Where can I configure the thread pool behind the @Asynchronous calls in Java EE 6?

Question

I recently learned that I can easily make any session bean method Asynchronous by simply adding the @Asynchronous annotation.

E.g.

@Asynchronous
public Future<String> processPayment(Order order) throws PaymentException {
    ... 
}

I know that Java EE 7 added Concurrency Utilities, but in Java EE 6, where is the thread pool configuration of the @Asyncronous methods? is there a way to set a timeout? is it a fixed thread pool? a cached one? what is it's priority? Is it configurable somewhere in the container?

Answer 1

I think timeout could be achieved by invoking Future.cancel(boolean) from a method annotated @Timeout. Requires keeping a reference to the Future returned by the async method, Singleton-ejb can be used for this.

@Stateless
public class AsyncEjb {

    @Resource
    private SessionContext sessionContext;

    @Asynchronous
    public Future<String> asyncMethod() {

        ...
        //Check if canceled by timer
        if(sessionContext.wasCancelCalled()) {
            ...
        }
        ...

    }
}

@Singleton
public class SingletonEjb {
    @EJB
    AsyncEjb asyncEjb;

    Future<String> theFuture;

    public void asyncMethod() {

        theFuture = asyncEjb.asyncMethod();

        //Create programatic timer
        long duration = 6000;
        Timer timer =
        timerService.createSingleActionTimer(duration, new TimerConfig());

    }

    //Method invoked when timer runs out
    @Timeout
    public void timeout(Timer timer) {
        theFuture.cancel(true);
    }
}

Edit (new below):

In glassfish you may configure the ejb-pool by seting below attributes in the admin console

• Initial and Minimum Pool Size
• Maximum Pool Size
• Pool Resize Quantity
• Pool Idle Timeout

see Tuning the EJB Pool