Automatic Client Failover within vFabric SQLFire

If your connected to a SQLFire member who unexpectedly disapears or is shutdown SQLFire will automatically ensure that client swicthes to another server within the distributed system without the need to reconnect as demonstrated using SQLFire command line client "sqlf".

Lets assume we have started 2 SQLFire members as follows

sqlf server start -server-groups=MYGROUP -dir=server1 -client-port=1527 -mcast-port=12333 &
sqlf server start -server-groups=MYGROUP -dir=server2 -client-port=1528 -mcast-port=12333 &

1. Lets connect to the first member as shown below

[Sat Jan 28 22:14:59 papicella@:~/vmware/software/sqlfire/vFabric_SQLFire_101/pasdemos/afl2011 ] $ sqlf
sqlf version 10.4
sqlf> connect client 'localhost:1527';
sqlf>

2. Now lets ensure we are indeed connected to the first member as shown below.

sqlf> show connections;
CONNECTION0* -  jdbc:sqlfire://localhost:1527/
* = current connection
sqlf>

3. Lets run a query against a table in the distributed system

sqlf> show connections;
sqlf> select team_id, name, long_name from teams;
TEAM_ID    |NAME           |LONG_NAME                     
----------------------------------------------------------
18         |Giants         |GWS GIANTS                    
1          |Tigers         |Richmond                      
16         |Bulldogs       |Western Bulldogs              
12         |Power          |Port Adelaide                 
5          |Pies           |Collingwood                   
17         |Suns           |Gold Coast Suns               
4          |Blues          |Carlton                       
2          |Crows          |Adelaide Crows                
10         |Roos           |North Melbourne               
13         |Saints         |St. Kilda                     
8          |Cats           |Geelong Cats                  
14         |Swans          |Sydney Swans                  
15         |Eagles         |West Coast Eagles             
11         |Demons         |Melbourne                     
7          |Dockers        |Fremantle                     
9          |Hawks          |Hawthorn                      
3          |Lions          |Brisbane Lions                
6          |Bombers        |Essendon                      

18 rows selected
sqlf> 

4. At this point we will shutdown the first SQLFire member who accepted the connection above using it's client port of 1527.

[Sat Jan 28 22:20:24 papicella@:~/vmware/software/sqlfire/vFabric_SQLFire_101/pasdemos/afl2011 ] $ sqlf server stop -dir=server1
The SQLFire Server has stopped.

5. Now lets re-run the query and verify we are still connected to the distributed system and can still display table data

sqlf> select team_id, name, long_name from teams;
TEAM_ID    |NAME           |LONG_NAME                     
----------------------------------------------------------
18         |Giants         |GWS GIANTS                    
1          |Tigers         |Richmond                      
16         |Bulldogs       |Western Bulldogs              
12         |Power          |Port Adelaide                 
5          |Pies           |Collingwood                   
17         |Suns           |Gold Coast Suns               
4          |Blues          |Carlton                       
2          |Crows          |Adelaide Crows                
10         |Roos           |North Melbourne               
13         |Saints         |St. Kilda                     
8          |Cats           |Geelong Cats                  
14         |Swans          |Sydney Swans                  
15         |Eagles         |West Coast Eagles             
11         |Demons         |Melbourne                     
7          |Dockers        |Fremantle                     
9          |Hawks          |Hawthorn                      
3          |Lions          |Brisbane Lions                
6          |Bombers        |Essendon                      

18 rows selected
sqlf> 

6. Finally lets ensure we indeed did switch to the remaining member which accepts client connections on 1528

sqlf> show connections;
CONNECTION0* -  jdbc:sqlfire://localhost:1528/
* = current connection

For more information on SQLFire see the link below.

http://www.vmware.com/products/application-platform/vfabric-sqlfire/overview.html