This document discusses different ways of clustering ColdFusion applications for scalability, high availability, and failover. It covers vertical clustering by running multiple instances on the same server, horizontal clustering across multiple servers, and distributed architectures with the web and application servers on separate machines. It also discusses load balancing, session management, and demo's setting up different cluster configurations.

1. The More the Merrier, Clustering in ColdFusion
Elishia Dvorak | ColdFusion Solution Consultant & Evangelist
Nimit Sharma | Software Engineer, ColdFusion
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2. Agenda
 Different ways of clustering in ColdFusion
 Vertical
 Horizontal
 Distributed
 Load Balancing
 Failover & Session Management
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3. Why Cluster?
High Availability/Failover
Redundancy
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4. Clustering in ColdFusion
 JEE Clustering Mechanism in Tomcat
 Peer to peer at the instance level
 Will not provide failover for your web server
 Will need HWLB or use of built-in failover for web server
ie. IIS failover via Microsoft Network Load Balancing (NLB)
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5. Types of Clustering
 Vertical Cluster “Scale Up”
 Multiple instances on same box
 Increased efficiency
 Greatest utilization of hardware resources
 Manageability
 Most cost-effective
 Protection against software failover
(localized redundancy)
 Implications for hardware failure
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8. Demo
Setting Up a Vertical Cluster
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9. Types of Clustering
 Horizontal Cluster “Scale Out”
 Clustered across different physical or virtual servers
 Protects against hardware failures
 Not most cost-effective solution
 Effective management of workloads
 May be most effective if you have an application that can run efficiently on limited hardware
 The most common solution typically involves a hybrid vertical + horizontal solution (scale up then out)
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CF
1
CF
2
CF
3
CF
4
CF
5
Web1 Web2 Web3 Web4 Web5

10. Instance Manager ->
Register Remote Instance
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Must be unique for session affinity
Weighted round robin
Default 8985/8987 (in
jetty.xml)

11. Demo
Setting Up a Horizontal ColdFusion Cluster
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12. Clustering in ColdFusion
A B C A B C A B C
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13. Distributed Architecture
 Web server resides on a separate server than ColdFusion
 Security
 Scalability
 Redundant & Independent
 Three-Tier Architecture
 Tier 1: Web Server
 Tier 2: Application Server (ColdFusion)
 Tier 3: Data
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14. Demo
Distributed Architecture
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15. Where is all this stored?
 Web Server Configuration Utility: CF_Install_Dir/cfusion/runtime/bin
 Connector Config: CF_Install_Dir/config/
 cluster.xml: Stores info about the cluster, including multicast port
 Instances.xml: Stores info about the instances and where they are located
 In /config/wsconfig/n/ - config files for connector, logs
 Isapi_redirect.properties
 workers.properties
 CF_Install_dircfusionjettyetcjetty.xml: Admin component ports
 instance_nameruntimeconfserver.xml: stores port/connector info for server instances
 AJP Port
 Connector Port for Built-In Web Server
 Web root for Built-In Web Server, context path
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16. Consideration for architecture
Code Maintenance
Maintaining multiple copies of the shared assets
Requires replication mechanism to keep shared assets up to date
Always possibility of something getting out of sync
Using NAS (Network Attached Storage) device
Centrally located
Still need failover mechanism
Possibility of latency

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17. Load Balancing & Failover
 Load balancer
 For distribution of load and failover across web server level
 Allows proxy based distribution of traffic across multiple servers
 Hardware or Software Based
 Example: F5 Big-IP
 ColdFusion Offers
 Load balancing via round robin (at instance level)
 Failover (at instance level) - Requires session replication, or alternative to maintain session at failover
 Session Management Options:
 Server Affinity / Sticky Sessions (J2EE sessions must be enabled)
 Session Replication (J2EE sessions must be enabled)
 Distributed Caching
 Client Variables
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18. Troubleshooting
 Verbose Connector Logging
 Isapi_redirect.properties
 Set log_level= debug
 Log files
 Isapi_redirect.log
 Ensure ports are open between machines:
 Check OS Firewalls, External Firewalls, If AWS need to open TCP ports
 AJP Port for communicating with cluster members (remote) – by default 801X
 HTTP port, for testing using internal web server would be port 850X
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19. © 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
PDFg Clustering and Scalability
Nimit Sharma
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20. Agenda
 PDFg Service(CFHTMLTOPDF)
 PDFg Service Clustering
 Vertical
 Horizontal
 Troubleshooting tips
 Performance improvements
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21. PDFg Service
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 Fully revamped PDF Engine
 Produces high quality PDFs
 Re-architected for high performance
 Cluster Support for Enterprise Edition

