Release Date: June-2024

This page describes product changes, along with new features and functionality for GigaSpaces release 17.0.0.

 

Upgrade to Java 17 and Spring 6

Java Upgrade

GigaSpaces has been upgraded to Java 17 as the upgrade Spring 6 (see below) requires Java 17 or higher. In addition, this upgrade leverages updated features and improvements in Java, providing enhanced performance, security, and functionality. Java 17 includes more advanced garbage collection Garbage collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector attempts to reclain memory that was allocated by the program, but is not longer referenced; such memory is called garbage. (GC) mechanisms. Advanced garbage collectors open more possibilities for managing our memory footprint. For additional information about GigaSpaces Java usage, refer to JVM Settings and Tuning.

Why not Java 21?

Java 21 was released in September 2023 and has not yet been widely adopted in the community. If GigaSpaces enforce Java 21 on the server side (XAP), there might be a bigger impact on our install base that we can anticipate. Our recommendation to existing customers would be to consider upgrading their client applications directly to Java 21 to support forward compatibility.

Spring Framework Upgrade

We have transitioned from Spring 5.3 to Spring 6. Upgrading to Spring 6 ensures continued compliance with security best practices and access to the latest patches and fixes.

Rationale:

Security Enhancements: The shift to Spring 6 addresses known security issues inherent in previous versions, aligning with our commitment to maintaining a secure and robust system.

End-of-Support Considerations: This move is driven by the upcoming end-of-support for Spring 5.3 in August 2024, ensuring we continue to receive necessary security updates and benefit from the latest features in the Spring ecosystem. .

Impact:

Developers:

• Client Applications: This impacts all client applications which use Java SDK. Any applications which use .NET will be required to upgrade to Java 17.

• Codebase and dependencies need to be updated to ensure compatibility with Java 17 and Spring 6.

• Review and adjust custom implementations and third-party integrations to align with the updated frameworks.

Operations:

• Enhanced security and performance metrics due to the new Java and Spring versions.

• Monitoring and adjustments may be required during the transition period to ensure system stability.

We encourage all users to thoroughly test their applications in the updated environment to identify and resolve any issues prior to deploying the changes in production.

For additional details, including upgrading from previous version, please contact our Customer Support team.

FAQ

Security

GigaSpaces already secures user accounts by, for example, using IDP. This is now being expanded to include the securing of service accounts.

• A Service Account  is an account that is typically used by an application or a compute workload. It is an application that wishes to access GigaSpaces resources. This could either be a user of applications or components that wish to access GigaSpaces APIs.

• A service account differs to a user account in that it is associated with software that runs in our XAP Skyline or Smart DIH environments.

For additional information, refer to our Service Account Privilege Management page.

Data Integration (DI) Updates

GigaSpaces are introducing Transformations as part of our Data Integration The Data Integration (DI) layer is a vital part of the Digital Integration Hub (DIH) platform. It is responsible for a wide range of data integration tasks such as ingesting data in batches or streaming data changes. This is performed in real-time from various sources and systems of record (SOR. The data then resides in the In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG), or Space, of the GigaSpaces Smart DIH platform. module. Configuring Transformations enables data to be converted into a simple format that can then be used for the easy creation of services.

• A data pipeline is a method of transporting data from one place to another. Acting as a conduit for data, these pipelines will enable efficient processing, transformation, and delivery of data to the desired location.

• Through data cleansing and Transformation processes, data pipelines enhance data quality and ensure accuracy for analysis and decision-making.

For additional information, refer to our Transformations page.

GigaSpaces now has the ability for Smart DIH to define batch loads via a standard pipeline interface.

• Full batch loads can now be performed as a "pull" functionality.

• Can be managed by SpaceDeck GigaSpaces intuitive, streamlined user interface to set up, manage and control their environment. Using SpaceDeck, users can define the tools to bring legacy System of Record (SoR) databases into the in-memory data grid that is the core of the GigaSpaces system. or via REST API REpresentational State Transfer. Application Programming Interface An API, or application programming interface, is a set of rules that define how applications or devices can connect to and communicate with each other. A REST API is an API that conforms to the design principles of the REST, or representational state transfer architectural style.

For additional information, refer to our Batch Load page.

Release Date: February-2025

This page describes product changes, along with new features and functionality for GigaSpaces release 17.0.0.

Aggregator and Tier Improvements

Aggregator Memory Consumption Improvements

Prior to this version, aggregation kept UIDs of all scanned objects during an operation, in case the same object ID is deleted and recreated. When the relevant table is very large, such as in tiered storage Automatically assigns data to different categories of storage types based on considerations of cost, performance, availability, and recovery., this could lead to high memory consumption. To solve this, parameters were added to control UID storage for tiered storage and in-memory spaces. For more information, see Aggregators.

Aggregator Local Space Injection

Aggregation usually iterates over a group of entries and aggregates values from related entries. There are some cases in which there is a need to access another object in the local Space Where GigaSpaces data is stored. It is the logical cache that holds data objects in memory and might also hold them in layered in tiering. Data is hosted from multiple SoRs, consolidated as a unified data model.. Local Space injection was added for this purpose. For more information, see Aggregators.

