22.9. Other Management Tools and Operations

Managing Red Hat JBoss Data Grid instances requires exposing significant amounts of relevant statistical information. This information allows administrators to get a clear view of each JBoss Data Grid node's state. A single installation can comprise of tens or hundreds of JBoss Data Grid nodes and it is important to provide this information in a clear and concise manner. JBoss Operations Network is one example of a tool that provides runtime visibility. Other tools, such as JConsole can be used where JMX is enabled.

22.9.1. Accessing Data via URLs

Caches that have been configured with a REST interface have access to Red Hat JBoss Data Grid using RESTful HTTP access.
The RESTful service only requires a HTTP client library, eliminating the need for tightly coupled client libraries and bindings. For more information about how to retrieve data using the REST interface, see Section 11.6, “Using the REST Interface”.
HTTP put() and post() methods place data in the cache, and the URL used determines the cache name and key(s) used. The data is the value placed into the cache, and is placed in the body of the request.
A Content-Type header must be set for these methods. GET and HEAD methods are used for data retrieval while other headers control cache settings and behavior.

Note

It is not possible to have conflicting server modules interact with the data grid. Caches must be configured with a compatible interface in order to have access to JBoss Data Grid.

22.9.2. Limitations of Map Methods

Specific Map methods, such as size(), values(), keySet() and entrySet(), can be used with certain limitations with Red Hat JBoss Data Grid as they are unreliable. These methods do not acquire locks (global or local) and concurrent modification, additions and removals are excluded from consideration in these calls.
The listed methods have a significant impact on performance. As a result, it is recommended that these methods are used for informational and debugging purposes only.
Performance Concerns

From Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 6.3 onwards, the map methods size(), values(), keySet(), and entrySet() include entries in the cache loader by default whereas previously these methods only included the local data container. The underlying cache loader directly affects the performance of these commands. As an example, when using a database, these methods run a complete scan of the table where data is stored which can result in slower processing. Use Cache.getAdvancedCache().withFlags(Flag.SKIP_CACHE_LOAD).values() to maintain the old behavior and not loading from the cache loader which would avoid the slower performance.

Changes to the size() Method (Embedded Caches)

In JBoss Data Grid 6.3 the Cache#size() method returned only the number of entries on the local node, ignoring other nodes for clustered caches and including any expired entries. While the default behavior was not changed in JBoss Data Grid 6.4 or later, accurate results can be enabled for bulk operations, including size(), by setting the infinispan.accurate.bulk.ops system property to true. In this mode of operation, the result returned by the size() method is affected by the flags org.infinispan.context.Flag#CACHE_MODE_LOCAL, to force it to return the number of entries present on the local node, and org.infinispan.context.Flag#SKIP_CACHE_LOAD, to ignore any passivated entries.

Changes to the size() Method (Remote Caches)

In JBoss Data Grid 6.3, the Hot Rod size() method obtained the size of a cache by invoking the STATS operation and using the returned numberOfEntries statistic. This statistic is not an accurate measurement of the number of entries in a cache because it does not take into account expired and passivated entries and it is only local to the node that responded to the operation. As an additional result, when security was enabled, the client would need the ADMIN permission instead of the more appropriate BULK_READ.

In JBoss Data Grid 6.4 and later the Hot Rod protocol has been enhanced with a dedicated SIZE operation, and the clients have been updated to use this operation for the size() method. The JBoss Data Grid server will need to be started with the infinispan.accurate.bulk.ops system property set to true so that size can be computed accurately.