22. PDFg Service
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 CFHTMLToPDF
 CFHTMLToPDFItem

23. PDF generated using CFDocument and CFHtmlToPdf
CFDocument CFHtmlToPdf
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24. Components of PDFg Service
 Service: It is process named HTML2PDFConverter.
 Service Manager: It manages the lifecycle of PDF generation.
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25. Request Flow
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End-Users ColdFusion
Server
ColdFusion
Add-on Services
Service
HTML2PDFConverter
PDF Service
Manager

26. PDFg Service Clustering for Scalability
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 Vertical Scaling
 Horizontal Scaling

27. PDFg Service – Vertical Scaling
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Html2PdfConverter N
Html2PdfConverter 3
Html2PdfConverter 2
Html2PdfConverter 1
PDF Service Process Pool
PDF Service process can be increased with load.

28. PDFg Service – Vertical Scaling
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Configuration File
<cf_install_root>/cfusion/jetty/webapps/PDFgServlet/WEB-INF/web.xml
<context-param>
<description> Minimum PDFg process running in Process pool </description>
<param-name>minService</param-name>
<param-value>1</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<description> Maximum PDFg process running in Process pool </description> <param-name>
maxService</param-name>
<param-value>2</param-value>
</context-param>

29. Demo
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30. PDFg Service – Horizontal Scaling
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Load Balancer
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Html2PdfConverter 2
Html2PdfConverter 1
PDF Service Process Pool
Html2PdfConverter 2
Html2PdfConverter 1
PDF Service Process Pool

31. PDFg Service – Horizontal Scaling
Login to ColdFusion Administrator, and then navigate to ‘Data & Services’ > PDF Service.
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32. List PDF Service Managers
Login to ColdFusion Administrator, and then navigate to ‘Data & Services’ > PDF Service.
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33. Demo
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34. Troubleshooting Tips
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 How to access PDFg service manager remotely
 How to enable PDFg service logging

35. Accessing PDFg service manager remotely
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Configuration File:
<cf_install_root>/cfusion/jetty/etc/jetty.xml
<Call name="addConnector">
<Arg>
<New class="org.mortbay.jetty.bio.SocketConnector">
<Set name="Host">127.0.0.1</Set>
<Set name="port">
<SystemProperty name="jetty.port" default="8987"/>
</Set>
<Set name="maxIdleTime">50000</Set>
<Set name="lowResourceMaxIdleTime">1500</Set>
</New>
</Arg>
</Call>

36. Logging
End-Users ColdFusion
Server
ColdFusion logs PDF service
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ColdFusion
Add-on Services
Service
HTML2PDFConverter
logs PDF Service
Manager

37. Enabling PDFg service logging
<context-param>
<description>
EnableLogging logs complete details about PDFg service and conversion request life cycle.
</description>
<param-name>enableLogging</param-name>
<param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>
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Configuration file:
<cf_install_root>/cfusion/jetty/webapps/PDFgServlet/WEB-INF/web.xml
It creates PDF service log named pdfg_access.log

38. Performance Improvements
120
100
80
60
40
20
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0
10 20 40 50 80 100
Throughput(Request/Sec)
Virtual Users
CFDocument
CFHtmlToPdf

39. Configuration used for Performance tests
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Server details:
 OS: Windows Server 2012 R2
 Processors: Xeon with 16 cores
 RAM: 32 GB
PDF Service Configuration details:
 minService: 8
 maxService: 12
CFDocument:
 No option available to scale

40. © 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Nimit Sharma
nimsharm@adobe.com
@nimsharm
Elishia Dvorak
elishia@adobe.com
@elishdvorak