OC4J: marshalling does not recreate the same data structure onthe client

Question

Hi guys,
I am trying to use OC4J as an EJB container and have come across the following problem, which looks like a bug.
I have a value object method that returns an instance of ArrayList with references to other value objects of the same class. The value objects have references to other value objects. When this structure is marshalled across the network, we expect it to be recreated as is but that does not happen and instead objects get duplicated.
Suppose we have 2 value objects: ValueObject1 and ValueObject2. ValueObject1 references ValueObject2 via its private field and the ValueObject2 references ValueObject1. Both value objects are returned by our method in an ArrayList structure. Here is how it will look like (number after @ represents an address in memory):
Object[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@1
Object[0].getValueObject[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@2
Object[1] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@2
Object[1].getValueObject[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@1
We would expect to see the same (except exact addresses) after marshalling. Here is what we get instead:
Object[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@1
Object[0].getValueObject[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@2
Object[1] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@3
Object[1].getValueObject[0] = com.cramer.test.SomeVO@4
It can be seen that objects get unnecessarily duplicated – the instance of the ValueObject1 referenced by the ValueObject2 is not the same now as the instance that is referenced by the ArrayList instance.
This does not only break referential integrity, structure and consistency of the data but dramatically increases the amount of information sent across the network. The problem was discovered when we found that a relatively small but complicated structure that gets serialized into a 142kb file requires about 20Mb of network communication. All this extra info is duplicated object instances.
I have created a small test case to demonstrate the problem and let you reproduce it.
Here is RMITestBean.java:
package com.cramer.test;
import javax.ejb.EJBObject;
import java.util.*;
public interface RMITestBean extends EJBObject
public ArrayList getSomeData(int testSize) throws java.rmi.RemoteException;
public byte[] getSomeDataInBytes(int testSize) throws java.rmi.RemoteException;
Here is RMITestBeanBean.java:
package com.cramer.test;
import javax.ejb.SessionBean;
import javax.ejb.SessionContext;
import java.util.*;
public class RMITestBeanBean implements SessionBean
private SessionContext context;
SomeVO someVO;
public void ejbCreate()
someVO = new SomeVO(0);
public void ejbActivate()
public void ejbPassivate()
public void ejbRemove()
public void setSessionContext(SessionContext ctx)
this.context = ctx;
public byte[] getSomeDataInBytes(int testSize)
ArrayList someData = getSomeData(testSize);
try {
java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream byteOutputStream = new java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream();
java.io.ObjectOutputStream objectOutputStream = new java.io.ObjectOutputStream(byteOutputStream);
objectOutputStream.writeObject(someData);
objectOutputStream.flush();
System.out.println(" serialised output size: "+byteOutputStream.size());
byte[] bytes = byteOutputStream.toByteArray();
objectOutputStream.close();
byteOutputStream.close();
return bytes;
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Serialisation failed: "+e.getMessage());
return null;
public ArrayList getSomeData(int testSize)
// Create array of objects
ArrayList someData = new ArrayList();
for (int i=0; i<testSize; i++)
someData.add(new SomeVO(i));
// Interlink all the objects
for (int i=0; i<someData.size()-1; i++)
for (int j=i+1; j<someData.size(); j++)
((SomeVO)someData.get(i)).addValueObject((SomeVO)someData.get(j));
((SomeVO)someData.get(j)).addValueObject((SomeVO)someData.get(i));
// print out the data structure
System.out.println("Data:");
for (int i = 0; i<someData.size(); i++)
SomeVO tmp = (SomeVO)someData.get(i);
System.out.println("Object["+Integer.toString(i)+"] = "+tmp);
System.out.println("Object["+Integer.toString(i)+"]'s some number = "+tmp.getSomeNumber());
for (int j = 0; j<tmp.getValueObjectCount(); j++)
SomeVO tmp2 = tmp.getValueObject(j);
System.out.println(" getValueObject["+Integer.toString(j)+"] = "+tmp2);
System.out.println(" getValueObject["+Integer.toString(j)+"]'s some number = "+tmp2.getSomeNumber());
// Check the serialised size of the structure
try {
java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream byteOutputStream = new java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream();
java.io.ObjectOutputStream objectOutputStream = new java.io.ObjectOutputStream(byteOutputStream);
objectOutputStream.writeObject(someData);
objectOutputStream.flush();
System.out.println("Serialised output size: "+byteOutputStream.size());
objectOutputStream.close();
byteOutputStream.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Serialisation failed: "+e.getMessage());
return someData;
Here is RMITestBeanHome:
package com.cramer.test;
import javax.ejb.EJBHome;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import javax.ejb.CreateException;
public interface RMITestBeanHome extends EJBHome
RMITestBean create() throws RemoteException, CreateException;
Here is ejb-jar.xml:
<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'windows-1252'?>
<!DOCTYPE ejb-jar PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Enterprise JavaBeans 2.0//EN" "http://java.sun.com/dtd/ejb-jar_2_0.dtd">
<ejb-jar>
<enterprise-beans>
<session>
<description>Session Bean ( Stateful )</description>
<display-name>RMITestBean</display-name>
<ejb-name>RMITestBean</ejb-name>
<home>com.cramer.test.RMITestBeanHome</home>
<remote>com.cramer.test.RMITestBean</remote>
<ejb-class>com.cramer.test.RMITestBeanBean</ejb-class>
<session-type>Stateful</session-type>
<transaction-type>Container</transaction-type>
</session>
</enterprise-beans>
</ejb-jar>
And finally the application that tests the bean:
package com.cramer.test;
import java.util.*;
import javax.rmi.*;
import javax.naming.*;
public class RMITestApplication
final static boolean HARDCODE_SERIALISATION = false;
final static int TEST_SIZE = 2;
public static void main(String[] args)
Hashtable props = new Hashtable();
props.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.evermind.server.rmi.RMIInitialContextFactory");
props.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ormi://lil8m:23792/alexei");
props.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "admin");
props.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "admin");
try {
// Get the JNDI initial context
InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext(props);
NamingEnumeration list = ctx.list("comp/env/ejb");
// Get a reference to the Home Object which we use to create the EJB Object
Object objJNDI = ctx.lookup("comp/env/ejb/RMITestBean");
// Now cast it to an InventoryHome object
RMITestBeanHome testBeanHome = (RMITestBeanHome)PortableRemoteObject.narrow(objJNDI,RMITestBeanHome.class);
// Create the Inventory remote interface
RMITestBean testBean = testBeanHome.create();
ArrayList someData = null;
if (!HARDCODE_SERIALISATION)
// ############################### Alternative 1 ##############################
// ## This relies on marshalling serialisation ##
someData = testBean.getSomeData(TEST_SIZE);
// ############################ End of Alternative 1 ##########################
} else
// ############################### Alternative 2 ##############################
// ## This gets a serialised byte stream and de-serialises it ##
byte[] bytes = testBean.getSomeDataInBytes(TEST_SIZE);
try {
java.io.ByteArrayInputStream byteInputStream = new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(bytes);
java.io.ObjectInputStream objectInputStream = new java.io.ObjectInputStream(byteInputStream);
someData = (ArrayList)objectInputStream.readObject();
objectInputStream.close();
byteInputStream.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Serialisation failed: "+e.getMessage());
// ############################ End of Alternative 2 ##########################
// Print out the data structure
System.out.println("Data:");
for (int i = 0; i<someData.size(); i++)
SomeVO tmp = (SomeVO)someData.get(i);
System.out.println("Object["+Integer.toString(i)+"] = "+tmp);
System.out.println("Object["+Integer.toString(i)+"]'s some number = "+tmp.getSomeNumber());
for (int j = 0; j<tmp.getValueObjectCount(); j++)
SomeVO tmp2 = tmp.getValueObject(j);
System.out.println(" getValueObject["+Integer.toString(j)+"] = "+tmp2);
System.out.println(" getValueObject["+Integer.toString(j)+"]'s some number = "+tmp2.getSomeNumber());
// Print out the size of the serialised structure
try {
java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream byteOutputStream = new java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream();
java.io.ObjectOutputStream objectOutputStream = new java.io.ObjectOutputStream(byteOutputStream);
objectOutputStream.writeObject(someData);
objectOutputStream.flush();
System.out.println("Serialised output size: "+byteOutputStream.size());
objectOutputStream.close();
byteOutputStream.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Serialisation failed: "+e.getMessage());
catch(Exception ex){
ex.printStackTrace(System.out);
The parameters you might be interested in playing with are HARDCODE_SERIALISATION and TEST_SIZE defined at the beginning of RMITestApplication.java. The HARDCODE_SERIALISATION is a flag that specifies whether Java serialisation should be used to pass the data across or we should rely on OC4J marshalling. TEST_SIZE defines the size of the object graph and the ArrayList structure. The bigger this size is the more dramatic effect you get from data duplication.
The test case outputs the structure both on the server and on the client and prints out the size of the serialised structure. That gives us sufficient comparison, as both structure and its size should be the same on the client and on the server.
The test case also demonstrates that the problem is specific to OC4J. The standard Java serialisation does not suffer the same flaw. However using the standard serialisation the way I did in the test case code is generally unacceptable as it breaks the transparency benefit and complicates interfaces.
To run the test case:
1) Modify provider URL parameter value on line 15 of the RMITestApplication.java for your environment.
2) Deploy the bean to the server.
4) Run RMITestApplication on a client PC.
5) Compare the outputs on the server and on the client.
I hope someone can reproduce the problem and give their opinion, and possibly point to the solution if there is one at the moment.
Cheers,
Alexei

