Multi_Tenancy.xml

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         xmlns:xl="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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    <title>Multi-tenancy</title>

    <section>
        <title>What is multi-tenancy?</title>
        <para>
            The term multi-tenancy in general is applied to software development to indicate an architecture in which
            a single running instance of an application simultaneously serves multiple clients (tenants).  This is
            highly common in SaaS solutions.  Isolating information (data, customizations, etc) pertaining to the
            various tenants is a particular challenge in these systems.  This includes the data owned by each tenant
            stored in the database.  It is this last piece, sometimes called multi-tenant data, on which we will focus.
        </para>
    </section>

    <section>
        <title>Multi-tenant data approaches</title>
        <para>
            There are 3 main approaches to isolating information in these multi-tenant systems which goes hand-in-hand
            with different database schema definitions and JDBC setups.
        </para>

        <note>
            <para>
                Each approach has pros and cons as well as specific techniques and considerations.  Such
                topics are beyond the scope of this documentation.  Many resources exist which delve into these
                other topics.  One example is <link xl:href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479086.aspx"/>
                which does a great job of covering these topics.
            </para>
        </note>

        <section>
            <title>Separate database</title>

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                    <imagedata fileref="images/multitenacy_database.png" format="PNG" align="center" />
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                    <imagedata fileref="images/multitenacy_database.svg" format="SVG" align="center" width="17cm" />
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            <para>
                Each tenant's data is kept in a physically separate database instance.  JDBC Connections would point
                specifically to each database, so any pooling would be per-tenant.  A general application approach
                here would be to define a JDBC Connection pool per-tenant and to select the pool to use based on the
                <quote>tenant identifier</quote> associated with the currently logged in user.
            </para>
        </section>

        <section>
            <title>Separate schema</title>

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                    <imagedata fileref="images/multitenacy_schema.svg" format="SVG" align="center" width="17cm" />
                </imageobject>
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            <para>
                Each tenant's data is kept in a distinct database schema on a single database instance.  There are 2
                different ways to define JDBC Connections here:
                <itemizedlist>
                    <listitem>
                        <para>
                            Connections could point specifically to each schema, as we saw with the
                            <literal>Separate database</literal> approach.  This is an option provided that
                            the driver supports naming the default schema in the connection URL or if the
                            pooling mechanism supports naming a schema to use for its Connections.  Using this
                            approach, we would have a distinct JDBC Connection pool per-tenant where the pool to use
                            would be selected based on the <quote>tenant identifier</quote> associated with the
                            currently logged in user.
                        </para>
                    </listitem>
                    <listitem>
                        <para>
                            Connections could point to the database itself (using some default schema) but
                            the Connections would be altered using the SQL <literal>SET SCHEMA</literal> (or similar)
                            command.  Using this approach, we would have a single JDBC Connection pool for use to
                            service all tenants, but before using the Connection it would be altered to reference
                            the schema named by the <quote>tenant identifier</quote> associated with the currently
                            logged in user.
                        </para>
                    </listitem>
                </itemizedlist>
            </para>
        </section>

        <section>
            <title>Partitioned (discriminator) data</title>

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                    <imagedata fileref="images/multitenacy_discriminator.png" format="PNG" align="center" />
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                    <imagedata fileref="images/multitenacy_discriminator.svg" format="SVG" align="center" width="17cm" />
                </imageobject>
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            <para>
                All data is kept in a single database schema.  The data for each tenant is partitioned by the use of
                partition value or discriminator.  The complexity of this discriminator might range from a simple
                column value to a complex SQL formula.  Again, this approach would use a single Connection pool
                to service all tenants.  However, in this approach the application needs to alter each and every
                SQL statement sent to the database to reference the <quote>tenant identifier</quote> discriminator.
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>

    <section>
        <title>Multi-tenancy in Hibernate</title>
        <para>
            Using Hibernate with multi-tenant data comes down to both an API and then integration piece(s).  As
            usual Hibernate strives to keep the API simple and isolated from any underlying integration complexities.
            The API is really just defined by passing the tenant identifier as part of opening any session.
        </para>
        <example id="specifying-tenant-ex">
            <title>Specifying tenant identifier from <interfacename>SessionFactory</interfacename></title>
            <programlisting role="JAVA"><xi:include href="extras/tenant-identifier-from-SessionFactory.java" parse="text"/></programlisting>
        </example>
        <para>
            Additionally, when specifying configuration, a <classname>org.hibernate.MultiTenancyStrategy</classname>
            should be named using the <property>hibernate.multiTenancy</property> setting.  Hibernate will perform
            validations based on the type of strategy you specify.  The strategy here correlates to the isolation
            approach discussed above.
        </para>
        <variablelist>
            <varlistentry>
                <term>NONE</term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        (the default) No multi-tenancy is expected.  In fact, it is considered an error if a tenant
                        identifier is specified when opening a session using this strategy.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term>SCHEMA</term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Correlates to the separate schema approach.  It is an error to attempt to open a session without
                        a tenant identifier using this strategy.  Additionally, a
                        <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename>
                        must be specified.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term>DATABASE</term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Correlates to the separate database approach.  It is an error to attempt to open a session without
                        a tenant identifier using this strategy.  Additionally, a
                        <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename>
                        must be specified.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term>DISCRIMINATOR</term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Correlates to the partitioned (discriminator) approach.  It is an error to attempt to open a
                        session without a tenant identifier using this strategy.  This strategy is not yet implemented
                        in Hibernate as of 4.0 and 4.1.  Its support is planned for 5.0.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>

