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| <!DOCTYPE document [ |
| <!ENTITY project SYSTEM "project.xml"> |
| ]> |
| <document url="cluster-howto.html"> |
| |
| &project; |
| |
| <properties> |
| <author email="fhanik@apache.org">Filip Hanik</author> |
| <author email="pero@apache.org">Peter Rossbach</author> |
| <title>Clustering/Session Replication HOW-TO</title> |
| </properties> |
| |
| <body> |
| |
| <section name="Important Note"> |
| <p><b>You can also check the <a href="config/cluster.html">configuration reference documentation.</a></b> |
| </p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Table of Contents"> |
| <toc/> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="For the impatient"> |
| <p> |
| Simply add |
| </p> |
| <source><Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster"/></source> |
| <p> |
| to your <code><Engine></code> or your <code><Host></code> element to enable clustering. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Using the above configuration will enable all-to-all session replication |
| using the <code>DeltaManager</code> to replicate session deltas. By all-to-all we mean that the session gets replicated to all the other |
| nodes in the cluster. This works great for smaller cluster but we don't recommend it for larger clusters(a lot of Tomcat nodes). |
| Also when using the delta manager it will replicate to all nodes, even nodes that don't have the application deployed.<br/> |
| To get around this problem, you'll want to use the BackupManager. This manager only replicates the session data to one backup |
| node, and only to nodes that have the application deployed. Downside of the BackupManager: not quite as battle tested as the delta manager. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Here are some of the important default values: |
| </p> |
| <ol> |
| <li>Multicast address is 228.0.0.4</li> |
| <li>Multicast port is 45564 (the port and the address together determine cluster membership.</li> |
| <li>The IP broadcasted is <code>java.net.InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress()</code> (make sure you don't broadcast 127.0.0.1, this is a common error)</li> |
| <li>The TCP port listening for replication messages is the first available server socket in range <code>4000-4100</code></li> |
| <li>Listener is configured <code>ClusterSessionListener</code></li> |
| <li>Two interceptors are configured <code>TcpFailureDetector</code> and <code>MessageDispatch15Interceptor</code></li> |
| </ol> |
| <p> |
| The following is the default cluster configuration: |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster" |
| channelSendOptions="8"> |
| |
| <Manager className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.DeltaManager" |
| expireSessionsOnShutdown="false" |
| notifyListenersOnReplication="true"/> |
| |
| <Channel className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.GroupChannel"> |
| <Membership className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.membership.McastService" |
| address="228.0.0.4" |
| port="45564" |
| frequency="500" |
| dropTime="3000"/> |
| <Receiver className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.NioReceiver" |
| address="auto" |
| port="4000" |
| autoBind="100" |
| selectorTimeout="5000" |
| maxThreads="6"/> |
| |
| <Sender className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.ReplicationTransmitter"> |
| <Transport className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.PooledParallelSender"/> |
| </Sender> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.TcpFailureDetector"/> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.MessageDispatch15Interceptor"/> |
| </Channel> |
| |
| <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.ReplicationValve" |
| filter=""/> |
| <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.JvmRouteBinderValve"/> |
| |
| <Deployer className="org.apache.catalina.ha.deploy.FarmWarDeployer" |
| tempDir="/tmp/war-temp/" |
| deployDir="/tmp/war-deploy/" |
| watchDir="/tmp/war-listen/" |
| watchEnabled="false"/> |
| |
| <ClusterListener className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.ClusterSessionListener"/> |
| </Cluster>]]></source> |
| <p>Will cover this section in more detail later in this document.</p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Security"> |
| |
| <p>The cluster implementation is written on the basis that a secure, trusted |
| network is used for all of the cluster related network traffic. It is not safe |
| to run a cluster on a insecure, untrusted network.</p> |
| |
| <p>There are many options for providing a secure, trusted network for use by a |
| Tomcat cluster. These include:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>private LAN</li> |
| <li>a Virtual Private Network (VPN)</li> |
| <li>IPSEC</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Cluster Basics"> |
| |
| <p>To run session replication in your Tomcat <version-major/> container, the following steps |
