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An architecture note on using a single supervised GenServer for serialized state in Elixir: requirements, a minimal implementation, trust boundaries, production checks, and the conditions that should push you to ETS, sharding, or distribution.
GenServer serializes access to state without locks. This post builds a working key-value store, puts it under supervision, and explains when a single process becomes the bottleneck.
GenServer and supervision trees give fault‑isolated, stateful processes with automatic restart and state recovery—no external orchestrator needed. A worked example shows per‑device telemetry ingest with DynamicSupervisor.
A diagnostic guide to Elixir memory bloat: distinguish process growth from legitimately large data, find the hog processes, and apply targeted fixes for state, binaries, ETS, and recursion.
Understand how to implement stateful processes using GenServer, balancing synchronous calls and asynchronous casts to build resilient OTP applications.
Stop blocking your Elixir processes. Learn when to use GenServer.call versus GenServer.cast to balance system responsiveness with state consistency.
Learn when to use GenServer.call vs GenServer.cast in Elixir. We explore the trade-offs between synchronous consistency and asynchronous throughput with a practical rate-limiter example.
Deciding between GenServer and spawned processes in Erlang involves balancing overhead against operational stability. This guide compares both for state management.
GenServer turns a module into a concurrent service that encapsulates state, handles messages, and integrates with OTP supervision. This blog walks through a counter example, discusses trade‑offs, and offers actionable steps for Elixir developers.