[[Jakarta_Enterprise_Beans_Distributed_Timers]]
= Jakarta Enterprise Beans Distributed Timers

[abstract]

WildFly now supports distributed timers backed by an embedded Infinispan cache.
The Infinispan cache not only provides an HA solution for persistent timer metadata, in the case of a server crash or restart,
but also distributes timer execution evenly between cluster members.
Consequently, this solution generally provides better performance and scalability than the existing database solution.

This feature can also be used to provide file, database, or remote Infinispan cluster persistence of timer metadata for single server architectures, effectively replacing the existing file-store and database-store TimerService facilities.
Additionally, this feature can also provide passivation support for non-persistent timers to allow the creation of large number of transient timers without the risk of running out of memory.

[[setup]]
== Setup

Distributed timer behavior is configured via the distributable-ejb subsystem, and can be configured globally via the ejb3 subsystem or customized per EJB via the `timer-service` EJB deployment descriptor namespace.

WildFly's HA profiles (e.g. standalone-ha.xml) are configured to use the distributable timer service by default to handle both persistent and non-persistent timers.

To enable the use of distributable timer service within a non-HA profile (e.g. standalone.xml), one must first disable the existing data store mechanism, and then specify the timer management to use for persistent timers, which references a timer management resource from the distributable-ejb subsystem.

[source,options="nowrap"]
----
batch
 /subsystem=ejb3/service=timer-service:undefine-attribute(name=default-data-store)
 /subsystem=ejb3/service=timer-service:write-attribute(name=default-persistent-timer-management, value=persistent)
run-batch
----

To use distributable timer management for transient (i.e. non-persistent) timers, remove the thread-pool-name attribute, and then specify the timer management to use for transient timers, which references a timer management resource from the distributable-ejb subsystem.

[source,options="nowrap"]
----
batch
 /subsystem=ejb3/service=timer-service:undefine-attribute(name=thread-pool)
 /subsystem=ejb3/service=timer-service:write-attribute(name=default-transient-timer-management, value=transient)
run-batch
----

Alternatively, distributable timer management can be enabled via the timer-service deployment descriptor namespace, either globally, or per EJB.
e.g.

[source,xml]
----
<t:timer-service>
    <ejb-name>*</ejb-name>
    <t:persistent-timer-management>distributed</t:persistent-timer-management>
    <t:transient-timer-management>transient</t:transient-timer-management>
</t:timer-service>
----

The `<persistent-timer-management/>` and `<transient-timer-management/>` elements above each reference a named timer management resource defined within the distributable-ejb subsystem.

To customize distributed EJB timer behavior, please refer to the link:High_Availability_Guide{outfilesuffix}#timer-management[distributable-ejb subsystem documentation].
