Distributed Data

You are viewing the documentation for the new actor APIs, to view the Akka Classic documentation, see Classic Distributed Data.

Module info

The Akka dependencies are available from Akka’s library repository. To access them there, you need to configure the URL for this repository.

sbt

resolvers += "Akka library repository".at("https://repo.akka.io/maven")

Maven

<project>
  ...
  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>akka-repository</id>
      <name>Akka library repository</name>
      <url>https://repo.akka.io/maven</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
</project>

Gradle

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    maven {
        url "https://repo.akka.io/maven"
    }
}

To use Akka Cluster Distributed Data, you must add the following dependency in your project:

sbt

val AkkaVersion = "2.10.0+14-bc29c0c3-SNAPSHOT"
libraryDependencies += "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-cluster-typed" % AkkaVersion

Maven

<properties>
  <scala.binary.version>2.13</scala.binary.version>
</properties>
<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
      <artifactId>akka-bom_${scala.binary.version}</artifactId>
      <version>2.10.0+14-bc29c0c3-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>
<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.akka</groupId>
    <artifactId>akka-cluster-typed_${scala.binary.version}</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Gradle

def versions = [
  ScalaBinary: "2.13"
]
dependencies {
  implementation platform("com.typesafe.akka:akka-bom_${versions.ScalaBinary}:2.10.0+14-bc29c0c3-SNAPSHOT")

  implementation "com.typesafe.akka:akka-cluster-typed_${versions.ScalaBinary}"
}

Project Info: Akka Cluster (typed)
Artifact	com.typesafe.akka akka-cluster-typed 2.10.0+14-bc29c0c3-SNAPSHOT Snapshots are available
JDK versions	Eclipse Temurin JDK 11 Eclipse Temurin JDK 17 Eclipse Temurin JDK 21
Scala versions	2.13.15, 3.3.4
JPMS module name	akka.cluster.typed
License	BUSL-1.1
Readiness level	Supported, support is available from Lightbend Since 2.6.0, 2019-11-06
Home page	https://akka.io/
API documentation	API (Scaladoc) API (Javadoc)
Forums	Lightbend Discuss
Release notes	akka.io blog
Issues	Github issues
Sources	https://github.com/akka/akka

Introduction

Akka Distributed Data is useful when you need to share data between nodes in an Akka Cluster. The data is accessed with an actor providing a key-value store like API. The keys are unique identifiers with type information of the data values. The values are Conflict Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs).

All data entries are spread to all nodes, or nodes with a certain role, in the cluster via direct replication and gossip based dissemination. You have fine grained control of the consistency level for reads and writes.

The nature of CRDTs makes it possible to perform updates from any node without coordination. Concurrent updates from different nodes will automatically be resolved by the monotonic merge function, which all data types must provide. The state changes always converge. Several useful data types for counters, sets, maps and registers are provided and you can also implement your own custom data types.

It is eventually consistent and geared toward providing high read and write availability (partition tolerance), with low latency. Note that in an eventually consistent system a read may return an out-of-date value.

Using the Replicator

You can interact with the data through the replicator actor which can be accessed through the DistributedDataDistributedData extension.

The messages for the replicator, such as Replicator.UpdateReplicator.Update are defined as subclasses of Replicator.CommandReplicator.Command and the actual CRDTs are defined in the akka.cluster.ddata package, for example GCounterGCounter. It requires a implicit akka.cluster.ddata.SelfUniqueAddress, available from:

Scala

sourceimplicit val node: SelfUniqueAddress = DistributedData(context.system).selfUniqueAddress

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(context.getSystem()).selfUniqueAddress();

The replicator can contain multiple entries each containing a replicated data type, we therefore need to create a key identifying the entry and helping us know what type it has, and then use that key for every interaction with the replicator. Each replicated data type contains a factory for defining such a key.

Cluster members with status WeaklyUp, will participate in Distributed Data. This means that the data will be replicated to the WeaklyUp nodes with the background gossip protocol. Note that it will not participate in any actions where the consistency mode is to read/write from all nodes or the majority of nodes. The WeaklyUp node is not counted as part of the cluster. So 3 nodes + 5 WeaklyUp is essentially a 3 node cluster as far as consistent actions are concerned.

This sample uses the replicated data type GCounter to implement a counter that can be written to on any node of the cluster:

Scala

sourceimport akka.actor.typed.ActorRef
import akka.actor.typed.Behavior
import akka.actor.typed.scaladsl.Behaviors
import akka.cluster.ddata.GCounter
import akka.cluster.ddata.GCounterKey
import akka.cluster.ddata.typed.scaladsl.Replicator._

object Counter {
  sealed trait Command
  case object Increment extends Command
  final case class GetValue(replyTo: ActorRef[Int]) extends Command
  final case class GetCachedValue(replyTo: ActorRef[Int]) extends Command
  case object Unsubscribe extends Command
  private sealed trait InternalCommand extends Command
  private case class InternalUpdateResponse(rsp: Replicator.UpdateResponse[GCounter]) extends InternalCommand
  private case class InternalGetResponse(rsp: Replicator.GetResponse[GCounter], replyTo: ActorRef[Int])
      extends InternalCommand
  private case class InternalSubscribeResponse(chg: Replicator.SubscribeResponse[GCounter]) extends InternalCommand

  def apply(key: GCounterKey): Behavior[Command] =
    Behaviors.setup[Command] { context =>
      implicit val node: SelfUniqueAddress = DistributedData(context.system).selfUniqueAddress

      // adapter that turns the response messages from the replicator into our own protocol
      DistributedData.withReplicatorMessageAdapter[Command, GCounter] { replicatorAdapter =>
        // Subscribe to changes of the given `key`.
        replicatorAdapter.subscribe(key, InternalSubscribeResponse.apply)

        def updated(cachedValue: Int): Behavior[Command] = {
          Behaviors.receiveMessage[Command] {
            case Increment =>
              replicatorAdapter.askUpdate(
                askReplyTo => Replicator.Update(key, GCounter.empty, Replicator.WriteLocal, askReplyTo)(_ :+ 1),
                InternalUpdateResponse.apply)

              Behaviors.same

            case GetValue(replyTo) =>
              replicatorAdapter.askGet(
                askReplyTo => Replicator.Get(key, Replicator.ReadLocal, askReplyTo),
                value => InternalGetResponse(value, replyTo))

              Behaviors.same

            case GetCachedValue(replyTo) =>
              replyTo ! cachedValue
              Behaviors.same

            case Unsubscribe =>
              replicatorAdapter.unsubscribe(key)
              Behaviors.same

            case internal: InternalCommand =>
              internal match {
                case InternalUpdateResponse(_) => Behaviors.same // ok

                case InternalGetResponse(rsp @ Replicator.GetSuccess(`key`), replyTo) =>
                  val value = rsp.get(key).value.toInt
                  replyTo ! value
                  Behaviors.same

                case InternalGetResponse(_, _) =>
                  Behaviors.unhandled // not dealing with failures
                case InternalSubscribeResponse(chg @ Replicator.Changed(`key`)) =>
                  val value = chg.get(key).value.intValue
                  updated(value)

                case InternalSubscribeResponse(Replicator.Deleted(_)) =>
                  Behaviors.unhandled // no deletes

                case InternalSubscribeResponse(_) => // changed but wrong key
                  Behaviors.unhandled

