ApplicationPool algorithm.txt

= ApplicationPool algorithm


== Introduction

For efficiency reasons, Passenger keeps a pool spawned Rails/Ruby applications.
Please read the C++ API documentation for the ApplicationPool class for a full
introduction. This document describes an algorithm for managing the pool, in a
high-level way.

The algorithm should strive to keep spawning to a minimum.


== Definitions

=== Vocabulary

- "Application root":
  The toplevel directory in which an application is contained. For Rails
  application, this is the same as RAILS_ROOT, i.e. the directory that contains
  "app/", "public/", etc. For a Rack application, this is the directory that
  contains "config.ru".

- "Active application instance":
  An application instance that has more than 0 active sessions.

=== Types

Most of the types that we use in this document are pretty standard. But we
explicitly define some special types:

- list<SomeType>
  A doubly linked list which contains elements of type SomeType. It supports
  all the usual list operations that one can expect from a linked list, like
  add_to_back(), etc.
  
  The following operations deserve special mention:
  * remove(iterator)
    Removes the specified element from the list. _iterator_ is a linked list
    iterator: it probably contains the links and a reference to the actual
    list element, depending on the list implementation. This operation can be
    done in O(1) time.
  
  * move_to_front(iterator)
    Moves the specified element to the front of the list. _iterator_ is an
    iterator, as described earlier.
  
- Domain
  A compound type (class) which contains information about an application root,
  such as the application instances that have been spawned for this application
  root.
  
  A Domain has the following members:
  * instances (list<AppContainer>) - a list of AppContainer objects.
    
    Invariant:
        containers is non-empty.
        for all 0 <= i < containers.size() - 1:
           if containers[i].app is active:
              containers[i + 1].app is active

  * size (unsigned integer): The number of items in _instances_.
  
  * max_requests (unsigned integer): The maximum number of requests that each
    application instance in this domain may process. After having processed this
    many requests, the application instance will be shut down.
    A value of 0 indicates that there is no maximum.
  
  * restart_file_checker
    An object which monitors the restart.txt file, which belongs to this
    application root, for changes. This object has the method changed(),
    which rteurns whether restart.txt's timestamp has changed since the last
    check.

- AppContainer
  A compound type (class) which contains an application instance, as well as
  iterators for various linked lists. These iterators make it possible to
  perform actions on the linked list in O(1) time.
  
  An AppContainer has the following members:
  * app - An Application object, representing an application instance.
  * start_time (time) - The time at which this application instance was
    started. It's set to the current time by AppContainer's constructor.
  * processed_requests (integer) - The number of requests processed by this
    application instance so far.
  * last_used (time) - The last time a session for this application instance
    was opened or closed.
  * sessions (integer) - The number of open sessions for this application
    instance.
    Invariant:
       (sessions == 0) == (This AppContainer is in inactive_apps.)
  * iterator - The iterator for this AppContainer in the linked list
    domains[app.app_root].instances
  * ia_iterator - The iterator for this AppContainer in the linked list
    inactive_apps. This iterator is only valid if this AppContainer really is
    in that list.

- PoolOptions
  A structure containing additional information used by the spawn manager's
  spawning process, as well as by the get() function.
  
  A PoolOptions has the following members:
  * max_requests (unsigned integer) - The maximum number of requests that the
    application instance may process. After having processed this many requests,
    the application instance will be shut down. A value of 0 indicates that there
    is no maximum.
  * use_global_queue (boolean) - Whether to use a global queue for all
    application instances, or a queue that's private to the application instance.
    The users guide explains this feature in more detail.

=== Special functions

- spawn(app_root)
  Spawns a new instance of the application at the given application root.
  Throws an exception if something went wrong. This function is thread-safe.
  Note that application initialization can take an arbitrary amount of time.

=== Instance variables

The algorithm requires the following instance variables for storing state
information:

- lock: mutex
  This lock is used for implementing thread-safetiness. We assume that it
  is non-recursive, i.e. if a thread locks a mutex that it has already locked,
  then it will result in a deadlock.

