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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HELIX-621?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15092401#comment-15092401
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Marco P. commented on HELIX-621:
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[~k4j] From your explanation it would seem like it's not possible for the
application to miss a notification (i.e. permanently be out of sync with
LiveInstances changes), but one way or another this is happening pretty
reliably with me.
i.e. my explanation for it was incorrect, but the problem is there.
You can try the following:
1) Start 1 spectator. Make it print notification for LiveInstances changes.
2) Start 2 (or more) participants
3) Kill all participants at more or less the same time
4) At this point you'd expect the spectator to tell that no participant is
alive. However in some cases it will not, it's going to say someone is still
up, and no subsequent notification will rectify.
This requires some luck, but you can repeat from step (2) and it shouldn't take
long before you see the problem.
> Missing listener notification of LiveInstances changes (and possibly other
> state change)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: HELIX-621
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HELIX-621
> Project: Apache Helix
> Issue Type: Bug
> Components: helix-core
> Affects Versions: 0.6.5
> Reporter: Marco P.
>
> I noticed sometimes my LiveInstanceChangeListener was not notified of an
> instance disconnecting.
> Digging a little bit I found out:
> - A reliable way to consistently reproduce this problem
> - The problem does not seem to be limited to LiveInstances, it can happen to
> other listeners using the same strategy
> This is bad as an application relies on notifications, and its view of the
> system (LiveInstances or else) can get very outdated.
> The problem at the core is this logic:
> 1) Set watch W on some path P
> 2) Event E1 modifies P triggering W
> 3) The callback for W re-sets W on P
> If however a second Event E2 modifies between 2 and 3, W will not trigger
> (until P is modified again).
> An example of why this is bad:
> - 2 live instances L1, L2 and a spectator S watching them.
> 1) L1 disconnects
> 2) S's watch on LIVEINSTANCES fires
> 3) S reads the children of LIVEINSTANCES: {L2}
> 3) L2 disconnects
> 4) S's notifies LiveInstanceChangeListeners and goes back to watching
> LIVEINSTANCES
> The application receives a notification that the live instances now consist
> of {L2}.
> And no further notification until another instance joins.
> The reality is that no instances are live.
> Again, this is not limited to LIVEINSTANCES, although that's the one I can
> reliably reproduce.
> Fixing this is not trivial, it requires firing the watch again when
> re-setting it IF the version of the watched node change since the last time
> the watch fired.
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