              }
          }
        }

        updated(cachedValue = 0)
      }
    }
}

Java

sourceimport akka.actor.typed.ActorRef;
import akka.actor.typed.Behavior;
import akka.actor.typed.javadsl.AbstractBehavior;
import akka.actor.typed.javadsl.ActorContext;
import akka.actor.typed.javadsl.Behaviors;
import akka.actor.typed.javadsl.Receive;
import akka.cluster.ddata.GCounter;
import akka.cluster.ddata.Key;
import akka.cluster.ddata.SelfUniqueAddress;
import akka.cluster.ddata.typed.javadsl.DistributedData;
import akka.cluster.ddata.typed.javadsl.Replicator;
import akka.cluster.ddata.typed.javadsl.ReplicatorMessageAdapter;

  public class Counter extends AbstractBehavior<Counter.Command> {
    interface Command {}

    enum Increment implements Command {
      INSTANCE
    }

    public static class GetValue implements Command {
      public final ActorRef<Integer> replyTo;

      public GetValue(ActorRef<Integer> replyTo) {
        this.replyTo = replyTo;
      }
    }

    public static class GetCachedValue implements Command {
      public final ActorRef<Integer> replyTo;

      public GetCachedValue(ActorRef<Integer> replyTo) {
        this.replyTo = replyTo;
      }
    }

    enum Unsubscribe implements Command {
      INSTANCE
    }

    private interface InternalCommand extends Command {}

    private static class InternalUpdateResponse implements InternalCommand {
      final Replicator.UpdateResponse<GCounter> rsp;

      InternalUpdateResponse(Replicator.UpdateResponse<GCounter> rsp) {
        this.rsp = rsp;
      }
    }

    private static class InternalGetResponse implements InternalCommand {
      final Replicator.GetResponse<GCounter> rsp;
      final ActorRef<Integer> replyTo;

      InternalGetResponse(Replicator.GetResponse<GCounter> rsp, ActorRef<Integer> replyTo) {
        this.rsp = rsp;
        this.replyTo = replyTo;
      }
    }

    private static final class InternalSubscribeResponse implements InternalCommand {
      final Replicator.SubscribeResponse<GCounter> rsp;

      InternalSubscribeResponse(Replicator.SubscribeResponse<GCounter> rsp) {
        this.rsp = rsp;
      }
    }

    public static Behavior<Command> create(Key<GCounter> key) {
      return Behaviors.setup(
          ctx ->
              DistributedData.withReplicatorMessageAdapter(
                  (ReplicatorMessageAdapter<Command, GCounter> replicatorAdapter) ->
                      new Counter(ctx, replicatorAdapter, key)));
    }

    // adapter that turns the response messages from the replicator into our own protocol
    private final ReplicatorMessageAdapter<Command, GCounter> replicatorAdapter;
    private final SelfUniqueAddress node;
    private final Key<GCounter> key;

    private int cachedValue = 0;

    private Counter(
        ActorContext<Command> context,
        ReplicatorMessageAdapter<Command, GCounter> replicatorAdapter,
        Key<GCounter> key) {
      super(context);

      this.replicatorAdapter = replicatorAdapter;
      this.key = key;

      final SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(context.getSystem()).selfUniqueAddress();

      this.node = DistributedData.get(context.getSystem()).selfUniqueAddress();

      this.replicatorAdapter.subscribe(this.key, InternalSubscribeResponse::new);
    }

    @Override
    public Receive<Command> createReceive() {
      return newReceiveBuilder()
          .onMessage(Increment.class, this::onIncrement)
          .onMessage(InternalUpdateResponse.class, msg -> Behaviors.same())
          .onMessage(GetValue.class, this::onGetValue)
          .onMessage(GetCachedValue.class, this::onGetCachedValue)
          .onMessage(Unsubscribe.class, this::onUnsubscribe)
          .onMessage(InternalGetResponse.class, this::onInternalGetResponse)
          .onMessage(InternalSubscribeResponse.class, this::onInternalSubscribeResponse)
          .build();
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onIncrement(Increment cmd) {
      replicatorAdapter.askUpdate(
          askReplyTo ->
              new Replicator.Update<>(
                  key,
                  GCounter.empty(),
                  Replicator.writeLocal(),
                  askReplyTo,
                  curr -> curr.increment(node, 1)),
          InternalUpdateResponse::new);

      return this;
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onGetValue(GetValue cmd) {
      replicatorAdapter.askGet(
          askReplyTo -> new Replicator.Get<>(key, Replicator.readLocal(), askReplyTo),
          rsp -> new InternalGetResponse(rsp, cmd.replyTo));

      return this;
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onGetCachedValue(GetCachedValue cmd) {
      cmd.replyTo.tell(cachedValue);
      return this;
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onUnsubscribe(Unsubscribe cmd) {
      replicatorAdapter.unsubscribe(key);
      return this;
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onInternalGetResponse(InternalGetResponse msg) {
      if (msg.rsp instanceof Replicator.GetSuccess) {
        int value = ((Replicator.GetSuccess<?>) msg.rsp).get(key).getValue().intValue();
        msg.replyTo.tell(value);
        return this;
      } else {
        // not dealing with failures
        return Behaviors.unhandled();
      }
    }

    private Behavior<Command> onInternalSubscribeResponse(InternalSubscribeResponse msg) {
      if (msg.rsp instanceof Replicator.Changed) {
        GCounter counter = ((Replicator.Changed<?>) msg.rsp).get(key);
        cachedValue = counter.getValue().intValue();
        return this;
      } else {
        // no deletes
        return Behaviors.unhandled();
      }
    }
  }
}

Although you can interact with the Replicator using the ActorRef[Replicator.Command]ActorRef<Replicator.Command> from DistributedData(ctx.system).replicatorDistributedData(ctx.getSystem()).replicator() it’s often more convenient to use the ReplicatorMessageAdapter as in the above example.

Update

To modify and replicate a data value you send a Replicator.Update message to the local Replicator.

In the above example, for an incoming Increment command, we send the replicator a Replicator.Update request, it contains five values:

the KeyKEY we want to update
the data to use as the empty state if the replicator has not seen the key before
the write consistency level we want for the update
an ActorRef[Replicator.UpdateResponse[GCounter]]ActorRef<Replicator.UpdateResponse<GCounter>> to respond to when the update is completed
a modify function that takes a previous state and updates it, in our case by incrementing it with 1

There is alternative way of constructing the function for the Update message:

Scala

source// alternative way to define the `createRequest` function
// Replicator.Update instance has a curried `apply` method
replicatorAdapter.askUpdate(
  Replicator.Update(key, GCounter.empty, Replicator.WriteLocal)(_ :+ 1),
  InternalUpdateResponse.apply)

// that is the same as
replicatorAdapter.askUpdate(
  askReplyTo => Replicator.Update(key, GCounter.empty, Replicator.WriteLocal, askReplyTo)(_ :+ 1),
  InternalUpdateResponse.apply)

The current data value for the key of the Update is passed as parameter to the modify function of the Update. The function is supposed to return the new value of the data, which will then be replicated according to the given write consistency level.

The modify function is called by the Replicator actor and must therefore be a pure function that only uses the data parameter and stable fields from enclosing scope. It must for example not access the ActorContext or mutable state of an enclosing actor. Update is intended to only be sent from an actor running in same local ActorSystem as the Replicator, because the modify function is typically not serializable.

You will always see your own writes. For example if you send two Update messages changing the value of the same key, the modify function of the second message will see the change that was performed by the first Update message.

As reply of the Update a Replicator.UpdateSuccess is sent to the replyTo of the Update if the value was successfully replicated according to the supplied consistency level within the supplied timeout. Otherwise a Replicator.UpdateFailure subclass is sent back. Note that a Replicator.UpdateTimeout reply does not mean that the update completely failed or was rolled back. It may still have been replicated to some nodes, and will eventually be replicated to all nodes with the gossip protocol.

It is possible to abort the Update when inspecting the state parameter that is passed in to the modify function by throwing an exception. That happens before the update is performed and a Replicator.ModifyFailure is sent back as reply.

Get

To retrieve the current value of a data you send Replicator.Get message to the Replicator.

The example has the GetValue command, which is asking the replicator for current value. Note how the replyTo from the incoming message can be used when the GetSuccess response from the replicator is received.