        <section>
            <title><interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename></title>
            <para>
                When using either the DATABASE or SCHEMA approach, Hibernate needs to be able to obtain Connections
                in a tenant specific manner.  That is the role of the
                <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename>
                contract.  Application developers will need to provide an implementation of this
                contract.  Most of its methods are extremely self-explanatory.  The only ones which might not be are
                <methodname>getAnyConnection</methodname> and <methodname>releaseAnyConnection</methodname>.  It is
                important to note also that these methods do not accept the tenant identifier.  Hibernate uses these
                methods during startup to perform various configuration, mainly via the
                <classname>java.sql.DatabaseMetaData</classname> object.
            </para>
            <para>
                The <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename> to use can be specified in a number of
                ways:
            </para>
            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Use the <property>hibernate.multi_tenant_connection_provider</property> setting.  It could
                        name a <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename> instance, a
                        <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename> implementation class reference or
                        a <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename> implementation class name.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        Passed directly to the <classname>org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder</classname>.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        If none of the above options match, but the settings do specify a
                        <property>hibernate.connection.datasource</property> value, Hibernate will assume it should
                        use the specific
                        <classname>DataSourceBasedMultiTenantConnectionProviderImpl</classname>
                        implementation which works on a number of pretty reasonable assumptions when running inside of
                        an app server and using one <interfacename>javax.sql.DataSource</interfacename> per tenant.
                        See its javadocs for more details.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
        </section>

        <section>
            <title><interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename></title>
            <para>
                <interfacename>org.hibernate.context.spi.CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> is a contract
                for Hibernate to be able to resolve what the application considers the current tenant identifier.
                The implementation to use is either passed directly to <classname>Configuration</classname> via its
                <methodname>setCurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</methodname> method.  It can also be specified via
                the <property>hibernate.tenant_identifier_resolver</property> setting.
            </para>
            <para>
                There are 2 situations where <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> is used:
            </para>
            <itemizedlist>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        The first situation is when the application is using the
                        <interfacename>org.hibernate.context.spi.CurrentSessionContext</interfacename> feature in
                        conjunction with multi-tenancy.  In the case of the current-session feature,  Hibernate will
                        need to open a session if it cannot find an existing one in scope.  However, when a session
                        is opened in a multi-tenant environment the tenant identifier has to be specified.  This is
                        where the <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> comes into play;
                        Hibernate will consult the implementation you provide to determine the tenant identifier to use
                        when opening the session.  In this case, it is required that a
                        <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> be supplied.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                        The other situation is when you do not want to have to explicitly specify the tenant
                        identifier all the time as we saw in <xref linkend="specifying-tenant-ex"/>.  If a
                        <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> has been specified, Hibernate
                        will use it to determine the default tenant identifier to use when opening the session.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
            <para>
                Additionally, if the <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> implementation
                returns <literal>true</literal> for its <methodname>validateExistingCurrentSessions</methodname>
                method, Hibernate will make sure any existing sessions that are found in scope have a matching
                tenant identifier.  This capability is only pertinent when the
                <interfacename>CurrentTenantIdentifierResolver</interfacename> is used in current-session settings.
            </para>
        </section>

        <section>
            <title>Caching</title>
            <para>
                Multi-tenancy support in Hibernate works seamlessly with the Hibernate second level cache.  The key
                used to cache data encodes the tenant identifier.
            </para>
        </section>

        <section>
            <title>Odds and ends</title>
            <para>
                Currently schema export will not really work with multi-tenancy.  That may not change.
            </para>
            <para>
                The JPA expert group is in the process of defining multi-tenancy support for the upcoming 2.1
                version of the specification.
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>

    <section>
        <title>Strategies for <interfacename>MultiTenantConnectionProvider</interfacename> implementors</title>
        <example>
            <title>Implementing MultiTenantConnectionProvider using different connection pools</title>
            <programlisting role="JAVA"><xi:include href="extras/MultiTenantConnectionProviderImpl-multi-cp.java" parse="text"/></programlisting>
        </example>
        <para>
            The approach above is valid for the DATABASE approach.  It is also valid for the SCHEMA approach
            provided the underlying database allows naming the schema to which to connect in the connection URL.
        </para>
        <example>
            <title>Implementing MultiTenantConnectionProvider using single connection pool</title>
            <programlisting role="JAVA"><xi:include href="extras/MultiTenantConnectionProviderImpl-single-cp.java" parse="text"/></programlisting>
        </example>
        <para>
            This approach is only relevant to the SCHEMA approach.
        </para>
    </section>
</chapter>