Lack of docs for default memcached connection loss behaviour

[TimBunce]

I can't seem to find documentation that describes exactly what happens when a server goes down, and how best to handle its graceful recovery.

The documentation for the behaviours seems to assume a certain level of knowledge that I don't have, or at least I'm not sure about. It's a reference manual. I'm looking for a guide.

My question is similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10029432/libmemcached-fail-over-of-a-clusters-node
except that a) I'd like more background information, and b) there's no discussion of handling the recovery of a node.

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As an example, the venerable and original Cache::Memcached module (https://metacpan.org/source/DORMANDO/Cache-Memcached-1.30/lib/Cache/Memcached.pm) seems to recalculate the 'buck2sock' mapping (by $socket_cache_generation++;) whenever a socket is marked dead by _dead_sock() being called.

But some of calls to _dead_sock, specifically those from connection setup, also provide a duration ($dead_for) during which the host should be regarded as dead.

So a single communications error on an established socket doesn't remove a server, but does cause a connection drop and reconnect. If that reconnect fails then the server is removed from the buck2sock calculation for a period.

This seems reasonable and is self-repairing. Sadly the libmemcached docs don't seem to discuss this behaviour at all.

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I'm rather surprised I can't find this kind of discussion in the libmemcached docs. Am I missing something?

The use-case is simply what I imagine a typical installation would be: a list of memcached servers and consistent hashing enabled.

I was asked that question recently and realised that I wasn't sure and was then doubly surprised by not being able to find it documented.

I'm looking for a simple description of exactly what happens by default in libmemcached when a memcached server goes down (both for a clean tcp close and for a network outage leading to tcp timeouts) and when it comes back again later.

That would provide the background detail against which the various optional behaviours could be explained and understood.

[Brian Aker (brianaker)]

Thanks, tracking this via bug reports is the best way to make this happen.

Sent from my Ti85

On Feb 25, 2013, at 2:35, TimBunce <email address hidden> wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> I can't seem to find documentation that describes exactly what happens
> when a server goes down, and how best to handle its graceful recovery.
>
> The documentation for the behaviours seems to assume a certain level of
> knowledge that I don't have, or at least I'm not sure about. It's a
> reference manual. I'm looking for a guide.
>
> My question is similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10029432/libmemcached-fail-over-of-a-clusters-node
> except that a) I'd like more background information, and b) there's no discussion of handling the recovery of a node.
>
> ------
>
> As an example, the venerable and original Cache::Memcached module
> (https://metacpan.org/source/DORMANDO/Cache-
> Memcached-1.30/lib/Cache/Memcached.pm) seems to recalculate the
> 'buck2sock' mapping (by $socket_cache_generation++;) whenever a socket
> is marked dead by _dead_sock() being called.
>
> But some of calls to _dead_sock, specifically those from connection
> setup, also provide a duration ($dead_for) during which the host should
> be regarded as dead.
>
> So a single communications error on an established socket doesn't remove
> a server, but does cause a connection drop and reconnect. If that
> reconnect fails then the server is removed from the buck2sock
> calculation for a period.
>
> This seems reasonable and is self-repairing. Sadly the libmemcached docs
> don't seem to discuss this behaviour at all.
>
> ------
>
> I'm rather surprised I can't find this kind of discussion in the
> libmemcached docs. Am I missing something?
>
> The use-case is simply what I imagine a typical installation would be: a
> list of memcached servers and consistent hashing enabled.
>
> I was asked that question recently and realised that I wasn't sure and
> was then doubly surprised by not being able to find it documented.
>
> I'm looking for a simple description of exactly what happens by default
> in libmemcached when a memcached server goes down (both for a clean tcp
> close and for a network outage leading to tcp timeouts) and when it
> comes back again later.
>
> That would provide the background detail against which the various
> optional behaviours could be explained and understood.
>
> ** Affects: libmemcached
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to
> libmemcached.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1132725
>
> Title:
> Lack of docs for default memcached connection loss behaviour
>
> Status in libmemcached - A C and C++ client library for memcached:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> I can't seem to find documentation that describes exactly what happens
> when a server goes down, and how best to handle its graceful recovery.
>
> The documentation for the behaviours seems to assume a certain level
> of knowledge that I don't have, or at least I'm not sure about. It's a
> reference manual. I'm looking for a guide.
>
> My question is similar to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10029432/libmemcached-fai...

[TimBunce (tim-bunce)]

Any news on this? It's been over a year now. It seems like a simple, and important, request.