A keepalive message prevents network infrastructure like firewalls and load balancers from dropping an idle connection. If a device stops receiving these periodic signals from its peer, it assumes the link has failed and tears down the session. This mechanism is essential for maintaining long-running TCP connections and monitoring the health of routing protocols.
The firewall keeps dropping the database connection after five minutes, so we need to enable TCP keepalives on the server.
Also heard as
- keep-alive
- heartbeat
Related terms
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the foundational suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices.
Router
A network device that forwards data packets between computer networks.
Latency
The time it takes for a packet of data to travel from its source to its destination.