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@rahul2393 rahul2393 commented Nov 20, 2025

This PR enables the gRPC-GCP channel pool extension by default for Cloud Spanner Java client.

What's Changing for Customers

Before this change

  • gRPC-GCP extension was disabled by default
  • Default number of channels: 4
  • Channel pooling was handled by GAX

After this change

  • gRPC-GCP extension is enabled by default
  • Default number of channels: 8
  • Channel pooling is handled by gRPC-GCP extension

Benefits of gRPC-GCP

  • Improved resilience: When a network connection fails on a particular channel, operations can be automatically retried on a different gRPC channel
  • Better channel management: gRPC-GCP provides more sophisticated channel affinity and load balancing

How to Disable gRPC-GCP (Switch Back to GAX Channel Pool)

If you need to disable gRPC-GCP and use the previous GAX channel pooling behavior, use the disableGrpcGcpExtension() method:

SpannerOptions options = SpannerOptions.newBuilder()
    .setProjectId("my-project")
    .disableGrpcGcpExtension()
    .build();

When disabled, the default number of channels reverts to 4 (the previous default).

When You Might Want to Disable gRPC-GCP

  • Maintaining previous behavior: If you want to keep the exact same behavior as before this change (GAX channel pool with 4 default channels).
  • Troubleshooting: If you experience any unexpected behavior, disabling gRPC-GCP can help isolate whether the issue is related to the channel pooling mechanism.

@rahul2393 rahul2393 requested review from a team as code owners November 20, 2025 18:47
@product-auto-label product-auto-label bot added size: m Pull request size is medium. api: spanner Issues related to the googleapis/java-spanner API. labels Nov 20, 2025
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Summary of Changes

Hello @rahul2393, I'm Gemini Code Assist1! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request transitions the grpc-gcp extension in the Spanner client library to be enabled by default. This change simplifies the client's internal logic by removing a configuration flag and its conditional code paths, ensuring that all users benefit from the performance and reliability improvements offered by gRPC-GCP without requiring manual activation.

Highlights

  • Default gRPC-GCP Enablement: The grpc-gcp extension is now enabled by default, removing the need for explicit configuration to activate it.
  • Code Simplification: The grpcGcpExtensionEnabled boolean field and all associated conditional logic have been removed from SpannerOptions and GapicSpannerRpc, streamlining the codebase.
  • Consistent Channel Management: Channel affinity and the number of channels are now consistently managed under the assumption that gRPC-GCP is always active, simplifying channel configuration.
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Code Review

This pull request makes the grpc-gcp extension enabled by default, which is a good simplification. The changes correctly remove the feature flag and update the related logic. My review includes a few suggestions to improve API clarity and test naming following these changes:

  • API Clarity: The methods enableGrpcGcpExtension and disableGrpcGcpExtension are now misleading or no-ops. I've suggested addressing this to avoid confusion.
  • Test Naming: Some test method names have become outdated due to the changes. I've pointed these out with suggestions for new names that better reflect their current purpose.

@rahul2393 rahul2393 added do not merge Indicates a pull request not ready for merge, due to either quality or timing. and removed do not merge Indicates a pull request not ready for merge, due to either quality or timing. labels Nov 20, 2025
@sakthivelmanii
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@rahul2393 as a first step, can you please enable it by default without removing the option? If needed, customer can disable it.

@rahul2393 rahul2393 force-pushed the default-enable-grpc-gcp branch from 4b599e1 to d2c3101 Compare December 9, 2025 04:40
@rahul2393 rahul2393 force-pushed the default-enable-grpc-gcp branch from 8bd7007 to 75ac207 Compare December 9, 2025 04:44
@product-auto-label product-auto-label bot added size: l Pull request size is large. and removed size: m Pull request size is medium. labels Dec 9, 2025
@rahul2393 rahul2393 force-pushed the default-enable-grpc-gcp branch from cd99542 to eaeef52 Compare December 11, 2025 08:37
Comment on lines +144 to +145
if (call.getMethodDescriptor()
.equals(SpannerGrpc.getBatchCreateSessionsMethod())) {
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This should probably be replaced with CreateSession. It works (for now), but once the session pool is removed, this will silently be ignored, as there are no calls to BatchCreateSessions.

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Noted, I will update it in separate PR where we are removing session pool

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nimf commented Dec 12, 2025

Note, that, AFAIU, this will also enable grpc-gcp metrics by default (and these are many more metrics than session metrics), this can be an issue if it's shipped to the custom namespace.