Alternative way of constructing the function for the Get and Delete:

Scala

source// alternative way to define the `createRequest` function
// Replicator.Get instance has a curried `apply` method
replicatorAdapter.askGet(Replicator.Get(key, Replicator.ReadLocal), value => InternalGetResponse(value, replyTo))

// that is the same as
replicatorAdapter.askGet(
  askReplyTo => Replicator.Get(key, Replicator.ReadLocal, askReplyTo),
  value => InternalGetResponse(value, replyTo))

For a Get you supply a read consistency level.

You will always read your own writes. For example if you send a Update message followed by a Get of the same key the Get will retrieve the change that was performed by the preceding Update message. However, the order of the reply messages are not defined, i.e. in the previous example you may receive the GetSuccess before the UpdateSuccess.

As reply of the Get a Replicator.GetSuccess is sent to the replyTo of the Get if the value was successfully retrieved according to the supplied consistency level within the supplied timeout. Otherwise a Replicator.GetFailure is sent. If the key does not exist the reply will be Replicator.NotFound.

Whenever the distributed counter in the example is updated, we cache the value so that we can answer requests about the value without the extra interaction with the replicator using the GetCachedValue command.

When we start up the actor we subscribe it to changes for our key, meaning whenever the replicator observes a change for the counter our actor will receive a Replicator.Changed[GCounter]Replicator.Changed<GCounter>. Since this is not a message in our protocol, we use a message transformation function to wrap it in the internal InternalSubscribeResponse message, which is then handled in the regular message handling of the behavior, as shown in the above example. Subscribers will be notified of changes, if there are any, based on the configurable akka.cluster.distributed-data.notify-subscribers-interval.

The subscriber is automatically unsubscribed if the subscriber is terminated. A subscriber can also be de-registered with the replicatorAdapter.unsubscribe(key) function.

In addition to subscribing to individual keys it is possible to subscribe to all keys with a given prefix by using a * at the end of the key id. For example GCounterKey("counter-*"). Notifications will be sent for all matching keys, also new keys added later.

Delete

A data entry can be deleted by sending a Replicator.Delete message to the local Replicator. As reply of the Delete a Replicator.DeleteSuccess is sent to the replyTo of the Delete if the value was successfully deleted according to the supplied consistency level within the supplied timeout. Otherwise a Replicator.ReplicationDeleteFailure is sent. Note that ReplicationDeleteFailure does not mean that the delete completely failed or was rolled back. It may still have been replicated to some nodes, and may eventually be replicated to all nodes.

A deleted key cannot be reused again, but it is still recommended to delete unused data entries because that reduces the replication overhead when new nodes join the cluster. Subsequent Delete, Update and Get requests will be replied with Replicator.DataDeleted. Subscribers will receive Replicator.Deleted.

The automatic expiry is an alternative for removing unused data entries.

Warning

As deleted keys continue to be included in the stored data on each node as well as in gossip messages, a continuous series of updates and deletes of top-level entities will result in growing memory usage until an ActorSystem runs out of memory. To use Akka Distributed Data where frequent adds and removes are required, you should use automatic expiry or a fixed number of top-level data types that support both updates and removals, for example ORMap or ORSet.

Expire

A data entry can automatically be removed after a period of inactivity, i.e. when there has been no access of the entry with Get, Update or Delete.

Expiry is enabled for configured keys:

akka.cluster.distributed-data.expire-keys-after-inactivity {
 "key-1" = 10 minutes
 "cache-*" = 2 minutes
}

Prefix matching is supported by using * at the end of a key.

Expiry can be enabled for all entries by specifying:

akka.cluster.distributed-data.expire-keys-after-inactivity {
  "*" = 10 minutes
}

Subscribers will receive Replicator.Expired when an entry has expired.

Expired entries are completely removed and does not leave any tombstones as is the case for Delete. Expired keys can be reused again. Also deleted entries can be expired and then completely removed.

Consistency

The consistency level that is supplied in the Update and Get specifies per request how many replicas that must respond successfully to a write and read request.

WriteAll and ReadAll is the strongest consistency level, but also the slowest and with lowest availability. For example, it is enough that one node is unavailable for a Get request and you will not receive the value.

For low latency reads you use ReadLocalreadLocal with the risk of retrieving stale data, i.e. updates from other nodes might not be visible yet.

Write consistency

When using WriteLocalwriteLocal the Update is only written to the local replica and then disseminated in the background with the gossip protocol, which can take few seconds to spread to all nodes.

For an update you supply a write consistency level which has the following meaning:

WriteLocalwriteLocal the value will immediately only be written to the local replica, and later disseminated with gossip
WriteTo(n) the value will immediately be written to at least n replicas, including the local replica
WriteMajority the value will immediately be written to a majority of replicas, i.e. at least N/2 + 1 replicas, where N is the number of nodes in the cluster (or cluster role group)
WriteMajorityPlus is like WriteMajority but with the given number of additional nodes added to the majority count. At most all nodes. This gives better tolerance for membership changes between writes and reads. Exiting nodes are excluded using WriteMajorityPlus because those are typically about to be removed and will not be able to respond.
WriteAll the value will immediately be written to all nodes in the cluster (or all nodes in the cluster role group). Exiting nodes are excluded using WriteAll because those are typically about to be removed and will not be able to respond.

When you specify to write to n out of x nodes, the update will first replicate to n nodes. If there are not enough Acks after a 1/5th of the timeout, the update will be replicated to n other nodes. If there are less than n nodes left all of the remaining nodes are used. Reachable nodes are preferred over unreachable nodes.

Note that WriteMajority and WriteMajorityPlus have a minCap parameter that is useful to specify to achieve better safety for small clusters.

Read consistency

If consistency is a priority, you can ensure that a read always reflects the most recent write by using the following formula:

(nodes_written + nodes_read) > N

where N is the total number of nodes in the cluster, or the number of nodes with the role that is used for the Replicator.

You supply a consistency level which has the following meaning:

ReadLocalreadLocal the value will only be read from the local replica
ReadFrom(n) the value will be read and merged from n replicas, including the local replica
ReadMajority the value will be read and merged from a majority of replicas, i.e. at least N/2 + 1 replicas, where N is the number of nodes in the cluster (or cluster role group)
ReadMajorityPlus is like ReadMajority but with the given number of additional nodes added to the majority count. At most all nodes. This gives better tolerance for membership changes between writes and reads. Exiting nodes are excluded using ReadMajorityPlus because those are typically about to be removed and will not be able to respond.
ReadAll the value will be read and merged from all nodes in the cluster (or all nodes in the cluster role group). Exiting nodes are excluded using ReadAll because those are typically about to be removed and will not be able to respond.

Note that ReadMajority and ReadMajorityPlus have a minCap parameter that is useful to specify to achieve better safety for small clusters.

Consistency and response types

When using ReadLocal, you will never receive a GetFailure response, since the local replica is always available to local readers. WriteLocal however may still reply with UpdateFailure messages if the modify function throws an exception, or if it fails to persist to durable storage.

Examples

In a 7 node cluster these consistency properties are achieved by writing to 4 nodes and reading from 4 nodes, or writing to 5 nodes and reading from 3 nodes.

By combining WriteMajority and ReadMajority levels a read always reflects the most recent write. The Replicator writes and reads to a majority of replicas, i.e. N / 2 + 1. For example, in a 5 node cluster it writes to 3 nodes and reads from 3 nodes. In a 6 node cluster it writes to 4 nodes and reads from 4 nodes.

You can define a minimum number of nodes for WriteMajority and ReadMajority, this will minimize the risk of reading stale data. Minimum cap is provided by minCap property of WriteMajority and ReadMajority and defines the required majority. If the minCap is higher then N / 2 + 1 the minCap will be used.

For example if the minCap is 5 the WriteMajority and ReadMajority for cluster of 3 nodes will be 3, for cluster of 6 nodes will be 5 and for cluster of 12 nodes will be 7 ( N / 2 + 1 ).

