The Spring Boot Starter provides a set of managed transitive dependencies that include everything your project needs to use Infinispan caches. This starter gives you a convenient way to use Infinispan with Spring Boot but is optional. You can also simply add Infinispan dependencies to your Spring Boot project.

1. Setting Up Your Project

Add dependencies for the Infinispan Spring Boot Starter to your project.

1.1. Enforcing Infinispan Versions

This starter uses a high-level API to ensure compatibility between major versions of Infinispan. However you can enforce a specific version of Infinispan with the infinispan-bom module.

Procedure
  • Add infinispan-bom to your pom.xml file before the starter dependencies.

    <properties>
      <version.infinispan>13.0.21.Final</version.infinispan>
    </properties>
    
    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
               <artifactId>infinispan-bom</artifactId>
               <version>${version.infinispan}</version>
               <type>pom</type>
               <scope>import</scope>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
               <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
               <version>${version.spring.boot}</version>
               <type>pom</type>
               <scope>import</scope>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
               <artifactId>infinispan-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
           </dependency>
        </dependencies>
     </dependencyManagement>

1.2. Adding Dependencies for Usage Modes

Infinispan provides different dependencies for embedded caches and remote caches.

Procedure
  • Add one of the following to your pom.xml file:

Embedded caches
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
  <artifactId>infinispan-spring-boot-starter-embedded</artifactId>
</dependency>
Remote caches
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
  <artifactId>infinispan-spring-boot-starter-remote</artifactId>
</dependency>

2. Using Embedded Caches

Embed Infinispan caches directly in your project for in-memory data storage.

2.1. Adding the EmbeddedCacheManager Bean

Configure your application to use embedded caches.

Procedure
  1. Add infinispan-spring-boot-starter-embedded to your project’s classpath to enable Embedded mode.

  2. Use the Spring @Autowired annotation to include an EmbeddedCacheManager bean in your Java configuration classes, as in the following example:

    private final EmbeddedCacheManager cacheManager;
    
    @Autowired
    public YourClassName(EmbeddedCacheManager cacheManager) {
        this.cacheManager = cacheManager;
    }

You are now ready to use Infinispan caches directly within your application, as in the following example:

cacheManager.getCache("testCache").put("testKey", "testValue");
System.out.println("Received value from cache: " + cacheManager.getCache("testCache").get("testKey"));

2.2. Cache Manager Configuration Beans

You can customize the cache manager with the following configuration beans:

  • InfinispanGlobalConfigurer

  • InfinispanCacheConfigurer

  • Configuration

  • InfinispanConfigurationCustomizer

  • InfinispanGlobalConfigurationCustomizer

You can create one InfinispanGlobalConfigurer bean only. However you can create multiple configurations with the other beans.

InfinispanCacheConfigurer Bean
@Bean
public InfinispanCacheConfigurer cacheConfigurer() {
        return manager -> {
                final Configuration ispnConfig = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                        .clustering()
                        .cacheMode(CacheMode.LOCAL)
                        .build();

                manager.defineConfiguration("local-sync-config", ispnConfig);
        };
}
Configuration Bean

Link the bean name to the cache that it configures, as follows:

@Bean(name = "small-cache")
public org.infinispan.configuration.cache.Configuration smallCache() {
    return new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .read(baseCache)
        .memory().size(1000L)
        .memory().evictionType(EvictionType.COUNT)
        .build();
}

@Bean(name = "large-cache")
public org.infinispan.configuration.cache.Configuration largeCache() {
    return new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .read(baseCache)
        .memory().size(2000L)
        .build();
}
Customizer Beans
@Bean
public InfinispanGlobalConfigurationCustomizer globalCustomizer() {
   return builder -> builder.transport().clusterName(CLUSTER_NAME);
}

@Bean
public InfinispanConfigurationCustomizer configurationCustomizer() {
   return builder -> builder.memory().evictionType(EvictionType.COUNT);
}

2.3. Enabling Spring Cache Support

With both embedded and remote caches, Infinispan provides an implementation of Spring Cache that you can enable.

Procedure
  • Add the @EnableCaching annotation to your application.

If the Infinispan starter detects the:

  • EmbeddedCacheManager bean, it instantiates a new SpringEmbeddedCacheManager.

  • RemoteCacheManager bean, it instantiates a new SpringRemoteCacheManager.

3. Using Remote Caches

Store and retrieve data from remote Infinispan clusters using Hot Rod, a custom TCP binary wire protocol.

3.1. Setting Up the RemoteCacheManager

Configure your application to use remote caches on Infinispan clusters.

  1. Provide the addresses where Infinispan Server listens for client connections so the starter can create the RemoteCacheManager bean.

  2. Use the Spring @Autowired annotation to include your own custom cache manager class in your application:

    private final RemoteCacheManager cacheManager;
    
    @Autowired
    public YourClassName(RemoteCacheManager cacheManager) {
        this.cacheManager = cacheManager;
    }

3.1.1. Properties Files

You can specify properties in either hotrod-client.properties or application.properties.

Properties can be in both properties files but the starter applies the configuration in hotrod-client.properties first, which means that file takes priority over application.properties.

hotrod-client.properties

Properties in this file take the format of infinispan.client.hotrod.*, for example:

# List Infinispan servers by IP address or hostname at port localhost:11222.
infinispan.client.hotrod.server_list=127.0.0.1:11222
application.properties

Properties in this file take the format of infinispan.remote.*, for example:

# List Infinispan servers by IP address or hostname at port localhost:11222.
infinispan.remote.server-list=127.0.0.1:11222
Additional resources

3.2. Configuring Marshalling

Configure Infinispan to marshall Java objects into binary format so they can be transferred over the wire or stored to disk.

