What happened to the replication queue?

Recently I saw an Infinispan user that was having issues using the replication queue, a clustering functionality that had been part of Infinispan since it's first release. Looking at the latest Infinispan codebase I realised it wasn't there any more, what happened to it?

The aim of the replication queue was to batch individual cache operations and send them as one to other nodes, rather than sending them each operation individually.

Over time we started considering whether the replication queue could be removed:

1. The replication queue was duplicating functionality: JGroups, which manages the group communication layer, already bundles messages and the network stack can do it too.
2. Using the replication queue was not more efficient because when the message is delivered in the remote node, the messages are processed sequentially. If processing first message blocks, the other commands are not processed until it finishes.
3. It can add complexity if messages with different order requirements come in same batch, e.g. no order, FIFO or total.

In essence, Infinispan's replication queue was doing the same as JGroups' message bundler. Whereas JGroups' message bundler had been evolving and different options had been developed, Infinispan's replication queue was still using same algorithm as in its first release.

So in Infinispan 8.2 the replication queue was deprecated and in 9.0 it was finally removed. If you ever find the need to batch your changes, configure JGroups' message bundler.

Cheers,
Galder

Infinispan 8.2.5.Final

Dear Infinispan users,

we have just released Infinispan 8.2.5.Final which fixes a number of community-reported issues. Get the bits from our download page. As usual feedback is always welcome.

Infinispan 8.2.4.Final released!

Dear Infinispan community,

We are proud to announce a new micro release of our stable 8.2 branch. Download it here and try it out!

This maintenance release includes a handful of bug fixes and a bonus new feature. If you are using any other 8.x release, we recommend to upgrade to 8.2.4.Final.

Check out the fixed issues, download the release and tell us all about it on the forum, on our issue tracker or on IRC on the #infinispan channel on Freenode.

We are currently busy working on the upcoming beta release of the 9.0 stream.

Cheers,
The Infinispan team

MongoDB Cache Store 8.2.1.Final

In the storm of the persistence SPI rework that happened during Infinispan 6.0, the MongoDB cache store, among others, was left in a state of semi-abandonment for a long time.

Fortunately a few brave souls came to its rescue and have breathed new life into it so that it can be used with Infinispan 8.x

In particular I wish to thank Kurt Lehrke for doing most of the work !!!

Get it from the dedicated cache store download page.

Infinispan 9.0.0.Alpha2 (and 8.2.2.Final)

Dear Infinispan users,

we have baked two fresh releases for you today.

First off we have a new micro release of our stable 8.2 branch which fixes 57 issues. If you are using any other 8.x release, please upgrade to 8.2.2.Final as this contains a bunch of bugfixes and performance improvements in all areas.

On top of that we have a brand new Alpha release from our development branch: 9.0.0.Alpha2 which comes loaded with a few goodies:

• SNI support for HotRod, which paves the way for server multi-tenancy
• JDBC cache stores can use upsert (one of our oldest bugs !!!)
• An httpd-style access log for server
• The new sequential interceptor architecture
• Lucene query caching
• A grand total of 138 issues were resolved

Don't forget to check-out our roadmap to see the schedule and the things we want to do

Download it now, try it and tell us what you think on the infinispan forums or come and meet us on IRC: channel #infinispan on Freenode. 

Infinispan 8.2.1.Final is out!

Dear community,

We are proud to announce the release of Infinispan 8.2.1.Final. Download it here and try it out!

The release contains the following changes:

• Improved test suite stability
• Fixed deadlock and default cache race condition during server start
• Fixed ShardIndexManager stop order
• Rebalance start now contains node info
• Fixed Timeout updating the JGroups view after killing one node
• Boolean projections will work correctly in compatibility mode

We also upgraded some of our components:

• Hibernate Search was upgraded to 5.6.0.Alpha3
• XStream was upgraded to 1.4.9

Check out the stable release notes, download the releases and tell us all about it on the forum, on our issue tracker or on IRC on the #infinispan channel on Freenode.

Cheers,
The Infinispan team

Infinispan 8.2.0.Final is out!

