GridGain Near Cache Not storing data

Question

I have a query re. the setup of the GridGain near cache, we have a single server node with the config as listed below and have a single thick client connecting successfully to it ~

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

    <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.IgniteConfiguration">

<!-- PEER CLASS LOADING -->
        <property name="peerClassLoadingEnabled" value="true"/>
        
<!-- CACHE CONFIG-->
        <property name="cacheConfiguration">
            <list>
<!-- ENTER CACHE TEMPLATE-->
                <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.CacheConfiguration">
                    <property name="name" value="cache1"/>
                    <property name="cacheMode" value="PARTITIONED"/>
                    <property name="rebalanceMode" value="SYNC"/>
                    <property name="nearConfiguration">
                    <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.NearCacheConfiguration">
                        <property name="nearEvictionPolicyFactory">
                            <bean class="org.apache.ignite.cache.eviction.lru.LruEvictionPolicyFactory">
                                <property name="maxSize" value="100000"/>
                            </bean>
                        </property>
                    </bean>
                    </property>
                </bean>
                <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.CacheConfiguration">
                    <property name="name" value="cache2"/>
                    <property name="cacheMode" value="PARTITIONED"/>
                    <property name="rebalanceMode" value="SYNC"/>
                    <property name="nearConfiguration">
                    <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.NearCacheConfiguration">
                        <property name="nearEvictionPolicyFactory">
                            <bean class="org.apache.ignite.cache.eviction.lru.LruEvictionPolicyFactory">
                                <property name="maxSize" value="100000"/>
                            </bean>
                        </property>
                    </bean>
                    </property>
                </bean>      
                <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.CacheConfiguration">
                    <property name="name" value="cache3"/>
                    <property name="cacheMode" value="PARTITIONED"/>
                    <property name="rebalanceMode" value="SYNC"/>
                    <property name="nearConfiguration">
                    <bean class="org.apache.ignite.configuration.NearCacheConfiguration">
                        <property name="nearEvictionPolicyFactory">
                            <bean class="org.apache.ignite.cache.eviction.lru.LruEvictionPolicyFactory">
                                <property name="maxSize" value="100000"/>
                            </bean>
                        </property>
                    </bean>
                    </property>
                </bean>                            
            </list>
        </property>

<!-- DISCOVERY-->
        <property name="discoverySpi">
            <bean class="org.apache.ignite.spi.discovery.tcp.TcpDiscoverySpi">
                <property name="ipFinder">
                    <bean class="org.apache.ignite.spi.discovery.tcp.ipfinder.kubernetes.TcpDiscoveryKubernetesIpFinder">
                        <property name="namespace" value="gridgain"/>
                        <property name="serviceName" value="gridgain-service"/>
                    </bean>
                </property>
            </bean>
        </property>
    </bean>
</beans>

In setting the server up like this it was my understanding that as per the documentation here , that "Once configured in this way, the near cache is created on any node that requests data from the underlying cache, including both server nodes and client nodes. When you get an instance of the cache, as shown in the following example, the data requests go through the near cache.

IgniteCache<Integer, Integer> cache = ignite.cache("myCache");

int value = cache.get(1);

Based on this I do not believe that I have any need to create the near cache config on our client? and have just implemented code as ~ IgniteCache<Object, Object> cache = ignite.cache(ourCacheName);

The issue I see is that when I peek at the local cache to try and find values in there, after searching for them ~ cache_.localPeek(key, CachePeekMode.NEAR)

The objects are not found, despite being searched for several times, and it looks like they are not added to our near cache setup, everything just refers to the underlying cache. Previously we had programmatically created the Near cache on the client and it had worked, but we would like to config the solution on the server if possible. Our client node is just using default config, if this makes a difference.

Any thoughts why we are not seeing a near cache?

Thanks, LS

Answer 1

In order to use the cache I suggest you create the near cache explicitly using the following syntax:

IgniteCache<Integer, Integer> clientCache = client.getOrCreateNearCache(cacheCfg.getName(), nearCfg);
    ...
clientCache.get(1);
System.out.println(clientCache.localPeek(1,  CachePeekMode.NEAR));

There are some tickets like IGNITE-15960 or IGNITE-1163 with discussions about the API improvements. I suppose the cache has to be declared on the servers first and then you would be able to create it explicitly on the clients. Agree, the docs and API are super confusing and have to be reworked.

Also, the near cache is local to a node, i.e. you might have them for some clients/servers and do not want to create it for other ones.