By default Infinispan uses a Java Serialization marshaller, which requires you to add your classes to an allow list. As an alternative you can use ProtoStream, which requires you to annotate your classes and generate a SerializationContextInitializer for custom Java objects.

Procedure
  1. Open hotrod-client.properties or application.properties for editing.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Use ProtoStream as the marshaller.

      infinispan.client.hotrod.marshaller=org.infinispan.commons.marshall.ProtoStreamMarshaller
      infinispan.remote.marshaller=org.infinispan.commons.marshall.ProtoStreamMarshaller
    • Add your classes to the serialization allow list if you use Java Serialization. You can specify a comma-separated list of fully qualified class names or a regular expression to match classes.

      infinispan.client.hotrod.java_serial_allowlist=your_marshalled_beans_package.*
      infinispan.remote.java-serial-allowlist=your_marshalled_beans_package.*
  3. Save and close your properties file.

Additional resources

3.3. Cache Manager Configuration Beans

Customize the cache manager with the following configuration beans:

  • InfinispanRemoteConfigurer

  • Configuration

  • InfinispanRemoteCacheCustomizer

You can create one InfinispanRemoteConfigurer bean only. However you can create multiple configurations with the other beans.

InfinispanRemoteConfigurer Bean
@Bean
public InfinispanRemoteConfigurer infinispanRemoteConfigurer() {
    return () -> new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .addServer()
        .host("127.0.0.1")
        .port(12345)
        .build();
}
Configuration Bean
@Bean
public org.infinispan.client.hotrod.configuration.Configuration customConfiguration() {
    new ConfigurationBuilder()
        .addServer()
        .host("127.0.0.1")
        .port(12345)
        .build();
}
InfinispanRemoteCacheCustomizer Bean
@Bean
public InfinispanRemoteCacheCustomizer customizer() {
    return b -> b.tcpKeepAlive(false);
}

Use the @Ordered annotation to apply customizers in a specific order.

3.4. Enabling Spring Cache Support

With both embedded and remote caches, Infinispan provides an implementation of Spring Cache that you can enable.

Procedure
  • Add the @EnableCaching annotation to your application.

If the Infinispan starter detects the:

  • EmbeddedCacheManager bean, it instantiates a new SpringEmbeddedCacheManager.

  • RemoteCacheManager bean, it instantiates a new SpringRemoteCacheManager.

3.5. Exposing Infinispan Statistics

Infinispan supports the Spring Boot Actuator to expose cache statistics as metrics.

Procedure
  1. Add the following to your pom.xml file:

    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
      <version>${version.spring.boot}</version>
     </dependency>
    
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
      <version>${version.spring.boot}</version>
    </dependency>
  2. Activate statistics for the appropriate cache instances, either programmatically or declaratively.

    Programmatically
    @Bean
    public InfinispanCacheConfigurer cacheConfigurer() {
      return cacheManager -> {
         final org.infinispan.configuration.cache.Configuration config =
               new ConfigurationBuilder()
                     .jmxStatistics().enable()
                     .build();
    
         cacheManager.defineConfiguration("my-cache", config);
      };
    }
    Declaratively
    <local-cache statistics="true"/>

The Spring Boot Actuator registry binds cache instances when your application starts.

If you create caches dynamically, you should use the CacheMetricsRegistrar bean to bind caches to the Actuator registry, as follows:

@Autowire
CacheMetricsRegistrar cacheMetricsRegistrar;

@Autowire
CacheManager cacheManager;
...

cacheMetricsRegistrar.bindCacheToRegistry(cacheManager.getCache("my-cache"));

4. Using Spring Session

4.1. Enabling Spring Session Support

Infinispan Spring Session support is built on SpringRemoteCacheManager and SpringEmbeddedCacheManager. The Infinispan starter produces those beans by default.

Procedure
  1. Add this starter to your project.

  2. Add Spring Session to the classpath.

  3. Add the following annotations to your configuration:

    • @EnableCaching

    • @EnableInfinispanRemoteHttpSession

    • @EnableInfinispanEmbeddedHttpSession

Infinispan does not provide a default cache. To use Spring Session, you must first create a Infinispan cache.

5. Application Properties

Configure your project with application.properties or application.yaml.

#
# Embedded Properties - Uncomment properties to use them.
#

# Enables embedded capabilities in your application.
# Values are true (default) or false.
#infinispan.embedded.enabled =

# Sets the Spring state machine ID.
#infinispan.embedded.machineId =

# Sets the name of the embedded cluster.
#infinispan.embedded.clusterName =

# Specifies a XML configuration file that takes priority over the global
# configuration bean or any configuration customizer.
#infinispan.embedded.configXml =

#
# Server Properties - Uncomment properties to use them.
#

# Specifies a custom filename for Hot Rod client properties.
#infinispan.remote.clientProperties =

# Enables remote server connections.
# Values are true (default) or false.
#infinispan.remote.enabled =

# Defines a comma-separated list of servers in this format:
# `host1[:port],host2[:port]`.
#infinispan.remote.server-list=

# Sets a timeout value, in milliseconds, for socket connections.
#infinispan.remote.socketTimeout =

# Sets a timeout value for initializing connections with servers.
#infinispan.remote.connectTimeout =

# Sets the maximum number of attempts to connect to servers.
#infinispan.remote.maxRetries =

# Specifies the marshaller to use.
#infinispan.remote.marshaller =

# Adds your classes to the serialization allow list.
#infinispan.remote.java-serial-allowlist=