PollingOutboxPublisher

Contents

• Description
• Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
• Usage
  • Algorithm
  • Multiple Instances
• Configuration
• Example
• License
• Contributing
• Contributors

Description

• Polling Outbox Publisher is an outbox implementation for distributed systems. It uses an outbox algorithm and async transactions to ensure that no events are lost during processing.
• This application uses a straightforward approach where it periodically checks for new messages and publishes them in groups to the Kafka cluster. It deliberately avoids more complex data transfer technologies like Debezium Change Data Capture (CDC) or Couchbase Data Change Protocol (DCP). While those options might offer better performance and efficiency, this application prioritizes simplicity, ease of use, and maintaining independence from other systems.
• It also supports multiple instances to increase the reliability of the system.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 8.0 or higher
• SQL Server 2016 or higher
• Redis 5.0 or higher
• Kafka 2.5 or higher

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Trendyol/PollingOutboxPublisher.git

2. Open the project in a IDE of your choice.
3. Add the config file (/src/config/config.json) and secret file (/src/config/secret.json).
4. Set as 0 the first row in the OutboxOffset.
5. Run the project.
6. The project will start the publish messages in the OutboxEvents data store.
7. That's it! You're ready to go!

Usage

Datastores

• The application can be use Couchbase, PostgreSQL or MSSQL as a data store.
• Each data store has its own implementation and corresponding repository.
• Each data store is corresponding to a table in the database or a bucket in the Couchbase.
• The application uses four different data stores to manage the messages.
  1. OutboxEvents: The data store that holds the messages to be published.
  2. MissingEvents: The data store that holds the messages that could not be published.
  3. ExceededEvents: The data store that holds the messages that could not be published after the retry limit is reached.
  4. OutboxOffset: The data store that holds the last published OutboxEvents ID.
• The scritps for creating data stores can be found under examples](https://github.com/Trendyol/PollingOutboxPublisher/tree/master/examples) folder

Algorithm

1. The application will start getting the next batch of messages from the OutboxEvents data store.
2. Then, it will publish the messages in parallel to the Kafka cluster.
3. If an error occurs during the publishing process, the application will move the messages to MissingEvents and retry the publishing messages in batches.
   • When getting batch of event from OutboxEvents incremental ID list expected to be continuous. If there is a gap in the ID list, the application will move the messages to the MissingEvents and retry the publishing messages in batches.
4. If the retry limit is reached, the application will move the message to the ExceededEvents.
5. If the batch of messages is successfully published, the application will update the OutboxOffset with the last message id.
6. The application will continue to publish messages from the last message id in the OutboxEvents data store.
7. If the application is stopped, it will continue from the last message id in the OutboxOffset data store.

You can see some basic diagrams below to summarize the algorithm:

Multiple Instances

Multiple instances of the application can be run at the same time to increase the reliability of the system. But, only one instance should be the Master Pod at a time. MasterPodLock is a distributed lock that is used to determine the Master Pod, and It has a TTL(time-to-live value).

1. The first instance that take the MasterPodLock will be the Master Pod and will start publishing messages.
   • MasterPodLock is a simple redis key. If lock taken, the value of the key is setted as pod name which is getting from Environment value. If Environment doesn't have pod name, GUID is used.
2. The rest of the instances will be Follower Pods and will try to take the MasterPodLock every certain amount of time.
3. Also, the Master Pod will try to extend the MasterPodLock every certain amount of time.
4. If the Master Pod fails, the one of the Follower Pods will take the MasterPodLock and become the new Master Pod.
5. This feature can be disabled by setting the MasterPodSettings.IsActive to false, but don't forget to make sure that only one instance is running at a time.

Warning

If there will be multiple instances, the MasterPodSettings.IsActive should be set to true. Otherwise, messages can be duplicated or not published.

Configuration

The application can be configured using the config.json and secret.json files. Here are the configurations you can set:

Important Notes

Warning

The default values for Kafka.SaslMechanism and Kafka.SecurityProtocol have been removed in version 1.3.0. Please ensure to set these values in your configuration to avoid any issues.

