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Change Data Capture

Overview

Change Data Capture (CDC) is a data processing pattern used to asynchronously receive entries that have been changed on the local node so that action can be taken using the changed entry.

Warning

CDC is an experimental feature. API or design architecture might be changed.

Below are some CDC use cases:

Streaming changes in Warehouse;
Updating search index;
Calculating statistics (streaming queries);
Auditing logs;
Async interaction with extenal system: Moderation, business process invocation, etc.

Ignite implements CDC with the ignite-cdc.sh application and Java API.

Below are the CDC application and the Ignite node integrated via WAL archive segments:

CDC design

When CDC is enabled, the Ignite server node creates a hard link to each WAL archive segment in the special db/cdc/{consistency_id} directory. The ignite-cdc.sh application runs on a different JVM and processes newly archived WAL segments. When the segment is fully processed by ignite-cdc.sh, it is removed. The actual disk space is free when both links (archive and CDC) are removed.

State of consumption is a pointer to the last processed event. Consumer can tell to ignite-cdc.sh to save the consumption state. On startup event processing will be continued from the last saved state.

Configuration

Ignite Node

Name Description Default value

Name	Description	Default value
`DataRegionConfiguration#cdcEnabled`	Flag to enable CDC on the server node.	`false`
`DataStorageConfiguration#cdcWalPath`	Path to the CDC directory	`"db/wal/cdc"`
`DataStorageConfiguration#walForceArchiveTimeout`	Timeout to forcefully archive the WAL segment even it is not complete.	`-1` (disabled)

DataRegionConfiguration#cdcEnabled

Flag to enable CDC on the server node.

false

DataStorageConfiguration#cdcWalPath

Path to the CDC directory

"db/wal/cdc"

DataStorageConfiguration#walForceArchiveTimeout

Timeout to forcefully archive the WAL segment even it is not complete.

-1 (disabled)

CDC Application

CDC is configured in the same way as the Ignite node - via the spring XML file:

ignite-cdc.sh requires both Ignite and CDC configurations to start;
IgniteConfiguration is used to determine common options like a path to the CDC directory, node consistent id, and other parameters;
CdcConfiguration contains ignite-cdc.sh-specific options.

Name Description Default value

Name	Description	Default value
`lockTimeout`	Timeout to wait for lock acquiring. CDC locks directory on a startup to ensure there is no concurrent `ignite-cdc.sh` processing the same directory.	1000 milliseconds.
`checkFrequency`	Amount of time application sleeps between subsequent checks when no new files available.	1000 milliseconds.
`keepBinary`	Flag to specify if key and value of changed entries should be provided in binary format.	`true`
`consumer`	Implementation of `org.apache.ignite.cdc.CdcConsumer` that consumes entries changes.	null
`metricExporterSpi`	Array of SPI’s to export CDC metrics. See metrics documentation, also.	null

lockTimeout

Timeout to wait for lock acquiring. CDC locks directory on a startup to ensure there is no concurrent ignite-cdc.sh processing the same directory.

1000 milliseconds.

checkFrequency

Amount of time application sleeps between subsequent checks when no new files available.

1000 milliseconds.

keepBinary

Flag to specify if key and value of changed entries should be provided in binary format.

true

consumer

Implementation of org.apache.ignite.cdc.CdcConsumer that consumes entries changes.

null

metricExporterSpi

Array of SPI’s to export CDC metrics. See metrics documentation, also.

null

Distributed properties

The distributed properties listed in the table below allow you to configure CDC at runtime:

Property Description Default Value

Property	Description	Default Value
`cdc.disabled`	Disables CDC in the cluster to avoid disk overflow. Note that cache changes will be lost when CDC is disabled. Useful if the CDC application is down for a long time.	false

cdc.disabled

Disables CDC in the cluster to avoid disk overflow. Note that cache changes will be lost when CDC is disabled. Useful if the CDC application is down for a long time.

false

API

`org.apache.ignite.cdc.CdcEvent`

Below is a single change of the data reflected by CdcEvent.

Name Description

Name	Description
`key()`	Key for the changed entry.
`value()`	Value for the changed entry. This method will return `null` if the event reflects removal.
`cacheId()`	ID of the cache where the change happens. The value is equal to the `CACHE_ID` from `SYS.CACHES`.
`partition()`	Partition of the changed entry.
`primary()`	Flag to distinguish if operation happens on the primary or a backup node.
`version()`	`Comparable` version of the changed entry. Internally, Ignite maintains ordered versions of each entry so any changes of the same entry can be sorted.

key()

Key for the changed entry.

value()

Value for the changed entry. This method will return null if the event reflects removal.

cacheId()

ID of the cache where the change happens. The value is equal to the CACHE_ID from SYS.CACHES.

partition()

Partition of the changed entry.

primary()

Flag to distinguish if operation happens on the primary or a backup node.

version()

Comparable version of the changed entry. Internally, Ignite maintains ordered versions of each entry so any changes of the same entry can be sorted.