Answer 1

Hi,
Eugene, wrong end user recovery.  Alexey is referring to client desktop end user recovery which is entirely different.
Alexy - As noted in the previous post:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bc67c597-4379-4a8d-a5e0-cd4b26c85d91/dpm-2012-still-requires-put-end-users-into-local-admin-groups-for-the-purpose-of-end-user-data?forum=dataprotectionmanager
Each recovery point has users permisions tied to it, so it's not possible to retroacively give the users permissions.  Implement the below and going forward all users can restore their own files.
This is a hands off solution to allow all users that use a machine to be able to restore their own files.
 1) Make these two cmd files and save them in c:\temp
 2) Using windows scheduler – schedule addperms.cmd to run daily – any new users that log onto the machine will automatically be able to restore their own files.
<addperms.cmd>
 Cmd.exe /v /c c:\temp\addreg.cmd
<addreg.cmd>
 set users=
 echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00>c:\temp\perms.reg
 echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent\ClientProtection]>>c:\temp\perms.reg
 FOR /F "Tokens=*" %%n IN ('dir c:\users\*. /b') do set users=!users!%Userdomain%\\%%n,
 echo "ClientOwners"=^"%users%%Userdomain%\\bogususer^">>c:\temp\perms.reg
 REG IMPORT c:\temp\perms.reg
 Del c:\temp\perms.reg
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Mike J. [MSFT]
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