Need help configuring for POF

Question

I am trying to use POF to serialize one specific named cache only. The client nodes are configured for near caches with no local storage. I ran into a problem where I got error log complaints that another node in the cluster was not configured for POF serialization for the DistributedCache service. So, I created a new service PofDistributedCache service for use by the pof cache. That changed my errors but didn't get me very far.
Q1: If I have mixed pof / non-pof caches, to they need to use different DistributedCache services?
Q2: Does the server (back-cache) also need a <serializer> block?
Q3: Does the server need all the object classes and the classes needed to (de)serialize the objects?
--Larkin
Client side coherence-cache-config.html:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE cache-config SYSTEM "cache-config.dtd">
<cache-config>
     <caching-scheme-mapping>
          <cache-mapping>
               <cache-name>pof-*</cache-name>
               <scheme-name>default-near-pof</scheme-name>
               <init-params>
                    <init-param-name>front-size-limit</init-param-name>
                    <init-param-value system-property=foo.coherence.default.front-size-limit">0</init-param-value>
               </init-params>
          </cache-mapping>
          <cache-mapping>
               <cache-name>*</cache-name>
               <scheme-name>default-near</scheme-name>
               <init-params>
                    <init-param-name>front-size-limit</init-param-name>
                    <init-param-value system-property="foo.coherence.default.front-size-limit">0</init-param-value>
               </init-params>
          </cache-mapping>
     </caching-scheme-mapping>
     <caching-schemes>
          <near-scheme>
               <scheme-name>default-near</scheme-name>
               <front-scheme>
                    <local-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
                    </local-scheme>
               </front-scheme>
               <back-scheme>
                    <distributed-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-distributed</scheme-ref>
                    </distributed-scheme>
               </back-scheme>
          </near-scheme>
          <near-scheme>
               <scheme-name>default-near-pof</scheme-name>
               <front-scheme>
                    <local-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
                    </local-scheme>
               </front-scheme>
               <back-scheme>
                    <distributed-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-distributed-pof</scheme-ref>
                    </distributed-scheme>
               </back-scheme>
          </near-scheme>
          <local-scheme>
               <scheme-name>default-local</scheme-name>
               <high-units>{front-size-limit 0}</high-units>
          </local-scheme>
          <!--
               This config file is for client use only. The back-cache will not
               provide any local storage to the cluster.
          -->
          <distributed-scheme>
               <scheme-name>default-distributed</scheme-name>
               <service-name>DistributedCache</service-name>
               <local-storage>${coherence.back-cache.storage}</local-storage>
               <backing-map-scheme>
                    <local-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
                    </local-scheme>
               </backing-map-scheme>
          </distributed-scheme>
          <distributed-scheme>
               <scheme-name>default-distributed-pof</scheme-name>
               <service-name>PofDistributedCache</service-name>
               <local-storage>${coherence.back-cache.storage}</local-storage>
               <backing-map-scheme>
                    <local-scheme>
                         <scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
                    </local-scheme>
               </backing-map-scheme>
               <serializer>
                    <class-name>com.tangosol.io.pof.ConfigurablePofContext</class-name>
               </serializer>
          </distributed-scheme>
     </caching-schemes>
</cache-config>
Server side coherence-cache-config.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE cache-config SYSTEM "cache-config.dtd">
<cache-config>
<caching-scheme-mapping>
<cache-mapping>
<cache-name>pof-*</cache-name>
<scheme-name>default-distributed-pof</scheme-name>
</cache-mapping>
<cache-mapping>
<cache-name>*</cache-name>
<scheme-name>default-distributed</scheme-name>
</cache-mapping>
</caching-scheme-mapping>
<caching-schemes>
<distributed-scheme>
<scheme-name>default-distributed</scheme-name>
<service-name>DistributedCache</service-name>
<backing-map-scheme>
<local-scheme>
<scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
</local-scheme>
</backing-map-scheme>
<autostart>true</autostart>
</distributed-scheme>
<distributed-scheme>
<scheme-name>default-distributed-pof</scheme-name>
<service-name>PofDistributedCache</service-name>
<backing-map-scheme>
<local-scheme>
<scheme-ref>default-local</scheme-ref>
</local-scheme>
</backing-map-scheme>
<autostart>true</autostart>
</distributed-scheme>
<local-scheme>
<unit-calculator>BINARY</unit-calculator>
<scheme-name>default-local</scheme-name>
</local-scheme>
</caching-schemes>
</cache-config>

Answer 1

Hi Larkin,
llowrey wrote:
I am trying to use POF to serialize one specific named cache only. The client nodes are configured for near caches with no local storage. I ran into a problem where I got error log complaints that another node in the cluster was not configured for POF serialization for the DistributedCache service. So, I created a new service PofDistributedCache service for use by the pof cache. That changed my errors but didn't get me very far.
Q1: If I have mixed pof / non-pof caches, to they need to use different DistributedCache services?Yes. You can control POF/old-style-serialization on a service by service basis only.
Q2: Does the server (back-cache) also need a <serializer> block?It is not relevant on near-cache. The scheme defining the back cache (and invocation services and replicated cache schemes) need to have the serializer specified.
Q3: Does the server need all the object classes and the classes needed to (de)serialize the objects?
If you want to deserialize the objects, then certainly they do. But with POF you don't necessarily need to deserialize entries from partitioned caches to define indexes or run entry-processors/aggregations on them. You can leverage PofExtractor-s and PofNavigator-s to do all your server-side logic, although for complex data access it may be less efficient. You do need the key classes (on cache NamedCache caller side) for being able to do operations on a partitioned cache, though.
Best regards,
Robert