in the context of cloud computing, container orchestration, and distributed databases.
Last updated July 22, 2026