Blogs Infinispan Server configuration

Infinispan Server configuration

February 20, 2020 Tags: server

By Tristan Tarrant

The new Infinispan Server introduced in version 10.0 is quite different from the WildFly-based one we had up to 9.x. One of the big differences is that the new server’s configuration is just an extension of the embedded configuration.

The XML snippet below shows the configuration used by the server "out-of-the-box":

<infinispan
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="urn:infinispan:config:10.1 https://infinispan.org/schemas/infinispan-config-10.1.xsd
                            urn:infinispan:server:10.1 https://infinispan.org/schemas/infinispan-server-10.1.xsd"
        xmlns="urn:infinispan:config:10.1"
        xmlns:server="urn:infinispan:server:10.1">

   <cache-container name="default" statistics="true"> (1)
      <transport cluster="${infinispan.cluster.name}" stack="${infinispan.cluster.stack:tcp}" node-name="${infinispan.node.name:}"/>
   </cache-container>

   <server xmlns="urn:infinispan:server:10.1"> (2)
      <interfaces>
         <interface name="public"> (3)
            <inet-address value="${infinispan.bind.address:127.0.0.1}"/>
         </interface>
      </interfaces>

      <socket-bindings default-interface="public" port-offset="${infinispan.socket.binding.port-offset:0}"> (4)
         <socket-binding name="default" port="${infinispan.bind.port:11222}"/>
         <socket-binding name="memcached" port="11221"/>
      </socket-bindings>

      <security> (5)
         <security-realms>
            <security-realm name="default">
               <!-- Uncomment to enable TLS on the realm -->
               <!-- server-identities>
                  <ssl>
                     <keystore path="application.keystore" relative-to="infinispan.server.config.path"
                               keystore-password="password" alias="server" key-password="password"
                               generate-self-signed-certificate-host="localhost"/>
                  </ssl>
               </server-identities-->
               <properties-realm groups-attribute="Roles">
                  <user-properties path="users.properties" relative-to="infinispan.server.config.path" plain-text="true"/>
                  <group-properties path="groups.properties" relative-to="infinispan.server.config.path" />
               </properties-realm>
            </security-realm>
         </security-realms>
      </security>

      <endpoints socket-binding="default" security-realm="default"> (6)
         <hotrod-connector name="hotrod"/>
         <rest-connector name="rest"/>
      </endpoints>
   </server>
</infinispan>

Let’s have a look at the various elements, describing their purposes:

The cache-container element is a standard Infinispan cache manager configuration like you’d use in embedded deployments. You can decide to leave it empty and create any caches at runtime using the CLI, Console or Hot Rod and RESTful APIs, or statically predefine your caches here.
The server element holds the server-specific configuration which includes network, security and protocols.
The interface element declares named interfaces which are associated with specific addresses/interfaces. The default public interface will use the loopback address 127.0.0.1 unless overridden with the -b switch or the infinispan.bind.address system property. Refer to server interfaces documentation for a detailed list of all possible ways of selecting an address.
The socket-bindings element associates addresses and ports with unique names you can use later on configuring the protocol endpoints. For convenience, a port offset can be added to all port numbers to ease starting multiple servers on the same host. Use the -o switch or the infinispan.socket.binding.port-offset system property to change the offset.
The security element configures the server’s realms and identities. We will ignore this for now as this deserves its own dedicated blog post in the near future.
The endpoints element configures the various protocol servers. Unless overridden, all sub protocols are aggregated into a single-port endpoint which, as its name suggests, listens on a single port and automatically detects the incoming protocol, delegating to the appropriate handler.

The rest-connector has a special role in the new server, since it now also handles administrative tasks. It is therefore required if you want to use the CLI or the Console. You may wish to have the protocols listen on different ports, as outlined in the configuration below:

<infinispan
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="urn:infinispan:config:10.1 https://infinispan.org/schemas/infinispan-config-10.1.xsd
                            urn:infinispan:server:10.1 https://infinispan.org/schemas/infinispan-server-10.1.xsd"
        xmlns="urn:infinispan:config:10.1"
        xmlns:server="urn:infinispan:server:10.1">

   <cache-container name="default" statistics="true">
      <transport cluster="${infinispan.cluster.name}" stack="${infinispan.cluster.stack:tcp}" node-name="${infinispan.node.name:}"/>
   </cache-container>

   <server xmlns="urn:infinispan:server:10.1">
      <interfaces>
         <interface name="public">
            <match-interface value="eth0"/>
         </interface>
         <interface name="admin">
            <loopback/>
         </interface>
      </interfaces>

      <socket-bindings default-interface="public" port-offset="${infinispan.socket.binding.port-offset:0}">
         <socket-binding name="public" port="${infinispan.bind.port:11222}"/>
         <socket-binding name="admin" interface="admin" port="${infinispan.bind.port:11222}"/>
      </socket-bindings>

      <security>
         <security-realms>
            <security-realm name="default">
               <properties-realm groups-attribute="Roles">
                  <user-properties path="users.properties" relative-to="infinispan.server.config.path" plain-text="true"/>
                  <group-properties path="groups.properties" relative-to="infinispan.server.config.path" />
               </properties-realm>
            </security-realm>
         </security-realms>
      </security>

      <endpoints socket-binding="admin" security-realm="default">
         <hotrod-connector name="hotrod" socket-binding="public"/>
         <rest-connector name="rest"/>
      </endpoints>
   </server>
</infinispan>

This creates two socket bindings, one named public bound to the eth0 interface and one named admin bound to the loopback interface. The server will therefore listen for Hot Rod traffic only on the public network and for HTTP/REST traffic on the admin network.

For more details on how to configure Infinispan Server, refer to our documentation.

In the next blog post we will have an in-depth look at security.

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Tristan Tarrant

Tristan has been leading the Infinispan Engineering Team at Red Hat for quite a while now, as well as being Principal Architect for Red Hat Data Grid. He's been a passionate open-source advocate and contributor for over three decades.