For small clusters (<7) the risk of membership changes between a WriteMajority and ReadMajority is rather high and then the nice properties of combining majority write and reads are not guaranteed. Therefore the ReadMajority and WriteMajority have a minCap parameter that is useful to specify to achieve better safety for small clusters. It means that if the cluster size is smaller than the majority size it will use the minCap number of nodes but at most the total size of the cluster.

In some rare cases, when performing an Update it is needed to first try to fetch latest data from other nodes. That can be done by first sending a Get with ReadMajority and then continue with the Update when the GetSuccess, GetFailure or NotFound reply is received. This might be needed when you need to base a decision on latest information or when removing entries from an ORSet or ORMap. If an entry is added to an ORSet or ORMap from one node and removed from another node the entry will only be removed if the added entry is visible on the node where the removal is performed (hence the name observed-removed set).

Warning

Caveat: Even if you use WriteMajority and ReadMajority there is small risk that you may read stale data if the cluster membership has changed between the Update and the Get. For example, in cluster of 5 nodes when you Update and that change is written to 3 nodes: n1, n2, n3. Then 2 more nodes are added and a Get request is reading from 4 nodes, which happens to be n4, n5, n6, n7, i.e. the value on n1, n2, n3 is not seen in the response of the Get request. For additional tolerance of membership changes between writes and reads you can use WriteMajorityPlus and ReadMajorityPlus.

Running separate instances of the replicator

For some use cases, for example when limiting the replicator to certain roles, or using different subsets on different roles, it makes sense to start separate replicators, this needs to be done on all nodes, or the group of nodes tagged with a specific role. To do this with Distributed Data you will first have to start a classic Replicator and pass it to the Replicator.behavior method that takes a classic actor ref. All such Replicators must run on the same path in the classic actor hierarchy.

A standalone ReplicatorMessageAdapter can also be created for a given Replicator instead of creating one via the DistributedData extension.

Replicated data types

Akka contains a set of useful replicated data types and it is fully possible to implement custom replicated data types.

The data types must be convergent (stateful) CRDTs and implement the ReplicatedData traitAbstractReplicatedData interface, i.e. they provide a monotonic merge function and the state changes always converge.

You can use your own custom ReplicatedData or DeltaReplicatedDataAbstractReplicatedData or AbstractDeltaReplicatedData types, and several types are provided by this package, such as:

Counters: GCounter, PNCounter
Sets: GSet, ORSet
Maps: ORMap, ORMultiMap, LWWMap, PNCounterMap
Registers: LWWRegister, Flag

Counters

GCounter is a “grow only counter”. It only supports increments, no decrements.

It works in a similar way as a vector clock. It keeps track of one counter per node and the total value is the sum of these counters. The merge is implemented by taking the maximum count for each node.

If you need both increments and decrements you can use the PNCounter (positive/negative counter).

It is tracking the increments (P) separate from the decrements (N). Both P and N are represented as two internal GCounters. Merge is handled by merging the internal P and N counters. The value of the counter is the value of the P counter minus the value of the N counter.

Scala

sourceimplicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress

val c0 = PNCounter.empty
val c1 = c0 :+ 1
val c2 = c1 :+ 7
val c3: PNCounter = c2.decrement(2)
println(c3.value) // 6

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
final PNCounter c0 = PNCounter.create();
final PNCounter c1 = c0.increment(node, 1);
final PNCounter c2 = c1.increment(node, 7);
final PNCounter c3 = c2.decrement(node, 2);
System.out.println(c3.value()); // 6

GCounter and PNCounter have support for delta-CRDT and don’t need causal delivery of deltas.

Several related counters can be managed in a map with the PNCounterMap data type. When the counters are placed in a PNCounterMap as opposed to placing them as separate top level values they are guaranteed to be replicated together as one unit, which is sometimes necessary for related data.

Scala

sourceimplicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress
val m0 = PNCounterMap.empty[String]
val m1 = m0.increment(node, "a", 7)
val m2 = m1.decrement(node, "a", 2)
val m3 = m2.increment(node, "b", 1)
println(m3.get("a")) // 5
m3.entries.foreach { case (key, value) => println(s"$key -> $value") }

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
final PNCounterMap<String> m0 = PNCounterMap.create();
final PNCounterMap<String> m1 = m0.increment(node, "a", 7);
final PNCounterMap<String> m2 = m1.decrement(node, "a", 2);
final PNCounterMap<String> m3 = m2.increment(node, "b", 1);
System.out.println(m3.get("a")); // 5
System.out.println(m3.getEntries());

Sets

If you only need to add elements to a set and not remove elements the GSet (grow-only set) is the data type to use. The elements can be any type of values that can be serialized. Merge is the union of the two sets.

Scala

sourceval s0 = GSet.empty[String]
val s1 = s0 + "a"
val s2 = s1 + "b" + "c"
if (s2.contains("a"))
  println(s2.elements) // a, b, c

Java

sourcefinal GSet<String> s0 = GSet.create();
final GSet<String> s1 = s0.add("a");
final GSet<String> s2 = s1.add("b").add("c");
if (s2.contains("a")) System.out.println(s2.getElements()); // a, b, c

GSet has support for delta-CRDT and it doesn’t require causal delivery of deltas.

If you need add and remove operations you should use the ORSet (observed-remove set). Elements can be added and removed any number of times. If an element is concurrently added and removed, the add will win. You cannot remove an element that you have not seen.

The ORSet has a version vector that is incremented when an element is added to the set. The version for the node that added the element is also tracked for each element in a so called “birth dot”. The version vector and the dots are used by the merge function to track causality of the operations and resolve concurrent updates.

Scala

sourceimplicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress
val s0 = ORSet.empty[String]
val s1 = s0 :+ "a"
val s2 = s1 :+ "b"
val s3 = s2.remove("a")
println(s3.elements) // b

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
final ORSet<String> s0 = ORSet.create();
final ORSet<String> s1 = s0.add(node, "a");
final ORSet<String> s2 = s1.add(node, "b");
final ORSet<String> s3 = s2.remove(node, "a");
System.out.println(s3.getElements()); // b

ORSet has support for delta-CRDT and it requires causal delivery of deltas.

Maps

ORMap (observed-remove map) is a map with keys of Any type and the values are ReplicatedData types themselves. It supports add, update and remove any number of times for a map entry.

If an entry is concurrently added and removed, the add will win. You cannot remove an entry that you have not seen. This is the same semantics as for the ORSet.

If an entry is concurrently updated to different values the values will be merged, hence the requirement that the values must be ReplicatedData types.

While the ORMap supports removing and re-adding keys any number of times, the impact that this has on the values can be non-deterministic. A merge will always attempt to merge two values for the same key, regardless of whether that key has been removed and re-added in the meantime, an attempt to replace a value with a new one may not have the intended effect. This means that old values can effectively be resurrected if a node, that has seen both the remove and the update,gossips with a node that has seen neither. One consequence of this is that changing the value type of the CRDT, for example, from a GCounter to a GSet, could result in the merge function for the CRDT always failing. This could be an unrecoverable state for the node, hence, the types of ORMap values must never change for a given key.

It is rather inconvenient to use the ORMap directly since it does not expose specific types of the values. The ORMap is intended as a low level tool for building more specific maps, such as the following specialized maps.

ORMultiMap (observed-remove multi-map) is a multi-map implementation that wraps an ORMap with an ORSet for the map’s value.

PNCounterMap (positive negative counter map) is a map of named counters (where the name can be of any type). It is a specialized ORMap with PNCounter values.

LWWMap (last writer wins map) is a specialized ORMap with LWWRegister (last writer wins register) values.

