Clustering

Owned by Eric Dalquist
Last updated: Feb 10, 2014 by James Wennmacher (Deactivated)Version comment
4 min read

Since: uPortal 4.0.6

As of 4.0.6 uPortal ships with a clustering enabled EHCache configuration using jGroups. Ehcache is configured to do replication via invalidation, meaning if object A is modified on server 1 all other servers are notified to remove object A from their caches resulting in a re-read from the database on next access.  However Ehcache can also replicate certain items between servers as needed, for example to support obtaining the user's password using CAS Clearpass in a clustered uPortal environment.

Configuration

uPortal 4.0.8+:  Database-backed TCP discovery and TCP replication

uportal-war/src/main/resources/properties/jgroups.xml specifies the jGroups configuration to use.

This file is based on the default jGroups tcp.xml file included with the jGroups library. This configuration uses TCP based unicast protocol. uPortal synchronizes node discovery using tables in the uPortal database.  If the default TCP configuration is used the important configuration options are available from portal.properties. The configuration allows setting the TCP ports to use.  Typically these values can remain at defaults.

portal.properties
################################################################################
##                                                                            ##
##                      jGroups TCP Cluster Configuration                     ##
##                                                                            ##
################################################################################
##
## The default jGroups configuration shipped with uPortal uses TCP Unicast. If
## a different jGroups configuration is needed change the contents of 
## uportal-war/src/main/resources/properties/jgroups.xml
##
## The jGroups manaul can be found here:
##  http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/index.html
##
## Alternative configurations can be found here:
##  https://github.com/belaban/JGroups/tree/1df66514dcfd7dd3ea494709184a6430f71e3820/conf
##
##
## The port to use for the FD_SOCK protocol
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#FD_SOCK
##
## Note that the default configuration is to use a 50 port range starting at
## the start_port. So if the specified start_port is already in use the port
## number is incremented and the next port is tried.
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.fd_sock.start_port=
##
## The port for the TCP transport to listen on
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#Transport
##
## Note that the default configuration is to use a 50 port range starting at
## the bind_port. So if the specified bind_port is already in use the port
## number is incremented and the next port is tried.
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.tcp.bind_port=
##
## The length of the random token used for the AUTH protocol of the default jGroups
## configuration. Should be a value between 100 and 1000 
##
#org.jasig.portal.jgroups.auth.token_length=1000

uPortal 4.0.6 - 4.0.7: UDP multicast configuration is default

uportal-war/src/main/resources/properties/jgroups.xml specifies the jGroups configuration to use.

This file is based on the default jGroups udp.xml file included with the jGroups library. This configuration uses a UDP based multicast group protocol. If UDP Multicast is not a viable option for your deployment there are alternate example configurations available here: https://github.com/belaban/JGroups/tree/1df66514dcfd7dd3ea494709184a6430f71e3820/conf

The jGroups manual is also a good source for additional configuration, testing, and debugging information and tools.

If the default udp configuration is used the important configuration options are available from portal.properties. This allows setting the UDP multicast group address and ports to use.

portal.properties
################################################################################
##                                                                            ##
##                      jGroups UDP Cluster Configuration                     ##
##                                                                            ##
################################################################################
##
## The default jGroups configuration shipped with uPortal uses UDP Multicast. If
## a different jGroups configuration is needed change the contents of 
## uportal-war/src/main/resources/properties/jgroups.xml
##
## The jGroups manaul can be found here:
##  http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/index.html
##
## Alternative configurations can be found here:
##  https://github.com/belaban/JGroups/tree/1df66514dcfd7dd3ea494709184a6430f71e3820/conf
##
##
## The port to use for the FD_SOCK protocol
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#FD_SOCK
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.fd_sock.start_port=
##
## The port for the UDP transport to listen on
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#Transport
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.udp.bind_port=
##
## The TTL of the multicast packets
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#UDP
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.udp.ip_ttl=
##
## The multicast group IP address
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#UDP
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.udp.mcast_addr=
##
## The multicast port
## http://www.jgroups.org/manual-3.x/html/protlist.html#UDP
##
#uPortal.cacheManager.jgroups.udp.mcast_port= 

Other cluster-related configuration

CAS ClearPass

If you will be using CAS ClearPass to allow portlets in your environment to obtain and use the user's password for Single Sign-on Integration, see the cluster section in Caching and Re-playing Credentials.

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