Key	Type	Description
Kafka.SaslUsername	string	The username for the SASL authentication of the Kafka cluster.
Kafka.Brokers	string	The addresses of the Kafka brokers.
Kafka.SaslPassword	string	The password for the SASL authentication of the Kafka cluster.
Kafka.SslCaLocation	string	The location of the SSL certificate for the Kafka cluster.
Kafka.SslKeystorePassword	string	The SSL Keystore Password
Kafka.SaslMechanism	string	The SSL Mechanism.
Kafka.SecurityProtocol	string	The SSL Protocol.
Kafka.BatchSize	string	The Batch Size of the Kafka Publisher. Default: 512 * 1024
Kafka.LingerMs	string	The Linger of the Kafka Publisher. Default: 10
Kafka.CompressionType	string	The Compression Type of the Kafka Publisher. Default: Snappy
Kafka.MessageMaxBytes	string	The Message Max Bytes of the Kafka Publisher. Default: 30000000
Kafka.Acks	string	The Acks of the Kafka Publisher Default: Leader
BenchMarkOptions.IsPublishingOn	bool	A flag indicating whether publishing is on. Can be used when load testing.
WorkerSettings.OutboxEventsBatchSize	int	The batch size for outbox events. The amount of messages is published in paralells.
WorkerSettings.QueueWaitDuration	int	The wait duration for to take next batch of messages.
WorkerSettings.MissingEventsBatchSize	int	The batch size for missing events. The amount of missing messages is published in paralells.
WorkerSettings.MissingEventsWaitDuration	int	The wait duration to take next batch of missing events.
WorkerSettings.MissingEventsMaxRetryCount	int	The maximum retry count for missing events.
WorkerSettings.BrokerErrorsMaxRetryCount	int	The maximum retry count for broker errors.
WorkerSettings.RedeliveryDelayAfterError	int	The delay after an error before redelivery the batch of missing events.
ConnectionString	string	The connection string for the SQL database. It can be used for both MsSQL and PostgreSQL.
ReadOnlyConnectionString	string	The connection string for the Readonly SQL database. This config is optional and only work for MsSQL. If doesn't provided ConnectionString will be used.
Couchbase.Host	string	The hostname or IP address of the Couchbase server.
Couchbase.Username	string	The username for authentication with Couchbase.
Couchbase.Bucket	string	The name of the Couchbase bucket to access data.
Couchbase.Scope	string	The scope within the bucket to access data.
Couchbase.Password	string	The password for authentication with Couchbase.
DataStoreSettings.DatabaseType	string	The chosen database type. It can be MSSQL, Couchbase or PostgreSQL
DataStoreSettings.OutboxEvents	string	The name of the outbox event data store.
DataStoreSettings.MissingEvents	string	The name of the missing event data store.
DataStoreSettings.ExceededEvents	string	The name of the exceeded event data store.
DataStoreSettings.OutboxOffset	string	The name of the outbox offset data store. Holds the last published OutboxEvents Id
MasterPodSettings.IsActive	bool	A flag indicating whether the master pod checker is active. Should be active if multiple pods is using.
MasterPodSettings.CacheName	string	The name of the distributed lock key. This key should be same for the multiple instances of the app.
MasterPodSettings.MasterPodLifetime	int	The lifetime of the master pod. The TTL of the distributed lock.
MasterPodSettings.MasterPodRaceInterval	int	The interval to take MasterPodLock for MasterPod and FollowerPods.
MasterPodSettings.IsMasterPodCheckInterval	int	The check interval for the FollowerPods. The check without intervals causes high CPU usage; because of that, this is needed.
Redis.Endpoints	string	The endpoints for the Redis instance.
Redis.DefaultDatabase	int	The default database for the Redis instance.
Redis.Config	string	The configuration for the Redis instance.
Redis.Password	string	The password for the Redis instance.
Serilog	object	The configuration for Serilog.

EXAMPLE

In the examples folder, you'll find example files for config.json, secret.json, and implementation on how to insert messages for each database type

Warning

For the Couchbase, incremental ID is used for the OutboxEvents data store. If you want to use the Couchbase, you should use a Counter for the ID. You can find the example code in the CouchbaseExample class.

LICENSE

Released under the MIT License.

CONTRIBUTING

See the CONTRIBUTING file for details.

CONTRIBUTORS