What is the role of a zookeeper?

Zookeeper is an open-source distributed coordination service that offers a set of simple APIs for managing and coordinating various resources in a distributed system. Its functions include:

1. Distributed coordination: Zookeeper can provide coordination and synchronization between distributed applications. It can maintain a global state of the distributed application in order to coordinate operations between different components.
2. Configuration management: Zookeeper can be used to centrally manage configuration parameters of distributed systems. Applications can use Zookeeper to dynamically retrieve and update configurations.
3. Service Discovery: Zookeeper can be used to provide naming services for registering and locating services in a distributed system. Applications can register their own services with Zookeeper and discover other services through Zookeeper.
4. Distributed locking: Zookeeper provides an implementation of distributed locks that can be used to achieve mutual exclusion in accessing shared resources in a distributed system.
5. Distributed Queue: Zookeeper can be used to implement a distributed queue, enabling message publishing and subscribing in a distributed system.

In conclusion, the role of Zookeeper is to provide powerful coordination and management functions for distributed systems, allowing distributed applications to run more reliably and efficiently.