Dear community,

We are proud to announce the release of Infinispan 8.2.0.Final. Download it here and try it out!

This release is highlighted by performance improvements and multiple fixes, and it introduces some new cool features. We emphasize the following:

• New algorithm for remote reads in distributed mode that reduces the network usage
• From now on, the consistent hash is shared among caches with the same membership - entries in different caches using the same key will be co-located
• A new lambda-enabled Cluster Executor which does not require a clustered cache, but can be constructed directly from a DefaultCacheManager.
• Protostream 3.0.5, Lucene 5.5, Hibernate Search 5.6.0.Alpha2
• And many tweaks and improvements overall.

Infinispan Server obviously deserves a list of its own:

• Infinispan Server was gifted with a brand new event logger. Now it is possible to check the last 7 days events like caches starting/stopping, nodes join/leaving, task execution and security audits. In addition, it is based on Wildfly 10.
• Admin Console improvements
• Persistent login session which survives browser refresh
• Deployment / undeployment of user code
• Management of ProtoBuf schemas for indexing
• Management of Scripts for task execution
• Event viewing
• Much improved cache and template configuration
• Cache container configuration
• PatternFly 3.2

We are now preparing the next development cycle and we will introduce new features and improvements. Stay tuned to know what is coming in Infinispan 9.0. 

Check out the stable release notes, download the releases and tell us all about it on the forum, on our issue tracker or on IRC on the #infinispan channel on Freenode.

Cheers,
The Infinispan team.

Infinispan 8.2.0.Beta2 and 8.1.2.Final

Dear Infinispan community,

we're proud to announce two fresh releases today.
First off is 8.2.0.Beta2, from our development branch. It is packed with a bunch of goodies:

• lots of enhancements and additions to the administration console for Infinispan Server, such as cluster event views, task management, container administration and deployments. Some of these will be further refined before the upcoming Final release. If you prefer to manage your servers from the good ol' command-line, the CLI commands have also been similarly enhanced.
• performance improvements for clustered reads, bulk and stream ops, and a sensible reduction in memory allocation rate. More improvements will come as we are rewriting some parts of the core to allow further optimizations.
• a new distributed executor, ClusterExecutor which does not require an existing distributed cache and which comes complete with Java 8 goodness such as CompletableFutures and lambda support. This nicely complements our existing Streams support.
• a new, experimental index manager to store indexes on Infinispan with better scalability and indexing throughput. Additionally we've upgraded Lucene to 5.4.1 and Hibernate Search to 5.6.0.Alpha1
• the ability to indicate a number of nodes for initial cluster formation
• lots of bug fixes

We're still on track for a Final release at the end of the month.

We've also been fixing bugs in our stable 8.1 stream, which means we have a freshly released 8.1.2.Final.

Check out the development release notes, the stable release notes, download the releases and tell us all about it on the forum, on our issue tracker or on IRC on the #infinispan channel on Freenode.

Infinispan 8.2.0.Beta1 and 8.1.1.Final are out!

Dear all,

We are proud to announce two releases today:

Infinispan 8.2.0.Beta1 is the first release in the 8.2 cycle. It doesn't have big new features, but there are a few significant changes in addition to the usual bug fixes:

• SyncConsistentHashFactory is now the default consistent hash factory (ISPN-4851). This means the owners of a key are going to be the same in all the caches, as long as the caches have the same members and the same number of owners.
• We now have a new way for applications to determine the location of keys: the KeyPartitioner interface (ISPN-5465). In spirit it is very similar to the existing Grouper interface, but it is segment-aware. Note that none of the HotRod clients support Keypartitioner in this release.
• We improved the rolling upgrade performance (ISPN-6046).
• We added a new event logger that records cluster membership, cache topology, and cache availability changes (ISPN-5816). In the next release, it will also be accessible through the server's management console.

Infinispan 8.1.1.Final includes a number of bug fixes. All users of 8.1.0.Final are encouraged to upgrade.

You can get both releases from our download page. If you are new to Infinispan, you can learn how to use it, and help us continually improve it.