ORMap, ORMultiMap, PNCounterMap and LWWMap have support for delta-CRDT and they require causal delivery of deltas. Support for deltas here means that the ORSet being underlying key type for all those maps uses delta propagation to deliver updates. Effectively, the update for map is then a pair, consisting of delta for the ORSet being the key and full update for the respective value (ORSet, PNCounter or LWWRegister) kept in the map.

Scala

sourceimplicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress
val m0 = ORMultiMap.empty[String, Int]
val m1 = m0 :+ ("a" -> Set(1, 2, 3))
val m2 = m1.addBinding(node, "a", 4)
val m3 = m2.removeBinding(node, "a", 2)
val m4 = m3.addBinding(node, "b", 1)
println(m4.entries)

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
final ORMultiMap<String, Integer> m0 = ORMultiMap.create();
final ORMultiMap<String, Integer> m1 = m0.put(node, "a", new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3)));
final ORMultiMap<String, Integer> m2 = m1.addBinding(node, "a", 4);
final ORMultiMap<String, Integer> m3 = m2.removeBinding(node, "a", 2);
final ORMultiMap<String, Integer> m4 = m3.addBinding(node, "b", 1);
System.out.println(m4.getEntries());

When a data entry is changed the full state of that entry is replicated to other nodes, i.e. when you update a map, the whole map is replicated. Therefore, instead of using one ORMap with 1000 elements it is more efficient to split that up in 10 top level ORMap entries with 100 elements each. Top level entries are replicated individually, which has the trade-off that different entries may not be replicated at the same time and you may see inconsistencies between related entries. Separate top level entries cannot be updated atomically together.

There is a special version of ORMultiMap, created by using separate constructor ORMultiMap.emptyWithValueDeltas[A, B], that also propagates the updates to its values (of ORSet type) as deltas. This means that the ORMultiMap initiated with ORMultiMap.emptyWithValueDeltas propagates its updates as pairs consisting of delta of the key and delta of the value. It is much more efficient in terms of network bandwidth consumed.

However, this behavior has not been made default for ORMultiMap and if you wish to use it in your code, you need to replace invocations of ORMultiMap.empty[A, B] (or ORMultiMap()) with ORMultiMap.emptyWithValueDeltas[A, B] where A and B are types respectively of keys and values in the map.

Please also note, that despite having the same Scala type, ORMultiMap.emptyWithValueDeltas is not compatible with ‘vanilla’ ORMultiMap, because of different replication mechanism. One needs to be extra careful not to mix the two, as they have the same type, so compiler will not hint the error. Nonetheless ORMultiMap.emptyWithValueDeltas uses the same ORMultiMapKey type as the ‘vanilla’ ORMultiMap for referencing.

Note that LWWRegister and therefore LWWMap relies on synchronized clocks and should only be used when the choice of value is not important for concurrent updates occurring within the clock skew. Read more in the below section about LWWRegister.

Flags and Registers

Flag is a data type for a boolean value that is initialized to false and can be switched to true. Thereafter it cannot be changed. true wins over false in merge.

Scala

sourceval f0 = Flag.Disabled
val f1 = f0.switchOn
println(f1.enabled)

Java

sourcefinal Flag f0 = Flag.create();
final Flag f1 = f0.switchOn();
System.out.println(f1.enabled());

LWWRegister (last writer wins register) can hold any (serializable) value.

Merge of a LWWRegister takes the register with highest timestamp. Note that this relies on synchronized clocks. LWWRegister should only be used when the choice of value is not important for concurrent updates occurring within the clock skew.

Merge takes the register updated by the node with lowest address (UniqueAddress is ordered) if the timestamps are exactly the same.

Scala

sourceimplicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress
val r1 = LWWRegister.create("Hello")
val r2 = r1.withValueOf("Hi")
println(s"${r1.value} by ${r1.updatedBy} at ${r1.timestamp}")

Java

sourcefinal SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
final LWWRegister<String> r1 = LWWRegister.create(node, "Hello");
final LWWRegister<String> r2 = r1.withValue(node, "Hi");
System.out.println(r1.value() + " by " + r1.updatedBy() + " at " + r1.timestamp());

Instead of using timestamps based on System.currentTimeMillis() time it is possible to use a timestamp value based on something else, for example an increasing version number from a database record that is used for optimistic concurrency control.

Scala

sourcecase class Record(version: Int, name: String, address: String)

implicit val node = DistributedData(system).selfUniqueAddress
implicit val recordClock: LWWRegister.Clock[Record] = new LWWRegister.Clock[Record] {
  override def apply(currentTimestamp: Long, value: Record): Long =
    value.version
}

val record1 = Record(version = 1, "Alice", "Union Square")
val r1 = LWWRegister(node, record1, recordClock)

val record2 = Record(version = 2, "Alice", "Madison Square")
val r2 = LWWRegister(node, record2, recordClock)

val r3 = r1.merge(r2)
println(r3.value)

Java

sourceclass Record {
  public final int version;
  public final String name;
  public final String address;

  public Record(int version, String name, String address) {
    this.version = version;
    this.name = name;
    this.address = address;
  }
}


  final SelfUniqueAddress node = DistributedData.get(system).selfUniqueAddress();
  final LWWRegister.Clock<Record> recordClock =
      new LWWRegister.Clock<Record>() {
        @Override
        public long apply(long currentTimestamp, Record value) {
          return value.version;
        }
      };

  final Record record1 = new Record(1, "Alice", "Union Square");
  final LWWRegister<Record> r1 = LWWRegister.create(node, record1);

  final Record record2 = new Record(2, "Alice", "Madison Square");
  final LWWRegister<Record> r2 = LWWRegister.create(node, record2);

  final LWWRegister<Record> r3 = r1.merge(r2);
  System.out.println(r3.value());

For first-write-wins semantics you can use the LWWRegister#reverseClock instead of the LWWRegister#defaultClock.

The defaultClock is using max value of System.currentTimeMillis() and currentTimestamp + 1. This means that the timestamp is increased for changes on the same node that occurs within the same millisecond. It also means that it is safe to use the LWWRegister without synchronized clocks when there is only one active writer, e.g. a Cluster Singleton. Such a single writer should then first read current value with ReadMajority (or more) before changing and writing the value with WriteMajority (or more). When using LWWRegister with Cluster Singleton it’s also recommended to enable:

# Update and Get operations are sent to oldest nodes first.
akka.cluster.distributed-data.prefer-oldest = on

Delta-CRDT

Delta State Replicated Data Types are supported. A delta-CRDT is a way to reduce the need for sending the full state for updates. For example adding element 'c' and 'd' to set {'a', 'b'} would result in sending the delta {'c', 'd'} and merge that with the state on the receiving side, resulting in set {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'}.

The protocol for replicating the deltas supports causal consistency if the data type is marked with RequiresCausalDeliveryOfDeltas. Otherwise it is only eventually consistent. Without causal consistency it means that if elements 'c' and 'd' are added in two separate Update operations these deltas may occasionally be propagated to nodes in a different order to the causal order of the updates. For this example it can result in that set {'a', 'b', 'd'} can be seen before element ‘c’ is seen. Eventually it will be {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'}.

Note that the full state is occasionally also replicated for delta-CRDTs, for example when new nodes are added to the cluster or when deltas could not be propagated because of network partitions or similar problems.

The the delta propagation can be disabled with configuration property:

akka.cluster.distributed-data.delta-crdt.enabled=off

Custom Data Type

You can implement your own data types. The only requirement is that it implements the mergemergeData function of the ReplicatedDataAbstractReplicatedData trait.

A nice property of stateful CRDTs is that they typically compose nicely, i.e. you can combine several smaller data types to build richer data structures. For example, the PNCounter is composed of two internal GCounter instances to keep track of increments and decrements separately.

Here is s simple implementation of a custom TwoPhaseSet that is using two internal GSet types to keep track of addition and removals. A TwoPhaseSet is a set where an element may be added and removed, but never added again thereafter.