| should be completed:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>All your session attributes must implement <code>java.io.Serializable</code></li> |
| <li>Uncomment the <code>Cluster</code> element in server.xml</li> |
| <li>If you have defined custom cluster valves, make sure you have the <code>ReplicationValve</code> defined as well under the Cluster element in server.xml</li> |
| <li>If your Tomcat instances are running on the same machine, make sure the <code>Receiver.port</code> |
| attribute is unique for each instance, in most cases Tomcat is smart enough to resolve this on it's own by autodetecting available ports in the range 4000-4100</li> |
| <li>Make sure your <code>web.xml</code> has the |
| <code><distributable/></code> element</li> |
| <li>If you are using mod_jk, make sure that jvmRoute attribute is set at your Engine <code><Engine name="Catalina" jvmRoute="node01" ></code> |
| and that the jvmRoute attribute value matches your worker name in workers.properties</li> |
| <li>Make sure that all nodes have the same time and sync with NTP service!</li> |
| <li>Make sure that your loadbalancer is configured for sticky session mode.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>Load balancing can be achieved through many techniques, as seen in the |
| <a href="balancer-howto.html">Load Balancing</a> chapter.</p> |
| <p>Note: Remember that your session state is tracked by a cookie, so your URL must look the same from the out |
| side otherwise, a new session will be created.</p> |
| <p>Note: Clustering support currently requires the JDK version 1.5 or later.</p> |
| <p>The Cluster module uses the Tomcat JULI logging framework, so you can configure logging |
| through the regular logging.properties file. To track messages, you can enable logging on the key: <code>org.apache.catalina.tribes.MESSAGES</code></p> |
| </section> |
| |
| |
| <section name="Overview"> |
| |
| <p>To enable session replication in Tomcat, three different paths can be followed to achieve the exact same thing:</p> |
| <ol> |
| <li>Using session persistence, and saving the session to a shared file system (PersistenceManager + FileStore)</li> |
| <li>Using session persistence, and saving the session to a shared database (PersistenceManager + JDBCStore)</li> |
| <li>Using in-memory-replication, using the SimpleTcpCluster that ships with Tomcat (lib/catalina-tribes.jar + lib/catalina-ha.jar)</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>In this release of session replication, Tomcat can perform an all-to-all replication of session state using the <code>DeltaManager</code> or |
| perform backup replication to only one node using the <code>BackupManager</code>. |
| The all-to-all replication is an algorithm that is only efficient when the clusters are small. For larger clusters, to use |
| a primary-secondary session replication where the session will only be stored at one backup server simply setup the BackupManager. <br/> |
| Currently you can use the domain worker attribute (mod_jk > 1.2.8) to build cluster partitions |
| with the potential of having a more scalable cluster solution with the DeltaManager(you'll need to configure the domain interceptor for this). |
| In order to keep the network traffic down in an all-to-all environment, you can split your cluster |
| into smaller groups. This can be easily achieved by using different multicast addresses for the different groups. |
| A very simple setup would look like this: |
| </p> |
| |
| <source> DNS Round Robin |
| | |
| Load Balancer |
| / \ |
| Cluster1 Cluster2 |
| / \ / \ |
| Tomcat1 Tomcat2 Tomcat3 Tomcat4</source> |
| |
| <p>What is important to mention here, is that session replication is only the beginning of clustering. |
| Another popular concept used to implement clusters is farming, i.e., you deploy your apps only to one |
| server, and the cluster will distribute the deployments across the entire cluster. |
| This is all capabilities that can go into with the FarmWarDeployer (s. cluster example at <code>server.xml</code>)</p> |
| <p>In the next section will go deeper into how session replication works and how to configure it.</p> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Cluster Information"> |
| <p>Membership is established using multicast heartbeats. |
| Hence, if you wish to subdivide your clusters, you can do this by |
| changing the multicast IP address or port in the <code><Membership></code> element. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| The heartbeat contains the IP address of the Tomcat node and the TCP port that |
| Tomcat listens to for replication traffic. All data communication happens over TCP. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| The <code>ReplicationValve</code> is used to find out when the request has been completed and initiate the |
| replication, if any. Data is only replicated if the session has changed (by calling setAttribute or removeAttribute |