Aggregator Index Usage

In some scenarios, using indexes for aggregations can avoid a full table scan and reduce execution time significantly. However, relying on the index can be risky in cases with a high load of transactions. Therefore, changes were made to optimize index usage for different cases: For more information, see Aggregators.

New Custom Aggregator Methods

The following custom Aggregator methods were added:

• isIndexUsed() - check if aggregation index optimization can be used.

• skipProcessedUidStore() - when iterating one by one, determine whether or not to store UIDs in order to avoid duplication.

• handleIntermediateResultOfMemoryStorage() - determine how to handle partition results for memory space if one by one aggregation is skipped.

• handleIntermediateResultOfDbStorage() - determine how to handle partition results for tiered space if one by one aggregation is skipped.

• getSQLQuery() - set the query to be used for tiered storage if one by one aggregation is skipped.

For more information, see Custom Aggregators.

Counters for Count Aggregation and API

Counters can be used when asking for a table count (count(*)) with no conditions, or Ignoring transactions or there are no active transactions & lease expirations. For more information, see Aggregators.

Push Down Aggregation to Tiered Storage (SQLite)

When tiered storage is used and the query should be performed in the underlying database, queries can now be pushed down. For more information, see Aggregators.

Tiered Storage Initial Load

In order to improve recovery time from tiered storage space, counters initialization was moved to async mode, allowing the space to be ready before filling up statistics.

Read-only Quiesce Mode

This is a maintenance mode that differs from the regular quiesce mode by allowing read-only operations so the space is available to read but not for write/update/take operations. For more information, see Quiesce Mode.

Durable Tasks

A Durable Task is a Task that can be canceled and recovered. It extends distributed tasks.

Use cases :

• A task that does a job that takes long time and needs the ability to be cancelled.

• Business logic - adds the ability to change the business logic of the space without redeploying the space.

Durable Tasks can be created using the Durable Task API. For more information, see Task Execution.

Query Protective Mode

The new query protection mode provides protection against executing queries that perform a full scan if the table size is above a limit. By default, protective mode is disabled. If enabled, an exception will be thrown when a query as” select * from the table” is performed and the table size is larger than the specified limit.

If protective mode is disabled, a warning message will be logged if a query meets the protective mode conditions. It is recommended to enable this property in QA and stage environments.

For more information, see Space Index.

JDBC V3 Improvements

The following improvements to JDBC Java DataBase Connectivity. This is an application programming interface (API) for the Java programming language, which defines how a client may access a database. V3 have been made:

• Support for queries starting with “with”.

• Support for the NVL function, as in Oracle.

• Dynamic filters hints - a different algorithm to execute a query, to be used when a join condition significantly reduces results. For more information, see Hints.

• Colocated joining based on routing The mechanism that is in charge of routing the objects into and out of the corresponding partitions. The routing is based on a designated attribute inside the objects that are written to the Space, called the Routing Index.

• IN query improvement-previously, the IN condition was translated into OR conditions, which is not efficient when used for many items,. Now, if there are more than 10 items, the condition will be propagated to the gigaspace api.

  Note: It's important to have equal index for the related property to avoid a full table scan.

Secured ZooKeeper

You can now set up secured ZooKeeper. For more information, see GigaSpaces Manager.

New Service Level Script

A new service-overrides script was added to allow changes per service without restarting the GSA Grid Service Agent. This is a process manager that can spawn and manage Service Grid processes (Operating System level processes) such as The Grid Service Manager, The Grid Service Container, and The Lookup Service. Typically, the GSA is started with the hosting machine's startup. Using the agent, you can bootstrap the entire cluster very easily, and start and stop additional GSCs, GSMs and lookup services at will.. For more information, see Scripts.

Embedded Replication Mode Change Listener

Relevant for primary backup replication, to identify situations when replication moves to async mode. For more information, see Replication.

LDAP Changes

Due to changes in Spring LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. An open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network., the class attribute in LDACP configuration must be updated to com.gigaspaces.security.ldap.XAPLdapAuthoritiesPopulator.

For example:

<bean id=“populator” class=“com.gigaspaces.security.ldap.XAPLdapAuthoritiesPopulator”>
	<constructor-arg ref=“contextSource” />
	<!--  group based DN - we will be searching for groups in “ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com” -->
	<constructor-arg value=“ou=groups” />
	<!-- the name of the attribute that will contain role information (which effectively translates to a user’s granted authorities. Default is “cn” -->
	<property name=“groupRoleAttribute” value=“ou” />
	…
</bean>

XAP.NET Improvements

The following XAP.NET improvements have been made:

• Support for Broadcast tables

• Ability to get replication statistics from an embedded space

Kubernetes Improvements

The following Kubernetes improvements have been made:

• Readiness probe for xap manager to allow safe rolling upgrade of managers.

• Parallel mode deployment of space with multi partitions when HA is false to allow faster deployment and faster rolling upgrade

• Added jvm utilities as jmap to the image.

• Utility to backup and restore tiered storage space data.

• Added OOB alert system with installation of Kapacitor and config map for default alert settings.

• Auto scaler operator that can add/remove more clusters (including copy data from original cluster if needed), according to defined rules.

Data Integration (DI) Updates