PragPub 2012-09: Issue #39 by The Pragmatic Bookshelf

Author:The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: PragPub—Monthly Magazine
Publisher: The Pragmatic Bookshelf, LLC
Published: 2012-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Idle Connection Dropped by Firewall

Once we understood all the links in that chain of failure, we had to find a solution. The resource pool has the ability to test JDBC connections for validity before checking them out. It checked validity by executing a SQL query like SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL. Well, that would just make the request-handling thread hang anyway. We could also have the pool keep track of the idle time of the JDBC connection and discard any that were older than one hour. Unfortunately, that involves sending a packet to the database server to tell it that the session is being torn down. Hang.

We were starting to look at some really hairy complexities, such as creating a “reaper” thread to find connections that were close to getting too old and tearing them down before they timed out. Fortunately, a sharp DBA recalled just the thing. Oracle has a feature called dead connection detection that you can enable to discover when clients have crashed. When enabled, the database server sends a ping packet to the client at some periodic interval. If the client responds, then the database knows it is still alive. If the client fails to respond after a few retries, the database server assumes the client has crashed and frees up all the resources held by that connection.

We weren’t that worried about the client crashing, but the ping packet itself would be enough to reset the firewall’s “last packet” time for the connection, keeping the connection alive. Dead connection detection kept the connection alive, which let me sleep through the night.

Michael is a veteran software developer and architect. His background is either “well-rounded” or “checkered” depending on how charitable you'd like to be. He has worked in Operations (including for a “Top Ten” internet retailer), sales engineering, and as a technology manager and executive.

In 2007, Michael wrote Release It! to bring awareness of operational concerns to the software development community. This early influence in the DevOps movement showed developers how to write systems that survive the real world after QA.

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