| on the session). |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| One of the most important performance considerations is the synchronous versus asynchronous replication. |
| In a synchronous replication mode the request doesn't return until the replicated session has been |
| sent over the wire and reinstantiated on all the other cluster nodes. |
| Synchronous vs. asynchronous is configured using the <code>channelSendOptions</code> |
| flag and is an integer value. The default value for the <code>SimpleTcpCluster/DeltaManager</code> combo is |
| 8, which is asynchronous. You can read more on the <a href="tribes/introduction.html">send flag(overview)</a> or the |
| <doc path="/api/org/apache/catalina/tribes/Channel.html">send flag(javadoc)</doc>. |
| During async replication, the request is returned before the data has been replicated. async replication yields shorter |
| request times, and synchronous replication guarantees the session to be replicated before the request returns. |
| </p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Bind session after crash to failover node"> |
| <p> |
| If you are using mod_jk and not using sticky sessions or for some reasons sticky session don't |
| work, or you are simply failing over, the session id will need to be modified as it previously contained |
| the worker id of the previous tomcat (as defined by jvmRoute in the Engine element). |
| To solve this, we will use the JvmRouteBinderValve. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| The JvmRouteBinderValve rewrites the session id to ensure that the next request will remain sticky |
| (and not fall back to go to random nodes since the worker is no longer available) after a fail over. |
| The valve rewrites the JSESSIONID value in the cookie with the same name. |
| Not having this valve in place, will make it harder to ensure stickiness in case of a failure for the mod_jk module. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Remember, if you are adding your own valves in server.xml then the defaults are no longer valid, |
| make sure that you add in all the appropriate valves as defined by the default. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| <b>Hint:</b><br/> |
| With attribute <i>sessionIdAttribute</i> you can change the request attribute name that included the old session id. |
| Default attribute name is <i>org.apache.catalina.ha.session.JvmRouteOrignalSessionID</i>. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| <b>Trick:</b><br/> |
| You can enable this mod_jk turnover mode via JMX before you drop a node to all backup nodes! |
| Set enable true on all JvmRouteBinderValve backups, disable worker at mod_jk |
| and then drop node and restart it! Then enable mod_jk Worker and disable JvmRouteBinderValves again. |
| This use case means that only requested session are migrated. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Configuration Example"> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster" |
| channelSendOptions="6"> |
| |
| <Manager className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.BackupManager" |
| expireSessionsOnShutdown="false" |
| notifyListenersOnReplication="true" |
| mapSendOptions="6"/> |
| <!-- |
| <Manager className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.DeltaManager" |
| expireSessionsOnShutdown="false" |
| notifyListenersOnReplication="true"/> |
| --> |
| <Channel className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.GroupChannel"> |
| <Membership className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.membership.McastService" |
| address="228.0.0.4" |
| port="45564" |
| frequency="500" |
| dropTime="3000"/> |
| <Receiver className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.NioReceiver" |
| address="auto" |
| port="5000" |
| selectorTimeout="100" |
| maxThreads="6"/> |
| |
| <Sender className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.ReplicationTransmitter"> |
| <Transport className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.PooledParallelSender"/> |
| </Sender> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.TcpFailureDetector"/> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.MessageDispatch15Interceptor"/> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.ThroughputInterceptor"/> |
| </Channel> |
| |
| <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.ReplicationValve" |
| filter=".*\.gif|.*\.js|.*\.jpeg|.*\.jpg|.*\.png|.*\.htm|.*\.html|.*\.css|.*\.txt"/> |
| |
| <Deployer className="org.apache.catalina.ha.deploy.FarmWarDeployer" |
| tempDir="/tmp/war-temp/" |
| deployDir="/tmp/war-deploy/" |
| watchDir="/tmp/war-listen/" |
| watchEnabled="false"/> |
| |
| <ClusterListener className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.ClusterSessionListener"/> |
| </Cluster>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| Break it down!! |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster" |
