Debugging Hibernate/Ehcache deadlock

Question

We are using Ehcache version 2.4.4 with Hibernate 3.5.5-FINAL. I've got a strange case happening on my debug environment - it looks like Ehcache is getting into a deadlock. Here's the relevant bit of the stack trace:

http-8080-2@7345 daemon, prio=5, in group 'main', status: 'WAIT'
      at sun.misc.Unsafe.park(Unsafe.java:-1)
      at java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport.park(LockSupport.java:158)
      at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.parkAndCheckInterrupt(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:811)
      at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquireQueued(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:842)
      at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquire(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:1178)
      at java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock$WriteLock.lock(ReentrantReadWriteLock.java:807)
      at net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.Segment.put(Segment.java:427)
      at net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.CompoundStore.put(CompoundStore.java:141)
      at net.sf.ehcache.Cache.putInternal(Cache.java:1434)
      at net.sf.ehcache.Cache.put(Cache.java:1367)
      at net.sf.ehcache.Cache.put(Cache.java:1339)
      at net.sf.ehcache.constructs.EhcacheDecoratorAdapter.put(EhcacheDecoratorAdapter.java:111)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.regions.EhcacheTransactionalDataRegion.put(EhcacheTransactionalDataRegion.java:127)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.strategy.NonStrictReadWriteEhcacheEntityRegionAccessStrategy.putFromLoad(NonStrictReadWriteEhcacheEntityRegionAccessStrategy.java:66)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.nonstop.NonstopAwareEntityRegionAccessStrategy.putFromLoad(NonstopAwareEntityRegionAccessStrategy.java:180)
      at org.hibernate.engine.TwoPhaseLoad.initializeEntity(TwoPhaseLoad.java:180)
      at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.initializeEntitiesAndCollections(Loader.java:898)
      at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQuery(Loader.java:773)
      at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQueryAndInitializeNonLazyCollections(Loader.java:270)
      at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.loadEntity(Loader.java:1953)
      at org.hibernate.loader.entity.AbstractEntityLoader.load(AbstractEntityLoader.java:86)
      at org.hibernate.loader.entity.AbstractEntityLoader.load(AbstractEntityLoader.java:76)
      at org.hibernate.persister.entity.AbstractEntityPersister.load(AbstractEntityPersister.java:3270)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.loadFromDatasource(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:496)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.doLoad(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:477)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.load(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:227)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.onLoad(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:147)
      at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.fireLoad(SessionImpl.java:1080)
      at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.immediateLoad(SessionImpl.java:1018)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.initialize(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:176)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.getImplementation(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:215)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.pojo.javassist.JavassistLazyInitializer.invoke(JavassistLazyInitializer.java:191)
      at vyre.content.items.ItemInfo_$$_javassist_87.equals(ItemInfo_$$_javassist_87.java:-1)
      at org.hibernate.util.EqualsHelper.equals(EqualsHelper.java:33)
      at org.hibernate.type.AbstractType.isEqual(AbstractType.java:132)
      at org.hibernate.type.ComponentType.isEqual(ComponentType.java:153)
      at org.hibernate.cache.CacheKey.equals(CacheKey.java:79)
      at net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.Segment.containsKey(Segment.java:279)
      at net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.CompoundStore.containsKey(CompoundStore.java:353)
      at net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.impl.MemoryOnlyStore.containsKeyInMemory(MemoryOnlyStore.java:121)
      at net.sf.ehcache.Cache.searchInStoreWithStats(Cache.java:1884)
      at net.sf.ehcache.Cache.get(Cache.java:1549)
      at net.sf.ehcache.constructs.EhcacheDecoratorAdapter.get(EhcacheDecoratorAdapter.java:75)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.regions.EhcacheTransactionalDataRegion.get(EhcacheTransactionalDataRegion.java:105)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.strategy.NonStrictReadWriteEhcacheEntityRegionAccessStrategy.get(NonStrictReadWriteEhcacheEntityRegionAccessStrategy.java:55)
      at net.sf.ehcache.hibernate.nonstop.NonstopAwareEntityRegionAccessStrategy.get(NonstopAwareEntityRegionAccessStrategy.java:122)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.loadFromSecondLevelCache(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:586)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.doLoad(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:459)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.load(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:227)
      at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultLoadEventListener.onLoad(DefaultLoadEventListener.java:147)
      at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.fireLoad(SessionImpl.java:1080)
      at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.immediateLoad(SessionImpl.java:1018)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.initialize(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:176)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.getImplementation(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:215)
      at org.hibernate.proxy.pojo.javassist.JavassistLazyInitializer.invoke(JavassistLazyInitializer.java:191)
      at vyre.content.items.Item_$$_javassist_102.getName(Item_$$_javassist_102.java:-1)
      at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:-1)
      at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
      at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.PropertyExecutor.execute(PropertyExecutor.java:142)
      at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelGetterImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:533)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIdentifier.execute(ASTIdentifier.java:198)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:252)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:332)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.render(RuntimeInstance.java:1277)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.evaluate(RuntimeInstance.java:1216)
      at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.evaluate(RuntimeInstance.java:1165)
      at org.apache.velocity.app.Velocity.evaluate(Velocity.java:191)
      at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.pub_005fmodule.taglibs.contentTemplate.search.itemLink_jsp._jspService(itemLink.jsp:36)

