Why is mutex not suitable for distributed lock?

Mutex (mutual exclusion) is a synchronization mechanism designed to control access to resources within a single process or, at most, a single node. It operates in memory and is not suitable for distributed systems where processes may be on different machines.

Why mutex is not suitable for distributed lock:

• Lack of shared memory: mutex stores the lock state in local memory, which is not accessible to other nodes.
• No failure detection mechanism: if the process holding the mutex crashes, other nodes cannot detect this and cannot unlock the resource.
• Lack of network synchronization: mutex cannot coordinate locks over a network.

For distributed locking, specialized solutions are used, such as those based on Redis, ZooKeeper, or Consul, which provide atomicity, fault tolerance, and consistency among nodes.