| channelSendOptions="6">]]></source> |
| <p> |
| The main element, inside this element all cluster details can be configured. |
| The <code>channelSendOptions</code> is the flag that is attached to each message sent by the |
| SimpleTcpCluster class or any objects that are invoking the SimpleTcpCluster.send method. |
| The description of the send flags is available at <doc path="/api/org/apache/catalina/tribes/Channel.html"> |
| our javadoc site</doc> |
| The <code>DeltaManager</code> sends information using the SimpleTcpCluster.send method, while the backup manager |
| sends it itself directly through the channel. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Manager className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.BackupManager" |
| expireSessionsOnShutdown="false" |
| notifyListenersOnReplication="true" |
| mapSendOptions="6"/> |
| <!-- |
| <Manager className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.DeltaManager" |
| expireSessionsOnShutdown="false" |
| notifyListenersOnReplication="true"/> |
| -->]]></source> |
| <p> |
| This is a template for the manager configuration that will be used if no manager is defined in the <Context> |
| element. In Tomcat 5.x each webapp marked distributable had to use the same manager, this is no longer the case |
| since Tomcat you can define a manager class for each webapp, so that you can mix managers in your cluster. |
| Obviously the managers on one node's application has to correspond with the same manager on the same application on the other node. |
| If no manager has been specified for the webapp, and the webapp is marked <distributable/> Tomcat will take this manager configuration |
| and create a manager instance cloning this configuration. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-manager.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Channel className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.GroupChannel">]]></source> |
| <p> |
| The channel element is <a href="tribes/introduction.html">Tribes</a>, the group communication framework |
| used inside Tomcat. This element encapsulates everything that has to do with communication and membership logic. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-channel.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Membership className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.membership.McastService" |
| address="228.0.0.4" |
| port="45564" |
| frequency="500" |
| dropTime="3000"/>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| Membership is done using multicasting. Please note that Tribes also supports static memberships using the |
| <code>StaticMembershipInterceptor</code> if you want to extend your membership to points beyond multicasting. |
| The address attribute is the multicast address used and the port is the multicast port. These two together |
| create the cluster separation. If you want a QA cluster and a production cluster, the easiest config is to |
| have the QA cluster be on a separate multicast address/port combination than the production cluster.<br/> |
| The membership component broadcasts TCP address/port of itself to the other nodes so that communication between |
| nodes can be done over TCP. Please note that the address being broadcasted is the one of the |
| <code>Receiver.address</code> attribute. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-membership.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Receiver className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.NioReceiver" |
| address="auto" |
| port="5000" |
| selectorTimeout="100" |
| maxThreads="6"/>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| In tribes the logic of sending and receiving data has been broken into two functional components. The Receiver, as the name suggests |
| is responsible for receiving messages. Since the Tribes stack is thread less, (a popular improvement now adopted by other frameworks as well), |
| there is a thread pool in this component that has a maxThreads and minThreads setting.<br/> |
| The address attribute is the host address that will be broadcasted by the membership component to the other nodes. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-receiver.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Sender className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.ReplicationTransmitter"> |
| <Transport className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.transport.nio.PooledParallelSender"/> |
| </Sender>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| The sender component, as the name indicates is responsible for sending messages to other nodes. |
| The sender has a shell component, the <code>ReplicationTransmitter</code> but the real stuff done is done in the |
| sub component, <code>Transport</code>. |
| Tribes support having a pool of senders, so that messages can be sent in parallel and if using the NIO sender, |
| you can send messages concurrently as well.<br/> |
