Kubernetes/Docker deployments
Rolling updates and deployments
Server restarts
Load balancer drain periods
Zero-downtime deployments
Process managers (PM2, systemd)
Long-running background jobs
Database connection cleanup

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

import express from "express";
import http from "http";

class GracefulShutdownServer {
  private app: express.Application;
  private server: http.Server;
  private isShuttingDown = false;
  private activeConnections = new Set<any>();
  private shutdownTimeout = 30000; // 30 seconds

  constructor() {
    this.app = express();
    this.server = http.createServer(this.app);
    this.setupMiddleware();
    this.setupRoutes();
    this.setupShutdownHandlers();
  }

  private setupMiddleware(): void {
    // Track active connections
    this.app.use((req, res, next) => {
      if (this.isShuttingDown) {
        res.set("Connection", "close");
        return res.status(503).json({
          error: "Server is shutting down",
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide	Contents
Express.js Graceful Shutdown	Express.js Graceful Shutdown
Kubernetes-Aware Shutdown	Kubernetes-Aware Shutdown
Worker Process Shutdown	Worker Process Shutdown
Database Connection Pool Shutdown	Database Connection Pool Shutdown
PM2 Graceful Shutdown	PM2 Graceful Shutdown
Python/Flask Graceful Shutdown	Python/Flask Graceful Shutdown

Best Practices

✅ DO

Handle SIGTERM and SIGINT signals
Stop accepting new requests immediately
Wait for in-flight requests to complete
Set reasonable shutdown timeouts
Close database connections properly
Flush logs and metrics
Fail health checks during shutdown
Test shutdown procedures
Log shutdown progress
Use graceful shutdown in containers

❌ DON'T

Ignore shutdown signals
Force kill processes without cleanup
Set unreasonably long timeouts
Skip resource cleanup
Forget to close connections
Block shutdown indefinitely

graceful-shutdown

Graceful Shutdown

Table of Contents

Overview

When to Use