- domains: map[string => Domain]
  Maps an application root to its Domain object. This map contains all
  application instances in the pool.
  
  Invariant:
     for all values d in domains:
        d.size <= count
     (sum of all d.size in domains) == count
  
- max: integer
  The maximum number of AppContainer objects that may exist in the pool.

- max_per_app: integer
  The maximum number of AppContainer objects that may be simultaneously alive
  for a single Domain.

- count: integer
  The current number of AppContainer objects in the pool.
  Since 'max' can be set dynamically during the life time of an application
  pool, 'count > max' is possible.

- active: integer
  The number of application instances in the pool that are active.
  Invariant:
     active <= count

- inactive_apps: list<AppContainer>
  A linked list of AppContainer objects. All application instances in this list
  are inactive.
  
  Invariant:
     inactive_apps.size() == count - active
     for all c in inactive_apps:
        c can be found in _domains_.
        c.sessions == 0

- waiting_on_global_queue: integer
  If global queuing mode is enabled, then when get() is waiting for a backend
  process to become idle, this variable will be incremented. When get() is done
  waiting, this variable will be decremented.


== Class relations

Here's an UML diagram in ASCII art:

[AppContainer] 1..* -------+
                           |
                           |
                           
                           1
[ApplicationPool]       [Domain]
       1                  0..*

       |                   |
       +-------------------+


== Algorithm in pseudo code

# Thread-safetiness notes:
# - All wait commands are to unlock the lock during waiting.

# Connect to an existing application instance or to a newly spawned application instance.
# 'app_root' specifies the application root folder of the application. 'options' is an
# object of type 'PoolOptions', which contains additional information which may be
# relevant for spawning.
function get(app_root, options):
	MAX_ATTEMPTS = 10
	attempt = 0
	time_limit = now() + 5 seconds
	lock.synchronize:
		while (true):
			attempt++
			container, domain = spawn_or_use_existing(app_root, options)
			container.last_used = current_time()
			container.sessions++
			try:
				return container.app.connect()
			on exception:
				# The app instance seems to have crashed.
				# So we remove this instance from our data
				# structures.
				container.sessions--
				instances = domain.instances
				instances.remove(container.iterator)
				domain.size--
				if instances.empty():
					domains.remove(app_root)
				count--
				active--
				if (attempt == MAX_ATTEMPTS):
					propagate exception


# Returns a pair of [AppContainer, Domain] that matches the given application
# root. If no such AppContainer exists, then it is created and a new
# application instance is spawned. All exceptions that occur are propagated.
function spawn_or_use_existing(app_root, options):
	domain = domains[app_root]
	
	if (domain != nil) and (needs_restart(app_root, domain)):
		for all container in domain.instances:
			if container.sessions == 0:
				inactive_apps.remove(container.ia_iterator)
			else:
				active--
			domain.instances.remove(container.iterator)
			count--
		domains.remove(app_root)
		list = nil
		Tell spawn server to reload code for app_root.
	
	if domain != nil:
		# There are apps for this app root.
		instances = domain.instances
		
