Bug 59269 - Session swapping out in PersistentManagerBase
Summary: Session swapping out in PersistentManagerBase
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Tomcat 9
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Catalina (show other bugs)
Version: 9.0.0.M4
Hardware: PC All
: P2 major (vote)
Target Milestone: -----
Assignee: Tomcat Developers Mailing List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-04-04 09:09 UTC by jb
Modified: 2016-04-14 12:17 UTC (History)
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Description jb 2016-04-04 09:09:35 UTC
I've been trying to setup PersistentManager, more precisely I wanted to configure session swapping out to achieve memory friendly configuration under high load.
To my surprise, this is not possible, or I must be missing something crucial.

Swapping out only works, when the session is idle for too long. However, it does not work together with the 'maxActiveSessions' configuration option.

Method processMaxActiveSwaps()
------------------------------
In the org.apache.catalina.session.PersistentManagerBase, there is method called processMaxActiveSwaps(), which should do the 'maxActiveSessions' checking and swap out superfluous sessions. However, the method body never executes:

Compare the condition "if (getMaxActiveSessions() >= sessions.length) return;" with the fact, that exception is thrown if too many sessions are created in org.apache.catalina.session.ManagerBase.createSession().


I've found this bug in versions 7, 8, 9. Seems that this bug is there since ages, the same already reported here (in 2001!!!):
https://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/tomcat-dev/200112.mbox/%3C3C20D8AE.D9B7795F@distributopia.com%3E
https://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/tomcat-dev/200112.mbox/<3C20D8AE.D9B7795F@distributopia.com>


Expected behaviour
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Just to eliminate possible misunderstandings, here is what behaviour I expected from the documentation, the source code and what common sence tells me: there is configuration option 'maxActiveSessions' which simply limits number of sessions stored in the memory, to avoid OutOfMemExeption etc. However, I have session timeout set up for couple of hours (needed) and it is not possible to keep them all in memory. And I don't even want to tell to my users: Sorry, no space for you, here you have it: TooManyActiveSessionsException on you. So I'd like to swap out sessions not active for say half an hour. There is 'minIdleSwap' config option, which tells when the session may be swapped out if needed. BTW. as this does not work, this option is currently completely useless.

What can be done: remove the check in org.apache.catalina.session.ManagerBase.createSession() (or make it less strict - e.g. allow couple of additional sessions to be created over this limit). Then the processMaxActiveSwaps() method would do its job nicely and overflowing sessions would be swapped out.


Many thanks for 1) any clarification if I'm wrong OR 2) bug fixing :-) OR 3) removing the stale/old/never-more-working source code and documenting that this feature is simply not there even though it looks like it is.
Comment 1 Mark Thomas 2016-04-06 19:16:54 UTC
There is a bug here but I take a slightly different view of the root cause. I'm of the view that processMaxActiveSwaps() should be aiming to reduce the number active session below some percentage (e.g. 90%) of maxActive.

minIdleSwap is working correctly but I suspect the Javadoc and the doc could benefit from some clarification.

I have a patch for the processMaxActiveSwaps() issue ready to commit but I need to look at the doc issues before I commit it.
Comment 2 Mark Thomas 2016-04-06 20:37:00 UTC
This has been fixed in:
- 9.0.x for 9.0.0.M5 onwards
- 8.5.x for 8.5.1 onwards
- 8.0.x for 8.0.34 onwards
- 7.0.x for 7.0.69 onwards
- 6.0.x for 6.0.46 onwards
Comment 3 jb 2016-04-14 12:17:14 UTC
Thanks for quick fix, I appreciate that.