Call us: +1-415-738-4000
Caches can be configured in Ehcache either declaratively, in XML, or by creating them programmatically and specifying their parameters in the constructor.
While both approaches are fully supported it is generally a good idea to separate the cache configuration from runtime use. There are also these benefits:
It is easy if you have all of your configuration in one place.
Caches consume memory, and disk space. They need to be carefully tuned. You can see the total effect in a configuration file. You could do this all in code, but it would not as visible.
Cache configuration can be changed at deployment time.
A defaultCache configuration exists and will always be loaded.
While a defaultCache configuration is not required, an error is generated if caches are created by name (programmatically) with no defaultCache loaded.
The Ehcache documentation focuses on XML declarative configuration. Programmatic configuration is explored in certain examples and is documented in Javadocs.
Ehcache is redistributed by lots of projects, some of which may not provide a sample Ehcache XML configuration file (or they provide an outdated one). If one is not provided, download Ehcache. The latest ehcache.xml and ehcache.xsd are provided in the distribution.
After a Cache has been started, its configuration is not generally changeable. However, since Ehcache 2.0, certain cache configuration parameters can be modified dynamically at runtime. In the current version of Ehcache, this includes the following:
timeToLive
The maximum number of seconds an element can exist in the cache regardless of use. The element expires at this limit and will no longer be returned from the cache. The default value is 0, which means no TTL eviction takes place (infinite lifetime).
timeToIdle
The maximum number of seconds an element can exist in the cache without being accessed. The element expires at this limit and will no longer be returned from the cache. The default value is 0, which means no TTI eviction takes place (infinite lifetime).
Local sizing attributes maxEntriesLocalHeap, maxBytesLocalHeap, maxEntriesLocalDisk, maxBytesLocalDisk.
Note that the eternal attribute, when set to "true", overrides timeToLive and timeToIdle so that no expiration can take place.
This example shows how to dynamically modify the cache configuration of running cache:
Cache cache = manager.getCache("sampleCache");
CacheConfiguration config = cache.getCacheConfiguration();
config.setTimeToIdleSeconds(60);
config.setTimeToLiveSeconds(120);
config.setmaxEntriesLocalHeap(10000);
config.setmaxEntriesLocalDisk(1000000);
Dynamic cache configurations can also be frozen to prevent future changes:
Cache cache = manager.getCache("sampleCache");
cache.disableDynamicFeatures();
In ehcache.xml, you can disable dynamic configuration by setting the <ehcache> element's dynamicConfig attribute to "false".
Just as for a standalone cache, mutating the configuration of a distributed cache requires access to the set methods of cache.getCacheConfiguration().
The following table provides information for dynamically changing common cache configuration options in a Terracotta cluster. The table's Scope column, which specifies where the configuration is in effect, can have one of the following values:
Note that configuration options whose scope covers "BOTH" are distributed and therefore affect a cache on all clients.
| Configuration Option | Dynamic | Scope | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cache name | NO | TSA | |
| Nonstop | NO | Client | Enable High Availability |
| Timeout | YES | Client | For nonstop. |
| Timeout Behavior | YES | Client | For nonstop. |
| Immediate Timeout When Disconnected | YES | Client | For nonstop. |
| Time to Idle | YES | BOTH | |
| Maximum Entries or Bytes in Local Stores | YES | Client | This and certain other sizing attributes that are part of ARC may be pooled by the CacheManager, creating limitations on how they can be changed. |
| Time to Live | YES | BOTH | |
| Maximum Elements on Disk | YES | TSA | |
| Persistence Strategy | N/A | N/A | |
| Disk Expiry Thread Interval | N/A | N/A | |
| Disk Spool Buffer Size | N/A | N/A | |
| Overflow to Off-Heap | N/A | N/A | |
| Maximum Off-heap | N/A | N/A | Maximum off-heap memory allotted to the TSA. |
| Eternal | YES | BOTH | |
| Clear on Flush | NO | Client | |
| Copy on Read | NO | Client | |
| Copy on Write | NO | Client | |
| Memory Store Eviction Policy | NO | Client | |
| Statistics | YES | Client | Cache statistics. Change dynamically with cache.setStatistics(boolean) method. |
| Logging | NO | Client | Ehcache and Terracotta logging is specified in configuration. However, cluster events can be set dynamically. |
| Consistency | NO | Client | It is possible to switch to and from bulk mode. |
| Synchronous Writes | NO | Client |
To apply non-dynamic L1 changes, remove the existing cache and then add (to the same CacheManager) a new cache with the same name as the removed cache, and which has the new configuration. Restarting the CacheManager with an updated configuration, where all cache names are the same as in the previous configuration, will also apply non-dynamic L1 changes.
Historically Ehcache has only permitted sizing of caches in the Java heap (the OnHeap store) and the disk (DiskStore). BigMemory introduced the OffHeap store, where sizing of caches is also allowed.
To learn more about sizing caches, see How to Size Caches.
Pinning of caches or specific elements is discussed in Pinning, Expiration, and Eviction.
(Ehcache 2.5 and higher)
When a cache starts up, the On-Heap and Off-Heap stores are always empty. Ehcache provides a BootstrapCacheLoader mechanism to overcome this. The BootstrapCacheLoader is run before the cache is set to alive. If synchronous, loading completes before the CacheManager starts, or if asynchronous, the CacheManager starts but loading continues agressively rather than waiting for elements to be requested, which is a lazy loading approach.
