[infinispan-dev] Shipping logical address String in Hot Rod protocol v1.1?

[Galder Zamarreño]

On Nov 29, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Bela Ban wrote:

> 
> 
> On 11/29/11 2:10 PM, Galder Zamarreño wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> We've been having a discussion this morning with regards to the Hot Rod changes introduced in 5.1 with regards to hashing.
>> 
>> When Hot Rod server is deployed in AS, in order to start correctly, it requires the Hot Rod server to start before any other (clustered) caches in AS. This is because any hashing can only be done once the hash has been calculated on the hot rod endpoint.
>> 
>> Although this can be fixed in a hacky way (have all caches configured to start lazily and let the Hot Rod server start the topology cache and then all defined caches, ugh), we're considering a slight change to Hot Rod protocol v 1.1 (https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/ISPN/Hot+Rod+Protocol+-+Version+1.1) that would solve this problem.
>> 
>> Instead of hashing on the hot rod endpoint address (host:port), we could hash on JGroups's Address UTF-8 toString representation, which is the logical address. The advantage here is any cache can calculate the hash on this from the start, no need to wait for Hot Rod server to start. The downside is that Hot Rod clients need to be aware of this UTF-8 string in order to hash to the same thing, so it'd mean shipping this back to the clients alongside the hot rod endpoint info.
> 
> 
> I have a few concerns, maybe not an issue with the way HotRod uses this, 
> but I wanted to bring this up anyway:

These are very valid concerns.

> - What if a logical name is null ? A user can do JChannel.setName(null);

Hmmm, what's the JGroups address toString() representation in that case?

> 
> - What if the logical name changes at runtime ? Certainly not 
> recomended, but the APi allows this, or I should rather say, doesn't 
> prevent it... :-(

If the logical name changes, is a view change triggered? 

How are other nodes gonna locate this node if it's logical address has changed? 

Looks dangerous from a JGroups perspective, why is it allowed?

> - What if we have multiple members with the same logical name ?

Can that happen? How can JGroups work correctly if multiple members have the same logical name? How can unicasts be directed correctly in this case?

> - At startup, we may not yet have the logical names of all members, as 
> this is done as part of the discovery protocol…

Hmmm, don't think that's important. What matters is that when node A starts, after the channel is open, it's logical address is availble locally. 

That's the same right now. When Hot Rod starts, it maps the running node's JGroups address to its Hot Rod enpoint address.

> - Can't you hash on the address ? It'll be available as soon as 
> connect() returns. Is that too late ?

That would mean hashing a Java object which is not portable, hence why we need a hash on something that's portable, i.e. a UTF-8 String.

> 
> Note that you can also generate your own addresses (using 
> AddressGenerator) if that helps…

Hmmmm, actually, this could be useful. What are the chances of generating two identical addresses? :)

> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bela Ban
> Lead JGroups (http://www.jgroups.org)
> JBoss / Red Hat
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--
Galder Zamarreño
Sr. Software Engineer
Infinispan, JBoss Cache