02 Cache Configuration

The default uPortal 3 Cache Configuration files are:

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

Configuring Distributed Caches in ehcache.xml

Configuration

1. 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}"/>
   

2. Configure a cacheManagerPeerListenerFactory in ehcache.xml

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

3. 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.

We chose to enable the distribution of the following 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

We did NOT enable distribution of the Hibernate Caches or Portal Stats Hibernate Caches.

Monitoring ehcache using JMX and JConsole

...need to document...

Relevent Documentation and Links

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

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