| Concurrently means one message to multiple senders at the same time and Parallel means multiple messages to multiple senders |
| at the same time. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-sender.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.TcpFailureDetector"/> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.MessageDispatch15Interceptor"/> |
| <Interceptor className="org.apache.catalina.tribes.group.interceptors.ThroughputInterceptor"/> |
| </Channel>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| Tribes uses a stack to send messages through. Each element in the stack is called an interceptor, and works much like the valves do |
| in the Tomcat servlet container. |
| Using interceptors, logic can be broken into more manageable pieces of code. The interceptors configured above are:<br/> |
| TcpFailureDetector - verifies crashed members through TCP, if multicast packets get dropped, this interceptor protects against false positives, |
| ie the node marked as crashed even though it still is alive and running.<br/> |
| MessageDispatch15Interceptor - dispatches messages to a thread (thread pool) to send message asynchronously.<br/> |
| ThroughputInterceptor - prints out simple stats on message traffic.<br/> |
| Please note that the order of interceptors is important. The way they are defined in server.xml is the way they are represented in the |
| channel stack. Think of it as a linked list, with the head being the first most interceptor and the tail the last. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-interceptor.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.ReplicationValve" |
| filter=".*\.gif|.*\.js|.*\.jpeg|.*\.jpg|.*\.png|.*\.htm|.*\.html|.*\.css|.*\.txt"/>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| The cluster uses valves to track requests to web applications, we've mentioned the ReplicationValve and the JvmRouteBinderValve above. |
| The <Cluster> element itself is not part of the pipeline in Tomcat, instead the cluster adds the valve to its parent container. |
| If the <Cluster> elements is configured in the <Engine> element, the valves get added to the engine and so on. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-valve.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <Deployer className="org.apache.catalina.ha.deploy.FarmWarDeployer" |
| tempDir="/tmp/war-temp/" |
| deployDir="/tmp/war-deploy/" |
| watchDir="/tmp/war-listen/" |
| watchEnabled="false"/>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| The default tomcat cluster supports farmed deployment, ie, the cluster can deploy and undeploy applications on the other nodes. |
| The state of this component is currently in flux but will be addressed soon. There was a change in the deployment algorithm |
| between Tomcat 5.0 and 5.5 and at that point, the logic of this component changed to where the deploy dir has to match the |
| webapps directory. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-deployer.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| <source><![CDATA[ <ClusterListener className="org.apache.catalina.ha.session.ClusterSessionListener"/> |
| </Cluster>]]></source> |
| <p> |
| Since the SimpleTcpCluster itself is a sender and receiver of the Channel object, components can register themselves as listeners to |
| the SimpleTcpCluster. The listener above <code>ClusterSessionListener</code> listens for DeltaManager replication messages |
| and applies the deltas to the manager that in turn applies it to the session. |
| <br/>For more info, Please visit the <a href="config/cluster-listener.html">reference documentation</a> |
| </p> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Cluster Architecture"> |
| |
| <p><b>Component Levels:</b></p> |
| <source> Server |
| | |
| Service |
| | |
| Engine |
| | \ |
| | --- Cluster --* |
| | |
| Host |
| | |
| ------ |
| / \ |
| Cluster Context(1-N) |
| | \ |
| | -- Manager |
| | \ |
| | -- DeltaManager |
| | -- BackupManager |
| | |
| --------------------------- |
| | \ |
| Channel \ |
| ----------------------------- \ |
| | \ |
| Interceptor_1 .. \ |
| | \ |
| Interceptor_N \ |
| ----------------------------- \ |
| | | | \ |
| Receiver Sender Membership \ |
| -- Valve |
| | \ |
| | -- ReplicationValve |
| | -- JvmRouteBinderValve |
| | |
| -- LifecycleListener |
| | |
| -- ClusterListener |
| | \ |
| | -- ClusterSessionListener |
| | |
| -- Deployer |
| \ |
| -- FarmWarDeployer |
| |
| </source> |
| |
| |
| </section> |
| <section name="How it Works"> |
| <p>To make it easy to understand how clustering works, We are gonna take you through a series of scenarios. |
| In the scenario we only plan to use two tomcat instances <code>TomcatA</code> and <code>TomcatB</code>. |