  (...another hundred or so irrelevant stack trace fragments skipped...)

This is how I understand the situation:

• the stack bottom begins where Apache Velocity is doing an evaluation and is passed a Hibernate proxy object
• this object is cached with <cache usage="nonstrict-read-write"/> and has a composite key
• Hibernate attempts to get the entity from the cache
• Hibernate/Ehcache checks equalness of the object (note: the "real" equals method is never executed)
• the equal check returns false and the object is being loaded by the Hibernate
• as soon as the load succeeds, the object is placed in the cache
• deadlock?

The offending code snippet of looks like as follows:

net.sf.ehcache.store.compound.Segment.put(Segment.java:427) 

423 Element put(Object key, int hash, Element element, boolean onlyIfAbsent) { 
424    boolean installed = false; 
425    Object encoded = create(key, element); 
426 
427    writeLock().lock(); 
428    try { 
429       // ensure capacity 
430       if (count + 1 > threshold) { 

I can access the encoded object but it looks like writeLock() has been acquired already and therefore the whole thread is stuck. This is where my powers end as I know very little about internals of Ehcache Segment.

Can anyone provide any tips on how to debug this further? Unfortunately, creating a little, self-consistent test case is not an option.

This has also been posted on Ehcache forums page.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Answering my own question just in case if someone else slips on this and the post in Ehcache forums will disappear.

The reason:
The reason for the deadlock was coming from the same thread, where an attempt to locate the object in the cache was done. In one of the bottom parts of the stack, Ehcache was doing readLock().lock() and writeLock().lock() on the same lock object. This is obviously a no-no.

Why did this happen? This happened because cache was loading another object as a side effect (another big no-no) and both objects ended in the same memory segment (and hence shared the same ReentrantLock). Hint: I use the same cache region as I did not want to specify capacities for hundreds of different entity types.

Why did this happen? Inadvertent loading on cache key lookup was happening because of my Hibernate mapping. The object (which was being looked up) had a composite key, referring to another object. Parts of that composite key have been used in the equals method and was causing that load. As a coincidence, loaded object was also attempted to be placed in the same cache segment - and causing a deadlock.

Lessons learned
Be extra careful with your Hibernate mappings. If you have a composite key, never use <key-many-to-one as this can lead to unpredictable results. I think many people do not realize this only because they place different types of objects into different cache regions, but inadvertent loads are nevertheless evil.

All credits go to Alex from Terracotta forums for helping me to find this out.