# Conflicts:
#	google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/AbstractReadContext.java
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Thanks @nimf for pointing since Opencensus is already marked deprecated, updated the PR to skip passing MetricRegistry(OpenCensus) to grpc-gcp

@rahul2393 rahul2393 added the automerge Merge the pull request once unit tests and other checks pass. label Dec 15, 2025
@gcf-merge-on-green gcf-merge-on-green bot merged commit bb82f9e into main Dec 15, 2025
42 checks passed
@gcf-merge-on-green gcf-merge-on-green bot removed the automerge Merge the pull request once unit tests and other checks pass. label Dec 15, 2025
@gcf-merge-on-green gcf-merge-on-green bot deleted the default-enable-grpc-gcp branch December 15, 2025 10:30
blakeli0 pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Dec 17, 2025
* chore: add release-please config for protobuf-4.x (#4249)

* fix: Refine connecitivity metrics to capture RPCs with no response he… (#4252)

* fix: Refine connecitivity metrics to capture RPCs with no response headers

* test fix

* fix: retry as PDML dit not retry Resource limit exceeded (#4258)

Most transactions that exceed the mutation limit for an atomic transaction will fail with the error "The transaction contains too many mutations.". However, it is also possible that the transaction fails with the more generic error message "Transaction resource limits exceeded". This error did not trigger a retry of the statement using a PDML transaction.

Fixes #4253

* deps: update dependency com.google.cloud:sdk-platform-java-config to v3.54.2 (#4261)

* deps: update googleapis/sdk-platform-java action to v2.64.2 (#4262)

* feat: include RequestID in requests and errors (#4263)

- Send a RequestID to Spanner for each request
- Make sure that the attempt number of the RequestID is increased
  if the RPC is retried.
- Include the RequestID in every error that is thrown due to an error
  that is returned by Spanner.

* feat: make grpc-gcp default enabled (#4239)

This PR enables the gRPC-GCP channel pool extension by default for Cloud Spanner Java client.

**What's Changing for Customers**

**Before this change**

- gRPC-GCP extension was disabled by default
- Default number of channels: 4
- Channel pooling was handled by GAX

**After this change**

- gRPC-GCP extension is enabled by default
- Default number of channels: 8
- Channel pooling is handled by gRPC-GCP extension

**Benefits of gRPC-GCP**

- **Improved resilience:** When a network connection fails on a particular channel, operations can be automatically retried on a different gRPC channel
- **Better channel management:** gRPC-GCP provides more sophisticated channel affinity and load balancing

**How to Disable gRPC-GCP (Switch Back to GAX Channel Pool)**

If you need to disable gRPC-GCP and use the previous GAX channel pooling behavior, use the `disableGrpcGcpExtension()` method:
```
SpannerOptions options = SpannerOptions.newBuilder()
    .setProjectId("my-project")
    .disableGrpcGcpExtension()
    .build();
```

When disabled, the default number of channels reverts to 4 (the previous default).

**When You Might Want to Disable gRPC-GCP**

- **Maintaining previous behavior:** If you want to keep the exact same behavior as before this change (GAX channel pool with 4 default channels).
- **Troubleshooting**: If you experience any unexpected behavior, disabling gRPC-GCP can help isolate whether the issue is related to the channel pooling mechanism.

* chore(main): release 6.104.1-SNAPSHOT (#4248)

:robot: I have created a release *beep* *boop*
---


### Updating meta-information for bleeding-edge SNAPSHOT release.

---
This PR was generated with [Release Please](https://togithub.com/googleapis/release-please). See [documentation](https://togithub.com/googleapis/release-please#release-please).

* feat: add support of dynamic channel pooling (#4265)

* feat: add support of dynamic channel pooling

* set initial pool size to 0 make dynamic channel pool work

* chore: generate libraries at Tue Dec 16 06:00:50 UTC 2025

* bump grpc-gcp-java version

* fix test

* incorporate suggestions

* chore: generate libraries at Tue Dec 16 09:56:45 UTC 2025

* make dynamic channel pool default disabled

* add verifySameChannelId back and fix partitionDML test

* support setting GcpChannelPoolOptions directly

---------

Co-authored-by: cloud-java-bot <[email protected]>

* chore(main): release 6.105.0 (#4267)

* chore(main): release 6.105.0

* chore: generate libraries at Tue Dec 16 17:46:24 UTC 2025

---------

Co-authored-by: release-please[bot] <55107282+release-please[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: cloud-java-bot <[email protected]>

* chore(main): release 6.105.1-SNAPSHOT (#4268)

:robot: I have created a release *beep* *boop*
---


### Updating meta-information for bleeding-edge SNAPSHOT release.

---
This PR was generated with [Release Please](https://togithub.com/googleapis/release-please). See [documentation](https://togithub.com/googleapis/release-please#release-please).

* chore: update manifest

---------

Co-authored-by: surbhigarg92 <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Knut Olav Løite <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Mend Renovate <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: rahul2393 <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: release-please[bot] <55107282+release-please[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: cloud-java-bot <[email protected]>
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4 participants