Scala

sourcecase class TwoPhaseSet(adds: GSet[String] = GSet.empty, removals: GSet[String] = GSet.empty) extends ReplicatedData {
  type T = TwoPhaseSet

  def add(element: String): TwoPhaseSet =
    copy(adds = adds.add(element))

  def remove(element: String): TwoPhaseSet =
    copy(removals = removals.add(element))

  def elements: Set[String] = adds.elements.diff(removals.elements)

  override def merge(that: TwoPhaseSet): TwoPhaseSet =
    copy(adds = this.adds.merge(that.adds), removals = this.removals.merge(that.removals))
}

Java

sourcepublic class TwoPhaseSet extends AbstractReplicatedData<TwoPhaseSet> {

  public final GSet<String> adds;
  public final GSet<String> removals;

  public TwoPhaseSet(GSet<String> adds, GSet<String> removals) {
    this.adds = adds;
    this.removals = removals;
  }

  public static TwoPhaseSet create() {
    return new TwoPhaseSet(GSet.create(), GSet.create());
  }

  public TwoPhaseSet add(String element) {
    return new TwoPhaseSet(adds.add(element), removals);
  }

  public TwoPhaseSet remove(String element) {
    return new TwoPhaseSet(adds, removals.add(element));
  }

  public Set<String> getElements() {
    Set<String> result = new HashSet<>(adds.getElements());
    result.removeAll(removals.getElements());
    return result;
  }

  @Override
  public TwoPhaseSet mergeData(TwoPhaseSet that) {
    return new TwoPhaseSet(this.adds.merge(that.adds), this.removals.merge(that.removals));
  }
}

Data types should be immutable, i.e. “modifying” methods should return a new instance.

Implement the additional methods of DeltaReplicatedDataAbstractDeltaReplicatedData if it has support for delta-CRDT replication.

Serialization

The data types must be serializable with an Akka Serializer. It is highly recommended that you implement efficient serialization with Protobuf or similar for your custom data types. The built in data types are marked with ReplicatedDataSerialization and serialized with akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.ReplicatedDataSerializer.

Serialization of the data types are used in remote messages and also for creating message digests (SHA-1) to detect changes. Therefore it is important that the serialization is efficient and produce the same bytes for the same content. For example sets and maps should be sorted deterministically in the serialization.

This is a protobuf representation of the above TwoPhaseSet:

sourceoption java_package = "docs.ddata.protobuf.msg";
option optimize_for = SPEED;

message TwoPhaseSet {
  repeated string adds = 1;
  repeated string removals = 2;
}

The serializer for the TwoPhaseSet:

Scala

sourceimport java.util.ArrayList
import java.util.Collections
import scala.jdk.CollectionConverters._
import akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem
import akka.cluster.ddata.GSet
import akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.SerializationSupport
import akka.serialization.Serializer
import docs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages

class TwoPhaseSetSerializer(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Serializer with SerializationSupport {

  override def includeManifest: Boolean = false

  override def identifier = 99999

  override def toBinary(obj: AnyRef): Array[Byte] = obj match {
    case m: TwoPhaseSet => twoPhaseSetToProto(m).toByteArray
    case _              => throw new IllegalArgumentException(s"Can't serialize object of type ${obj.getClass}")
  }

  override def fromBinary(bytes: Array[Byte], clazz: Option[Class[_]]): AnyRef = {
    twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes)
  }

  def twoPhaseSetToProto(twoPhaseSet: TwoPhaseSet): TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet = {
    val b = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet.newBuilder()
    // using java collections and sorting for performance (avoid conversions)
    val adds = new ArrayList[String]
    twoPhaseSet.adds.elements.foreach(adds.add)
    if (!adds.isEmpty) {
      Collections.sort(adds)
      b.addAllAdds(adds)
    }
    val removals = new ArrayList[String]
    twoPhaseSet.removals.elements.foreach(removals.add)
    if (!removals.isEmpty) {
      Collections.sort(removals)
      b.addAllRemovals(removals)
    }
    b.build()
  }

  def twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes: Array[Byte]): TwoPhaseSet = {
    val msg = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet.parseFrom(bytes)
    val addsSet = msg.getAddsList.iterator.asScala.toSet
    val removalsSet = msg.getRemovalsList.iterator.asScala.toSet
    val adds = addsSet.foldLeft(GSet.empty[String])((acc, el) => acc.add(el))
    val removals = removalsSet.foldLeft(GSet.empty[String])((acc, el) => acc.add(el))
    // GSet will accumulate deltas when adding elements,
    // but those are not of interest in the result of the deserialization
    TwoPhaseSet(adds.resetDelta, removals.resetDelta)
  }
}

Java

sourceimport akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem;
import akka.cluster.ddata.GSet;
import akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.AbstractSerializationSupport;
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages;
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet.Builder;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import jdocs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet;

public class TwoPhaseSetSerializer extends AbstractSerializationSupport {

  private final ExtendedActorSystem system;

  public TwoPhaseSetSerializer(ExtendedActorSystem system) {
    this.system = system;
  }

  @Override
  public ExtendedActorSystem system() {
    return this.system;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean includeManifest() {
    return false;
  }

  @Override
  public int identifier() {
    return 99998;
  }

  @Override
  public byte[] toBinary(Object obj) {
    if (obj instanceof TwoPhaseSet) {
      return twoPhaseSetToProto((TwoPhaseSet) obj).toByteArray();
    } else {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't serialize object of type " + obj.getClass());
    }
  }

  @Override
  public Object fromBinaryJava(byte[] bytes, Class<?> manifest) {
    return twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes);
  }

  protected TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet twoPhaseSetToProto(TwoPhaseSet twoPhaseSet) {
    Builder b = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet.newBuilder();
    ArrayList<String> adds = new ArrayList<>(twoPhaseSet.adds.getElements());
    if (!adds.isEmpty()) {
      Collections.sort(adds);
      b.addAllAdds(adds);
    }
    ArrayList<String> removals = new ArrayList<>(twoPhaseSet.removals.getElements());
    if (!removals.isEmpty()) {
      Collections.sort(removals);
      b.addAllRemovals(removals);
    }
    return b.build();
  }

  protected TwoPhaseSet twoPhaseSetFromBinary(byte[] bytes) {
    try {
      TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet msg = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet.parseFrom(bytes);
      GSet<String> adds = GSet.create();
      for (String elem : msg.getAddsList()) {
        adds = adds.add(elem);
      }
      GSet<String> removals = GSet.create();
      for (String elem : msg.getRemovalsList()) {
        removals = removals.add(elem);
      }
      // GSet will accumulate deltas when adding elements,
      // but those are not of interest in the result of the deserialization
      return new TwoPhaseSet(adds.resetDelta(), removals.resetDelta());
    } catch (Exception e) {
      throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage(), e);
    }
  }
}

Note that the elements of the sets are sorted so the SHA-1 digests are the same for the same elements.