| We will cover the following sequence of events:</p> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> starts up</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatB</code> starts up (Wait that TomcatA start is complete)</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> receives a request, a session <code>S1</code> is created.</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> crashes</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatB</code> receives a request for session <code>S1</code></li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> starts up</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> receives a request, invalidate is called on the session (<code>S1</code>)</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatB</code> receives a request, for a new session (<code>S2</code>)</li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> The session <code>S2</code> expires due to inactivity.</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>Ok, now that we have a good sequence, we will take you through exactly what happens in the session replication code</p> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatA</code> starts up</b> |
| <p> |
| Tomcat starts up using the standard start up sequence. When the Host object is created, a cluster object is associated with it. |
| When the contexts are parsed, if the distributable element is in place in web.xml |
| Tomcat asks the Cluster class (in this case <code>SimpleTcpCluster</code>) to create a manager |
| for the replicated context. So with clustering enabled, distributable set in web.xml |
| Tomcat will create a <code>DeltaManager</code> for that context instead of a <code>StandardManager</code>. |
| The cluster class will start up a membership service (multicast) and a replication service (tcp unicast). |
| More on the architecture further down in this document. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatB</code> starts up</b> |
| <p> |
| When TomcatB starts up, it follows the same sequence as TomcatA did with one exception. |
| The cluster is started and will establish a membership (TomcatA,TomcatB). |
| TomcatB will now request the session state from a server that already exists in the cluster, |
| in this case TomcatA. TomcatA responds to the request, and before TomcatB starts listening |
| for HTTP requests, the state has been transferred from TomcatA to TomcatB. |
| In case TomcatA doesn't respond, TomcatB will time out after 60 seconds, and issue a log |
| entry. The session state gets transferred for each web application that has distributable in |
| its web.xml. Note: To use session replication efficiently, all your tomcat instances should be |
| configured the same. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| <li><B><code>TomcatA</code> receives a request, a session <code>S1</code> is created.</B> |
| <p> |
| The request coming in to TomcatA is treated exactly the same way as without session replication. |
| The action happens when the request is completed, the <code>ReplicationValve</code> will intercept |
| the request before the response is returned to the user. |
| At this point it finds that the session has been modified, and it uses TCP to replicate the |
| session to TomcatB. Once the serialized data has been handed off to the operating systems TCP logic, |
| the request returns to the user, back through the valve pipeline. |
| For each request the entire session is replicated, this allows code that modifies attributes |
| in the session without calling setAttribute or removeAttribute to be replicated. |
| a useDirtyFlag configuration parameter can be used to optimize the number of times |
| a session is replicated. |
| </p> |
| |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatA</code> crashes</b> |
| <p> |
| When TomcatA crashes, TomcatB receives a notification that TomcatA has dropped out |
| of the cluster. TomcatB removes TomcatA from its membership list, and TomcatA will no longer |
| be notified of any changes that occurs in TomcatB. |
| The load balancer will redirect the requests from TomcatA to TomcatB and all the sessions |
| are current. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatB</code> receives a request for session <code>S1</code></b> |
| <p>Nothing exciting, TomcatB will process the request as any other request. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatA</code> starts up</b> |
| <p>Upon start up, before TomcatA starts taking new request and making itself |
| available to it will follow the start up sequence described above 1) 2). |
| It will join the cluster, contact TomcatB for the current state of all the sessions. |
| And once it receives the session state, it finishes loading and opens its HTTP/mod_jk ports. |
| So no requests will make it to TomcatA until it has received the session state from TomcatB. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatA</code> receives a request, invalidate is called on the session (<code>S1</code>)</b> |
| <p>The invalidate call is intercepted, and the session is queued with invalidated sessions. |
| When the request is complete, instead of sending out the session that has changed, it sends out |