Replicated caches provide a boot strap mechanism which populates them. For example following is the JGroups bootstrap cache loader:
<bootstrapCacheLoaderFactory class="net.sf.ehcache.distribution.jgroups.JGroupsBootstrapCacheLoaderFactory" properties="bootstrapAsynchronously=true"/>
The TerracottaBootstrapCacheLoaderFactory loads elements from the Terracotta L2 to the L1 based on what it was using the last time it ran. (The first time it is run, it has no effect.) It works by periodically writing the keys used by the L1 to disk.
The TerracottaStoreBootstrapCacheLoaderFactory is configured as follows:
<bootstrapCacheLoaderFactory class="net.sf.ehcache.terracotta.TerracottaBootstrapCacheLoaderFactory"
properties="bootstrapAsynchronously=true,
directory=dumps,
interval=5,
immediateShutdown=false,
snapshotOnShutDown=true,
doKeySnapshot=false,
useDedicatedThread=false"/>
The configuration properties are:
Key snapshots will be in the diskStore directory configured at the cacheManager level.
One file is created for each cache with the name <cacheName>.keySet.
In case of a abrupt termination, while new snapshots are being written they are written using the extension .temp
and then after the write is complete the existing file is renamed to .old, the .temp is renamed to .keyset and finally
the .old file is removed. If an abrupt termination occurs you will see some of these files in the directory which will
be cleaned up on the next startup.
Like other diskStore files, keyset snapshot files can be migrated to other nodes for warmup.
If between restarts, the cache can't hold the entire hot set locally, the Loader will stop loading as soon as the on-heap (or off-heap) store has been filled.
A cache can be configured to copy the data, rather than return reference to it on get or put. This is configured using the
copyOnRead and copyOnWrite attributes of cache and defaultCache elements in your configuration or programmatically as follows:
CacheConfiguration config = new CacheConfiguration("copyCache", 1000).copyOnRead(true).copyOnWrite(true);
Cache copyCache = new Cache(config);
The default configuration will be false for both options.
In order to copy elements on put()-like and/or get()-like operations, a CopyStrategy is being used. The default implementation
uses serialization to copy elements. You can provide your own implementation of net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.CopyStrategy like
this:
<cache name="copyCache"
maxEntriesLocalHeap="10"
eternal="false"
timeToIdleSeconds="5"
timeToLiveSeconds="10"
copyOnRead="true"
copyOnWrite="true">
<persistence strategy="none"/>
<copyStrategy class="com.company.ehcache.MyCopyStrategy"/>
</cache>
Per cache, a single instance of your CopyStrategy is used. Therefore, in your implementation of CopyStrategy.copy(T), T has to be thread-safe.
A copy strategy can be added programmatically in the following:
CacheConfiguration cacheConfiguration = new CacheConfiguration("copyCache", 10);
CopyStrategyConfiguration copyStrategyConfiguration = new CopyStrategyConfiguration();
copyStrategyConfiguration.setClass("com.company.ehcache.MyCopyStrategy");
cacheConfiguration.addCopyStrategy(copyStrategyConfiguration);
Setting this system property to true (using java -Dnet.sf.ehcache.disabled=true in the Java command line) disables caching in ehcache. If disabled, no elements can be added to a cache (puts are silently discarded).
When LRU is selected as the eviction policy, set this system property to true (using java -Dnet.sf.ehcache.use.classic.lru=true in the Java command line) to use the older LruMemoryStore implementation. This is provided for ease of migration.
Ehcache configuration files must be comply with the Ehcache XML schema, ehcache.xsd.
It can be downloaded from http://ehcache.org/ehcache.xsd.
If the CacheManager default constructor or factory method is called, Ehcache looks for a
file called ehcache.xml in the top level of the classpath. Failing that it looks for
ehcache-failsafe.xml in the classpath. ehcache-failsafe.xml is packaged in the Ehcache JAR
and should always be found.
ehcache-failsafe.xml provides an extremely simple default configuration to enable users to
get started before they create their own ehcache.xml.
If it used Ehcache will emit a warning, reminding the user to set up a proper configuration.
The meaning of the elements and attributes are explained in the section on ehcache.xml.
<ehcache>
<diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir"/>
<defaultCache
maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000"
eternal="false"
timeToIdleSeconds="120"
timeToLiveSeconds="120"
maxEntriesLocalDisk="10000000"
diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU"
<persistence strategy="localTempSwap"/>
/>
</ehcache>
The update checker is used to see if you have the latest version of Ehcache. It is also used to get non-identifying feedback on the OS architectures using Ehcache. To disable the check, do one of the following:
-Dnet.sf.ehcache.skipUpdateCheck=true
The outer ehcache element takes an updateCheck attribute, which is set to false as in the
following example.
<ehcache xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="ehcache.xsd"
updateCheck="false" monitoring="autodetect"
dynamicConfig="true">
Prior to ehcache-1.6, Ehcache only supported ASCII ehcache.xml configuration files. Since ehcache-1.6, UTF8 is supported, so that configuration can use Unicode. As UTF8 is backwardly compatible with ASCII, no conversion is necessary.
If the CacheManager default constructor or factory method is called, Ehcache looks for a file called ehcache.xml in the top level of the classpath.
The non-default creation methods allow a configuration file to be specified which can be called anything.
One XML configuration is required for each CacheManager that is created. It is an error to use the same configuration, because things like directory paths and listener ports will conflict. Ehcache will attempt to resolve conflicts and will emit a warning reminding the user to configure a separate configuration for multiple CacheManagers with conflicting settings.
The sample ehcache.xml is included in the Ehcache distribution. It contains full commentary required to configure each element. Further
information can be found in specific chapters in the Guide.
It can also be downloaded from http://ehcache.org/ehcache.xml.
See the distributed-cache configuration guidelines for more information on configuration with distributed caches in a Terracotta cluster.