You register the serializer in configuration:

Scala

sourceakka.actor {
  serializers {
    two-phase-set = "docs.ddata.protobuf.TwoPhaseSetSerializer"
  }
  serialization-bindings {
    "docs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet" = two-phase-set
  }
}

Java

sourceakka.actor {
  serializers {
    twophaseset = "jdocs.ddata.protobuf.TwoPhaseSetSerializer"
  }
  serialization-bindings {
    "jdocs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet" = twophaseset
  }
}

Using compression can sometimes be a good idea to reduce the data size. Gzip compression is provided by the akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.SerializationSupport traitakka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.AbstractSerializationSupport interface:

Scala

sourceoverride def toBinary(obj: AnyRef): Array[Byte] = obj match {
  case m: TwoPhaseSet => compress(twoPhaseSetToProto(m))
  case _              => throw new IllegalArgumentException(s"Can't serialize object of type ${obj.getClass}")
}

override def fromBinary(bytes: Array[Byte], clazz: Option[Class[_]]): AnyRef = {
  twoPhaseSetFromBinary(decompress(bytes))
}

Java

source@Override
public byte[] toBinary(Object obj) {
  if (obj instanceof TwoPhaseSet) {
    return compress(twoPhaseSetToProto((TwoPhaseSet) obj));
  } else {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't serialize object of type " + obj.getClass());
  }
}

@Override
public Object fromBinaryJava(byte[] bytes, Class<?> manifest) {
  return twoPhaseSetFromBinary(decompress(bytes));
}

The two embedded GSet can be serialized as illustrated above, but in general when composing new data types from the existing built in types it is better to make use of the existing serializer for those types. This can be done by declaring those as bytes fields in protobuf:

sourcemessage TwoPhaseSet2 {
  optional bytes adds = 1;
  optional bytes removals = 2;
}

and use the methods otherMessageToProto and otherMessageFromBinary that are provided by the SerializationSupport trait to serialize and deserialize the GSet instances. This works with any type that has a registered Akka serializer. This is how such an serializer would look like for the TwoPhaseSet:

Scala

sourceimport akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem
import akka.cluster.ddata.GSet
import akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.SerializationSupport
import akka.serialization.Serializer
import docs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages

class TwoPhaseSetSerializer2(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Serializer with SerializationSupport {

  override def includeManifest: Boolean = false

  override def identifier = 99999

  override def toBinary(obj: AnyRef): Array[Byte] = obj match {
    case m: TwoPhaseSet => twoPhaseSetToProto(m).toByteArray
    case _              => throw new IllegalArgumentException(s"Can't serialize object of type ${obj.getClass}")
  }

  override def fromBinary(bytes: Array[Byte], clazz: Option[Class[_]]): AnyRef = {
    twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes)
  }

  def twoPhaseSetToProto(twoPhaseSet: TwoPhaseSet): TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2 = {
    val b = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2.newBuilder()
    if (!twoPhaseSet.adds.isEmpty)
      b.setAdds(otherMessageToProto(twoPhaseSet.adds).toByteString())
    if (!twoPhaseSet.removals.isEmpty)
      b.setRemovals(otherMessageToProto(twoPhaseSet.removals).toByteString())
    b.build()
  }

  def twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes: Array[Byte]): TwoPhaseSet = {
    val msg = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2.parseFrom(bytes)
    val adds =
      if (msg.hasAdds)
        otherMessageFromBinary(msg.getAdds.toByteArray).asInstanceOf[GSet[String]]
      else
        GSet.empty[String]
    val removals =
      if (msg.hasRemovals)
        otherMessageFromBinary(msg.getRemovals.toByteArray).asInstanceOf[GSet[String]]
      else
        GSet.empty[String]
    TwoPhaseSet(adds, removals)
  }
}

Java

sourceimport akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem;
import akka.cluster.ddata.GSet;
import akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.AbstractSerializationSupport;
import akka.cluster.ddata.protobuf.ReplicatedDataSerializer;
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages;
import docs.ddata.protobuf.msg.TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2.Builder;
import jdocs.ddata.TwoPhaseSet;

public class TwoPhaseSetSerializer2 extends AbstractSerializationSupport {

  private final ExtendedActorSystem system;
  private final ReplicatedDataSerializer replicatedDataSerializer;

  public TwoPhaseSetSerializer2(ExtendedActorSystem system) {
    this.system = system;
    this.replicatedDataSerializer = new ReplicatedDataSerializer(system);
  }

  @Override
  public ExtendedActorSystem system() {
    return this.system;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean includeManifest() {
    return false;
  }

  @Override
  public int identifier() {
    return 99998;
  }

  @Override
  public byte[] toBinary(Object obj) {
    if (obj instanceof TwoPhaseSet) {
      return twoPhaseSetToProto((TwoPhaseSet) obj).toByteArray();
    } else {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't serialize object of type " + obj.getClass());
    }
  }

  @Override
  public Object fromBinaryJava(byte[] bytes, Class<?> manifest) {
    return twoPhaseSetFromBinary(bytes);
  }

  protected TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2 twoPhaseSetToProto(TwoPhaseSet twoPhaseSet) {
    Builder b = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2.newBuilder();
    if (!twoPhaseSet.adds.isEmpty())
      b.setAdds(otherMessageToProto(twoPhaseSet.adds).toByteString());
    if (!twoPhaseSet.removals.isEmpty())
      b.setRemovals(otherMessageToProto(twoPhaseSet.removals).toByteString());
    return b.build();
  }

  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  protected TwoPhaseSet twoPhaseSetFromBinary(byte[] bytes) {
    try {
      TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2 msg = TwoPhaseSetMessages.TwoPhaseSet2.parseFrom(bytes);

      GSet<String> adds = GSet.create();
      if (msg.hasAdds()) adds = (GSet<String>) otherMessageFromBinary(msg.getAdds().toByteArray());

      GSet<String> removals = GSet.create();
      if (msg.hasRemovals())
        adds = (GSet<String>) otherMessageFromBinary(msg.getRemovals().toByteArray());

      return new TwoPhaseSet(adds, removals);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage(), e);
    }
  }
}

Durable Storage

By default the data is only kept in memory. It is redundant since it is replicated to other nodes in the cluster, but if you stop all nodes the data is lost, unless you have saved it elsewhere.

Entries can be configured to be durable, i.e. stored on local disk on each node. The stored data will be loaded next time the replicator is started, i.e. when actor system is restarted. This means data will survive as long as at least one node from the old cluster takes part in a new cluster. The keys of the durable entries are configured with:

akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.keys = ["a", "b", "durable*"]

Prefix matching is supported by using * at the end of a key.

All entries can be made durable by specifying:

akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.keys = ["*"]

LMDBLMDB is the default storage implementation. It is possible to replace that with another implementation by implementing the actor protocol described in akka.cluster.ddata.DurableStore and defining the akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.store-actor-class property for the new implementation.

Java 17

When using LMDB with Java 17 you have to add JVM flags --add-opens=java.base/sun.nio.ch=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED.

The location of the files for the data is configured with:

Scala

# Directory of LMDB file. There are two options:
# 1. A relative or absolute path to a directory that ends with 'ddata'
#    the full name of the directory will contain name of the ActorSystem
#    and its remote port.
# 2. Otherwise the path is used as is, as a relative or absolute path to
#    a directory.
akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.lmdb.dir = "ddata"

Java

# Directory of LMDB file. There are two options:
# 1. A relative or absolute path to a directory that ends with 'ddata'
#    the full name of the directory will contain name of the ActorSystem
#    and its remote port.
# 2. Otherwise the path is used as is, as a relative or absolute path to
#    a directory.
akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.lmdb.dir = "ddata"

When running in production you may want to configure the directory to a specific path (alt 2), since the default directory contains the remote port of the actor system to make the name unique. If using a dynamically assigned port (0) it will be different each time and the previously stored data will not be loaded.

Making the data durable has a performance cost. By default, each update is flushed to disk before the UpdateSuccess reply is sent. For better performance, but with the risk of losing the last writes if the JVM crashes, you can enable write behind mode. Changes are then accumulated during a time period before it is written to LMDB and flushed to disk. Enabling write behind is especially efficient when performing many writes to the same key, because it is only the last value for each key that will be serialized and stored. The risk of losing writes if the JVM crashes is small since the data is typically replicated to other nodes immediately according to the given WriteConsistency.

akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.lmdb.write-behind-interval = 200 ms

Note that you should be prepared to receive WriteFailure as reply to an Update of a durable entry if the data could not be stored for some reason. When enabling write-behind-interval such errors will only be logged and UpdateSuccess will still be the reply to the Update.