| an "expire" message to TomcatB and TomcatB will invalidate the session as well. |
| </p> |
| |
| </li> |
| <li><b><code>TomcatB</code> receives a request, for a new session (<code>S2</code>)</b> |
| <p>Same scenario as in step 3) |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| </li> |
| <li><code>TomcatA</code> The session <code>S2</code> expires due to inactivity. |
| <p>The invalidate call is intercepted the same was as when a session is invalidated by the user, |
| and the session is queued with invalidated sessions. |
| At this point, the invalidated session will not be replicated across until |
| another request comes through the system and checks the invalid queue. |
| </p> |
| </li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>Phuuuhh! :)</p> |
| |
| <p><b>Membership</b> |
| Clustering membership is established using very simple multicast pings. |
| Each Tomcat instance will periodically send out a multicast ping, |
| in the ping message the instance will broad cast its IP and TCP listen port |
| for replication. |
| If an instance has not received such a ping within a given timeframe, the |
| member is considered dead. Very simple, and very effective! |
| Of course, you need to enable multicasting on your system. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p><b>TCP Replication</b> |
| Once a multicast ping has been received, the member is added to the cluster |
| Upon the next replication request, the sending instance will use the host and |
| port info and establish a TCP socket. Using this socket it sends over the serialized data. |
| The reason I choose TCP sockets is because it has built in flow control and guaranteed delivery. |
| So I know, when I send some data, it will make it there :) |
| </p> |
| |
| <p><b>Distributed locking and pages using frames</b> |
| Tomcat does not keep session instances in sync across the cluster. |
| The implementation of such logic would be to much overhead and cause all |
| kinds of problems. If your client accesses the same session |
| simultaneously using multiple requests, then the last request |
| will override the other sessions in the cluster. |
| </p> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| |
| <section name="Monitoring your Cluster with JMX"> |
| <p>Monitoring is a very important question when you use a cluster. Some of the cluster objects are JMX MBeans </p> |
| <p>Add the following parameter to your startup script with Java 5:</p> |
| <source>set CATALINA_OPTS=\ |
| -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote \ |
| -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=%my.jmx.port% \ |
| -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \ |
| -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false</source> |
| |
| <p> |
| List of Cluster Mbeans |
| </p> |
| <table class="defaultTable"> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <th>Name</th> |
| <th>Description</th> |
| <th>MBean ObjectName - Engine</th> |
| <th>MBean ObjectName - Host</th> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>Cluster</td> |
| <td>The complete cluster element</td> |
| <td><code>type=Cluster</code></td> |
| <td><code>type=Cluster,host=${HOST}</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>DeltaManager</td> |
| <td>This manager control the sessions and handle session replication </td> |
| <td><code>type=Manager,context=${APP.CONTEXT.PATH}, host=${HOST}</code></td> |
| <td><code>type=Manager,context=${APP.CONTEXT.PATH}, host=${HOST}</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>FarmWarDeployer</td> |
| <td>Manages the process of deploying an application to all nodes in the cluster</td> |
| <td>Not supported</td> |
| <td><code>type=Cluster, host=${HOST}, component=deployer</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>Member</td> |
| <td>Represents a node in the cluster</td> |
| <td>type=Cluster, component=member, name=${NODE_NAME}</td> |
| <td><code>type=Cluster, host=${HOST}, component=member, name=${NODE_NAME}</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>ReplicationValve</td> |
| <td>This valve control the replication to the backup nodes</td> |
| <td><code>type=Valve,name=ReplicationValve</code></td> |
| <td><code>type=Valve,name=ReplicationValve,host=${HOST}</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td>JvmRouteBinderValve</td> |
| <td>This is a cluster fallback valve to change the Session ID to the current tomcat jvmroute.</td> |
| <td><code>type=Valve,name=JvmRouteBinderValve, |
| context=${APP.CONTEXT.PATH}</code></td> |
| <td><code>type=Valve,name=JvmRouteBinderValve,host=${HOST}, |
| context=${APP.CONTEXT.PATH}</code></td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| </table> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="FAQ"> |
| <p>Please see <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/tomcat/FAQ/Clustering">the clustering section of the FAQ</a>.</p> |
| </section> |
| |
| </body> |
| |
| </document> |