`org.apache.ignite.cdc.CdcConsumer`

The consumer of change events. It should be implemented by the user.

Name Description

Name	Description
`void start(MetricRegistry)`	Invoked one-time at the start of the CDC application. `MetricRegistry` should be used to export the consumer-specific metrics.
`boolean onEvents(Iterator<CdcEvent> events)`	The main method that processes changes. When this method returns `true`, the state is saved on the disk. State points to the event next to the last read event. In case of any failure, consumption will continue from the last saved state.
`void stop()`	Invokes one-time at the stop of the CDC application.

void start(MetricRegistry)

Invoked one-time at the start of the CDC application. MetricRegistry should be used to export the consumer-specific metrics.

boolean onEvents(Iterator<CdcEvent> events)

The main method that processes changes. When this method returns true, the state is saved on the disk. State points to the event next to the last read event. In case of any failure, consumption will continue from the last saved state.

void stop()

Invokes one-time at the stop of the CDC application.

Metrics

ignite-cdc.sh uses the same SPI to export metrics as Ignite does. The following metrics are provided by the application (additional metrics can be provided by the consumer):

Name

Description

CurrentSegmentIndex

Index of the currently processing WAL segment.

CommittedSegmentIndex

Index of the WAL segment that contains the last committed state.

CommittedSegmentOffset

Committed offset in bytes inside the WAL segment.

LastSegmentConsumptionTime

Timestamp (in milliseconds) indicating the last segment processing start.

BinaryMetaDir

Binary meta-directory the application reads data from.

MarshallerDir

Marshaller directory the application reads data from.

CdcDir

The CDC directory the application reads data from.

SegmentConsumingTime

Time of WAL segment consumption by consumer, in milliseconds.

Logging

ignite-cdc.sh uses the same logging configuration as the Ignite node does. The only difference is that the log is written in the"ignite-cdc.log" file.

Lifecycle

Important

ignite-cdc.sh implements the fail-fast approach. It just fails in case of any error. The restart procedure should be configured with the OS tools.

Find the required shared directories. Take the values from the provided IgniteConfiguration.
Lock the CDC directory.
Load the saved state.
Start the consumer.
Infinitely wait for the newly available segment and process it.
Stop the consumer in case of a failure or a received stop signal.

Handling skipped segments

The CDC can be disabled manually or by configured directory maximum size. In this case a hard link creation will be skipped.

Warning

All changes in skipped segments will be lost!

So when enabled there will be gap between segments: 0000000000000002.wal, 0000000000000010.wal, 0000000000000011.wal, for example. In this case ignite-cdc.sh will fail with the something like "Found missed segments. Some events are missed. Exiting! [lastSegment=2, nextSegment=10]".

Note	Make sure you need to sync data before restarting the CDC application. You can synchronize caches using resend command, snapshot or other methods.

To fix this error you can run the following Control Script command:

# Delete lost segment CDC links in the cluster.
control.sh|bat --cdc delete_lost_segment_links

# Delete lost segment CDC links on a node.
control.sh|bat --cdc delete_lost_segment_links --node-id node_id

The command will remove all segment links before the last gap.

For example, CDC was turned off several times: 000000000000002.wal, 000000000000003.wal, 000000000000008.wal, 0000000000000010.wal, 0000000000000011.wal Then, after the command is executed, the following segment links will be deleted: 000000000000002.wal, 000000000000003.wal, 000000000000008.wal. The application will start from the 0000000000000010.wal segment after being enabled.

Forcefully resend all cache data to CDC

When the CDC has been forcefully disabled for a while, cache changes will be skipped. In this case it is necessary to resend data from existing caches. For example, this is important if you need to ensure consistency of cache data before a replication restart.

Note	The command will be canceled if cluster was not rebalanced or topology changed (node left/joined, baseline changed).

To forcefully resend all cache data to CDC you can run the following Control Script command:

# Forcefully resend all cache data to CDC. Iterates over caches and writes primary copies of data entries to the WAL to get captured by CDC:
control.sh|bat --cdc resend --caches cache1,...,cacheN

The command will iterate over caches and writes primary copies of data entries to the WAL to get captured by the CDC application.

Note	There are no guarantees of notifying the CDC consumer on concurrent cache updates: use the `CdcEvent#version` to resolve version.

cdc-ext

Ignite extensions project has cdc-ext module which provides two way to setup cross cluster replication based on CDC. Detailed documentation can be found on page.

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