		if (instances.front.sessions == 0):
			# There is an inactive app, so we use it.
			container = instances.front
			instances.move_to_back(container.iterator)
			inactive_apps.remove(container.ia_iterator)
			active++
		else if	(count >= max) or (
			(max_per_app != 0) and (domain.size >= max_per_app)
			):
			# All apps are active, and the pool is full. 
			#  -OR-
			# All apps are active and the number of max instances
			# spawned for this application domain has been reached.
			#
			# We're not allowed to spawn a new application instance.
			if options.use_global_queue:
				# So we wait until _active_ has changed, then
				# we restart this function and try again.
				waiting_on_global_queue++
				wait until _active_ has changed
				waiting_on_global_queue--
				goto beginning of function
			else:
				# So we connect to an already active application.
				# This connection will be put into that
				# application's private queue.
				container = a container in _instances_ with the smallest _session_ value
				instances.move_to_back(container.iterator)
		else:
			# All apps are active, but the pool hasn't reached its
			# maximum yet. So we spawn a new app.
			container = new AppContainer
			# TODO: we should add some kind of timeout check for spawning.
			container.app = spawn(app_root)
			container.sessions = 0
			iterator = instances.add_to_back(container)
			container.iterator = iterator
			domain.size++
			count++
			active++
	else:
		# There are no apps for this app root. Wait until there's at
		# least 1 idle instance, or until there's an empty slot in the
		# pool, then restart this function. Restarting is necessary,
		# because after waiting and reacquiring the lack, some other
		# thread might already have spawned instances for this app root.
		if (active >= max):
			wait until _active_ has changed
			goto beginning of function
		elsif count == max:
			# Here we are in a though situation. There are several
			# apps which are inactive, and none of them have
			# application root _app_root_, so we must kill one of
			# them in order to free a spot in the pool. But which
			# one do we kill? We want to minimize spawning.
			#
			# It's probably a good idea to keep some kind of
			# statistics in order to decide this. We want the
			# application root that gets the least traffic to be
			# killed. But for now, we kill a random application
			# instance.
			container = inactive_apps.pop_front
			domain = domains[container.app.app_root]
			instances = domain.instances
			instances.remove(container.iterator)
			if instances.empty():
				domains.remove(container.app.app_root)
			else:
				domain.size--
			count--
		container = new AppContainer
		# TODO: we should add some kind of timeout check for spawning.
		container.app = spawn(app_root)
		container.sessions = 0
		domain = domains[app_root]
		if domain == nil:
			domain = new Domain
			initialize domain.instances
			initialize domain.restart_file_checker with "$app_root/tmp/restart.txt"
			domain.size = 1
			domain.max_requests = options.max_requests
			domains[app_root] = domain
		else:
			domain.size++
		iterator = domain.instances.add_to_back(container)
		container.iterator = iterator
		count++
		active++
	return [container, domain]


# The following function is to be called when a session has been closed.
# _container_ is the AppContainer that contains the application for which a
# session has been closed.
function session_has_been_closed(container):
	lock.synchronize:
		domain = domains[container.app.app_root]
		if domain != nil:
			instances = domain.instances
			container.processed++
			
			if (domain.max_requests) > 0 and (container.processed >= domain.max_requests):
				# The application instance has processed its maximum allowed
				# number of requests, so we shut it down.
				instances.remove(container.iterator)
				domain.size--
				if instances.empty():
					domains.remove(app_root)
				count--
				active--
			else:
				container.last_used = current_time()
				container.sessions--
				container.processed++
				if container.sessions == 0:
					instances.move_to_front(container.iterator)
					container.ia_iterator = inactive_apps.add_to_back(container.app)
					active--


function needs_restart(app_root, domain):
	always_restart_file = "$app_root/tmp/always_restart.txt"
	return (file_exists(always_restart_file)) or
	       (domain.restart_file_checker.changed())


# The following thread will be responsible for cleaning up idle application
# instances, i.e. instances that haven't been used for a while.
# This can be disabled per app when setting it's maxIdleTime to 0.
thread cleaner:
	lock.synchronize:
		done = false
		while !done:
			Wait until CLEAN_INTERVAL seconds have expired, or until the thread has been signalled to quit.
			if thread has been signalled to quit:
				done = true
				break
			
			now = current_time()
			for all container in inactive_apps:
				app = container.app
				domain = domains[app.app_root]
				instances = domain.instances
				# If MAX_IDLE_TIME is 0 we don't clean up the instance,
				# giving us the option to persist the app container
				# forever unless it's killed by another app.
				if (MAX_IDLE_TIME > 0) and (now - container.last_used > MAX_IDLE_TIME):
					instances.remove(container.iterator)
					inactive_apps.remove(container.iterator)
					domain.size--
					count--
				if instances.empty():
					domains.remove(app.app_root)