{
  "slug": "retry-amplification",
  "term": "Retry amplification",
  "aliases": [
    "request retry amplification"
  ],
  "definition": "Retry amplification is the additional request-processing load created by repeated attempts to complete logical operations.",
  "note": "Delayed replies can induce more attempts and further delay, creating a sustaining feedback loop. This is distinct from NAND write amplification. [bronson-metastable]\n\nRepeated storage-server membership queries can saturate the metadata service that supplies them. This is a service recovery mechanism, not evidence that every retry causes an outage. [aws-membership]\n\nA chain of retrying callers can multiply total attempts. Count the initial attempt separately from retries and name the layer where attempts are measured. A per-operation limit differs from an aggregate retry budget. [sre-cascading]",
  "related": [
    "metastable-failure",
    "retry-deduplication",
    "io-timeout",
    "retry-budget"
  ],
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "bronson-metastable",
      "title": "Bronson et al. Metastable Failures in Distributed Systems. HotOS 2021; DOI 10.1145/3458336.3465286, sections 1-3.",
      "url": "https://sigops.org/s/conferences/hotos/2021/papers/hotos21-s11-bronson.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-20"
    },
    {
      "id": "aws-membership",
      "title": "AWS. DynamoDB service disruption and related impacts in US-East: 20 September 2015 incident.",
      "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/message/5467D2/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-20"
    },
    {
      "id": "sre-cascading",
      "title": "Mike Ulrich. Google SRE, chapter 22: Addressing Cascading Failures, retry guidance.",
      "url": "https://sre.google/sre-book/addressing-cascading-failures/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-20"
    }
  ],
  "status": "unknown",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-20",
  "provenance": [
    "The incident evidence is AWS's account of the 20 September 2015 DynamoDB disruption. [aws-membership]"
  ]
}