Remote Cache Administration

What You Will Learn

How to create remote caches programmatically using the Hot Rod admin API. You will create caches with no configuration, from a template, and from XML configuration.

Prerequisites

Java 17+
An Infinispan Server running on localhost:11222 (or Docker/Podman available for Testcontainers)

Step 1: Add the Hot Rod Client Dependency

Add the Infinispan Hot Rod client to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.infinispan</groupId>
   <artifactId>infinispan-client-hotrod</artifactId>
</dependency>

Step 2: Create a Simple Cache

Use the admin API to create a cache with no configuration:

        try {
            cacheManager.administration().createCache(SIMPLE_CACHE, (String)null);
            System.out.println("SimpleCache created.");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Expected to fail for multiple invocations as the cache exists message: " + e.getMessage());
        }

If the cache already exists, createCache throws an exception. Use getOrCreateCache instead for idempotent creation.

Step 3: Create Caches from Templates and XML

You can also create caches from a registered template or a full XML cache definition using StringConfiguration.

Define a cache template in XML:

<infinispan>
    <cache-container>
        <distributed-cache-configuration name="template" remote-timeout="17500" statistics="true">
            <locking acquire-timeout="15000" striping="false" concurrency-level="1000"/>
            <encoding media-type="application/x-protostream"/>
            <state-transfer timeout="60000"/>
        </distributed-cache-configuration>
    </cache-container>
</infinispan>

Then register the template and create caches using both approaches:

        // Create a cache from a template
        Path path = Paths.get(InfinispanRemoteAdminCache.class.getClassLoader().getResource("cacheTemplate.xml").getPath());
        String xmlTemplate = Files.readString(path);
        try {
            cacheManager.administration().createTemplate("template", new StringConfiguration(xmlTemplate));
        } catch (Exception ce) {
            System.out.println(ce.getMessage());
        }
        cacheManager.administration().getOrCreateCache(CACHE_WITH_TEMPLATE, "template");

        // Create a cache with full XML configuration
        String xml = Files.readString(Paths.get(InfinispanRemoteAdminCache.class.getClassLoader().getResource("CacheWithXMLConfiguration.xml").getPath()));
        cacheManager.administration().getOrCreateCache(CACHE_WITH_XMLCONFIGURATION, new StringConfiguration(xml));

The XML cache definition file (CacheWithXMLConfiguration.xml) specifies the full cache configuration including encoding, locking, transactions, and expiration settings.

Step 4: Run the Tutorial

mvn package exec:java

You should see output like:

SimpleCache created.
Cache created from default template.
Cache with configuration exists or is created.

What’s Next

Get started with basic cache operations
Add aliases to your caches
Listen to cache events with client listeners