02 Cache Configuration

Work in Progress!

This page is a Work in Progress! I'll continue to add details over the next few days...

The default uPortal 3 Cache Configuration files are:

Spring Configuration: cacheContext.xml
ehcache Configuration: ehcache.xml

Configuring Distributed Caching

Configuration

Configure a cacheManagerPeerProviderFactory in ehcache.xml

<!--
 | The rmiUrls is a list of the cache peers of the server being configured.
 | Do not include the server being configured in the list.
 +-->
<cacheManagerPeerProviderFactory
		class="net.sf.ehcache.distribution.RMICacheManagerPeerProviderFactory"
		properties="peerDiscovery=manual,
		rmiUrls=${CACHE_PROVIDER_RMIURLS}"/>

Where

${CACHE_PROVIDER_RMIURLS}=<a pipe-delimited list of the cache peers of the server being configured>

(Do not include the server being configured in the list...)

See the NOTE below for further information regarding the value of this property.

Configure a cacheManagerPeerListenerFactory in ehcache.xml

<cacheManagerPeerListenerFactory
		class="net.sf.ehcache.distribution.RMICacheManagerPeerListenerFactory"
		properties="//hostname=${CACHE_LISTENER_HOSTNAME},port=${CACHE_LISTENER_PORT},
		socketTimeoutMillis=120000"/>

Where

${CACHE_LISTENER_HOSTNAME}=<app server you are configuring>
${CACHE_LISTENER_PORT}=40001

Configure each specific cache that you would like distribute via cacheEventListenerFactory in ehcache.xml
```
<cache name="org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE"
    eternal="false" maxElementsInMemory="150" overflowToDisk="false" diskPersistent="false" 
    timeToIdleSeconds="0" timeToLiveSeconds="0" memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU">
    <cacheEventListenerFactory
            class="net.sf.ehcache.distribution.RMICacheReplicatorFactory"
            properties="replicateAsynchronously=true, replicatePuts=false,
            replicateUpdates=false, replicateUpdatesViaCopy=false,
            replicateRemovals=true "/>
</cache>
```
Important!

It is important to note that we have configured each cache to use a "invalidation only" strategy by configuring only replicateRemovals=true (i.e. - no puts or updates). As I understand it, not everything that is currently being cached in uPortal 3 is guaranteed to implement java.io.Serializable and therefore may not be replicated across instances. Furthermore, using an invalidation strategy should reduce network traffic.
Configured Caches
Note that we chose to enable the distribution of the uPortal Framework and IBasicEntity Caches, but NOT the Hibernate Caches or Portal Stats Hibernate Caches:

uPortal Framework Caches
- org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE
- org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE
- org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO
- org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE
- org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE
- org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE
- org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE
uPortal IBasicEntity Caches
- org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition
- org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup
- org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity
- org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet
rmiUrls Property Value

It is (unfortunately) necessary to populate the rmiUrls property value differently for each cache peer included in the distribution matrix. Furthermore, each configured cache must be included on this list for each peer, so as you can imagine this value can become exceedingly long and difficult to read and manage. So, for example, I have listed the specific configuration values for what a 3 server configuration might look like below. (To "simplify" the management of these values, it might be advantageous to incorporate these property values into your specific deployment process via tokenization...)

For app1:
rmiUrls=//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet

For app2:
rmiUrls=//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app3.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet

For app3:
rmiUrls=//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app1.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.provider.AuthorizationImpl.AUTH_PRINCIPAL_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.CompositeEntityIdentifier.NAME_PARSE_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.services.persondir.USER_INFO|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.channels.CONTENT_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.LAYOUT_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.ChannelDefinition|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntityGroup|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.groups.IEntity|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.utils.ResourceLoader.RESOURCE_URL_NOT_FOUND_CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/edu.jhu.services.persondir.support.http.CACHE|//app2.foo.edu:40001/org.jasig.portal.security.IPermissionSet

Monitoring ehcache using JMX and JConsole

ehcache Management and Statistics are enabled in the jmxContext.xml Spring configuration file:

<!-- Ref to the mbean server -->
<bean id="mbeanServer" class="org.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerFactoryBean">
    <property name="locateExistingServerIfPossible" value="true" />
</bean>
	.
	.
	.
<!-- EhCache management and statistics -->
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
    <property name="targetClass" value="net.sf.ehcache.management.ManagementService" />
    <property name="targetMethod" value="registerMBeans" />
    <property name="arguments">
        <list>
            <ref bean="cacheManager" />
            <ref bean="mbeanServer" />
            <value>true</value>
            <value>true</value>
            <value>true</value>
            <value>true</value>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

Relevent Documentation and Links

Distributed Caching with ehcache
http://ehcache.sourceforge.net/documentation/distributed_caching.html

Distributed Caching Using the JCACHE API and ehcache, Including a Case Study on Wotif.com (A nice caching overview article)
http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/2007/pdf/TS-6175.pdf

Remote Network debugging and monitoring for Distributed Caches
http://ehcache.sourceforge.net/documentation/remotedebugger.html

JMX Management and Monitoring
http://ehcache.sourceforge.net/documentation/jmx.html

The Apache Tomcat 5.5 Servlet/JSP Container - Monitoring and Managing Tomcat
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/monitoring.html

Monitoring and Management Using JMX
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/management/agent.html

Using JConsole to Monitor Applications
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/jconsole.html