There is one important caveat when it comes pruning of CRDT Garbage for durable data. If an old data entry that was never pruned is injected and merged with existing data after that the pruning markers have been removed the value will not be correct. The time-to-live of the markers is defined by configuration akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.pruning-marker-time-to-live and is in the magnitude of days. This would be possible if a node with durable data didn’t participate in the pruning (e.g. it was shutdown) and later started after this time. A node with durable data should not be stopped for longer time than this duration and if it is joining again after this duration its data should first be manually removed (from the lmdb directory).

Limitations

There are some limitations that you should be aware of.

CRDTs cannot be used for all types of problems, and eventual consistency does not fit all domains. Sometimes you need strong consistency.

It is not intended for Big Data. The number of top level entries should not exceed 100000. When a new node is added to the cluster all these entries are transferred (gossiped) to the new node. The entries are split up in chunks and all existing nodes collaborate in the gossip, but it will take a while (tens of seconds) to transfer all entries and this means that you cannot have too many top level entries. The current recommended limit is 100000. We will be able to improve this if needed, but the design is still not intended for billions of entries.

All data is held in memory, which is another reason why it is not intended for Big Data.

When a data entry is changed the full state of that entry may be replicated to other nodes if it doesn’t support delta-CRDT. The full state is also replicated for delta-CRDTs, for example when new nodes are added to the cluster or when deltas could not be propagated because of network partitions or similar problems. This means that you cannot have too large data entries, because then the remote message size will be too large.

CRDT Garbage

One thing that can be problematic with CRDTs is that some data types accumulate history (garbage). For example a GCounter keeps track of one counter per node. If a GCounter has been updated from one node it will associate the identifier of that node forever. That can become a problem for long running systems with many cluster nodes being added and removed. To solve this problem the Replicator performs pruning of data associated with nodes that have been removed from the cluster. Data types that need pruning have to implement the RemovedNodePruning trait. See the API documentation of the Replicator for details.

Learn More about CRDTs

Strong Eventual Consistency and Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (video) talk by Mark Shapiro
A comprehensive study of Convergent and Commutative Replicated Data Types paper by Mark Shapiro et. al.

Configuration

The DistributedData extension can be configured with the following properties:

source# Settings for the DistributedData extension
akka.cluster.distributed-data {
  # Actor name of the Replicator actor, /system/ddataReplicator
  name = ddataReplicator

  # Replicas are running on members tagged with this role.
  # All members are used if undefined or empty.
  role = ""

  # How often the Replicator should send out gossip information
  gossip-interval = 2 s
  
  # How often the subscribers will be notified of changes, if any
  notify-subscribers-interval = 500 ms

  # Logging of data with payload size in bytes larger than
  # this value. Maximum detected size per key is logged once,
  # with an increase threshold of 10%.
  # It can be disabled by setting the property to off.
  log-data-size-exceeding = 10 KiB

  # Maximum number of entries to transfer in one round of gossip exchange when
  # synchronizing the replicas. Next chunk will be transferred in next round of gossip.
  # The actual number of data entries in each Gossip message is dynamically
  # adjusted to not exceed the maximum remote message size (maximum-frame-size).
  max-delta-elements = 500
  
  # The id of the dispatcher to use for Replicator actors.
  # If specified you need to define the settings of the actual dispatcher.
  use-dispatcher = "akka.actor.internal-dispatcher"

  # How often the Replicator checks for pruning of data associated with
  # removed cluster nodes. If this is set to 'off' the pruning feature will
  # be completely disabled.
  pruning-interval = 120 s
  
  # How long time it takes to spread the data to all other replica nodes.
  # This is used when initiating and completing the pruning process of data associated
  # with removed cluster nodes. The time measurement is stopped when any replica is 
  # unreachable, but it's still recommended to configure this with certain margin.
  # It should be in the magnitude of minutes even though typical dissemination time
  # is shorter (grows logarithmic with number of nodes). There is no advantage of 
  # setting this too low. Setting it to large value will delay the pruning process.
  max-pruning-dissemination = 300 s
  
  # The markers of that pruning has been performed for a removed node are kept for this
  # time and thereafter removed. If and old data entry that was never pruned is somehow
  # injected and merged with existing data after this time the value will not be correct.
  # This would be possible (although unlikely) in the case of a long network partition.
  # It should be in the magnitude of hours. For durable data it is configured by 
  # 'akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.pruning-marker-time-to-live'.
 pruning-marker-time-to-live = 6 h
  
  # Serialized Write and Read messages are cached when they are sent to 
  # several nodes. If no further activity they are removed from the cache
  # after this duration.
  serializer-cache-time-to-live = 10s

  # Update and Get operations are sent to oldest nodes first.
  # This is useful together with Cluster Singleton, which is running on oldest nodes.
  prefer-oldest = off
  
  # Settings for delta-CRDT
  delta-crdt {
    # enable or disable delta-CRDT replication
    enabled = on
    
    # Some complex deltas grow in size for each update and above this
    # threshold such deltas are discarded and sent as full state instead.
    # This is number of elements or similar size hint, not size in bytes.
    max-delta-size = 50
  }

  # Map of keys and inactivity duration for entries that will automatically be removed
  # without tombstones when they have been inactive for the given duration.
  # Prefix matching is supported by using * at the end of a key.
  # Matching tombstones will also be removed after the expiry duration.
  expire-keys-after-inactivity {
    # Example syntax:
    # "key-1" = 10 minutes
    # "cache-*" = 2 minutes
  }
  
  durable {
    # List of keys that are durable. Prefix matching is supported by using * at the
    # end of a key.  
    keys = []
    
    # The markers of that pruning has been performed for a removed node are kept for this
    # time and thereafter removed. If and old data entry that was never pruned is
    # injected and merged with existing data after this time the value will not be correct.
    # This would be possible if replica with durable data didn't participate in the pruning
    # (e.g. it was shutdown) and later started after this time. A durable replica should not 
    # be stopped for longer time than this duration and if it is joining again after this
    # duration its data should first be manually removed (from the lmdb directory).
    # It should be in the magnitude of days. Note that there is a corresponding setting
    # for non-durable data: 'akka.cluster.distributed-data.pruning-marker-time-to-live'.
    pruning-marker-time-to-live = 10 d
    
    # Fully qualified class name of the durable store actor. It must be a subclass
    # of akka.actor.Actor and handle the protocol defined in 
    # akka.cluster.ddata.DurableStore. The class must have a constructor with 
    # com.typesafe.config.Config parameter.
    store-actor-class = akka.cluster.ddata.LmdbDurableStore
    
    use-dispatcher = akka.cluster.distributed-data.durable.pinned-store
    
    pinned-store {
      executor = thread-pool-executor
      type = PinnedDispatcher
    }
    
    # Config for the LmdbDurableStore
    lmdb {
      # Directory of LMDB file. There are two options:
      # 1. A relative or absolute path to a directory that ends with 'ddata'
      #    the full name of the directory will contain name of the ActorSystem
      #    and its remote port.
      # 2. Otherwise the path is used as is, as a relative or absolute path to
      #    a directory.
      #
      # When running in production you may want to configure this to a specific
      # path (alt 2), since the default directory contains the remote port of the
      # actor system to make the name unique. If using a dynamically assigned 
      # port (0) it will be different each time and the previously stored data 
      # will not be loaded.
      dir = "ddata"
      
      # Size in bytes of the memory mapped file.
      map-size = 100 MiB
      
      # Accumulate changes before storing improves performance with the
      # risk of losing the last writes if the JVM crashes.
      # The interval is by default set to 'off' to write each update immediately.
      # Enabling write behind by specifying a duration, e.g. 200ms, is especially 
      # efficient when performing many writes to the same key, because it is only 
      # the last value for each key that will be serialized and stored.  
      # write-behind-interval = 200 ms
      write-behind-interval = off
    }
  }
  
}

Example project

Distributed Data example project Distributed Data example project is an example project that can be downloaded, and with instructions of how to run.

This project contains several samples illustrating how to use Distributed Data.