Memcached Module
Henning Westerholt
Copyright © 2009 Henning Westerholt
__________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Admin Guide
1. Overview
2. Implementation notes
2.1. Data safety
2.2. Size restrictions
3. Dependencies
3.1. Kamailio Modules
3.2. External Libraries or Applications
4. Parameters
4.1. servers (str)
4.2. expire (integer)
4.3. mode (integer)
4.4. timeout (integer)
4.5. memory (integer)
4.6. stringify (integer)
5.
5.1. Exported pseudo-variables
List of Examples
1.1. Storing and retrieving entries
1.2. Using atomic operations
1.3. Set custom expire time when adding an entry
1.4. Modifying expire time for existing entries
1.5. Set servers parameter
1.6. Set expire parameter
1.7. Set mode parameter
1.8. Set timeout parameter
1.9. Set memory parameter
1.10. Set stringify parameter
Chapter 1. Admin Guide
Table of Contents
1. Overview
2. Implementation notes
2.1. Data safety
2.2. Size restrictions
3. Dependencies
3.1. Kamailio Modules
3.2. External Libraries or Applications
4. Parameters
4.1. servers (str)
4.2. expire (integer)
4.3. mode (integer)
4.4. timeout (integer)
4.5. memory (integer)
4.6. stringify (integer)
5.
5.1. Exported pseudo-variables
1. Overview
The module provides access to the distributed hash table memcached.
This hash table is stored in memory and can can be accessed via a
pseudo-variable: $mct(key). Entries are stored and retrieved from an
external server application.
The “key” can be a static string and also any existing pseudo-variable.
Further interfaces to the functionality provided from memcached are
also provided, like access to the atomic increment and decrement
operations.
Example 1.1. Storing and retrieving entries
...
$mct(test) = 1;
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)");
$mct(test) = $null; # delete it
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)"); # will return or empty string
...
Example 1.2. Using atomic operations
...
$mct(cnt) = 1;
$mcinc(cnt) = 1; # increment by 1
xlog("counter is now $mct(cnt)");
$mcdec(cnt) = 1; # decrement by 1
xlog("counter is now $mct(cnt)");
...
Example 1.3. Set custom expire time when adding an entry
...
$mct(test=>10) = 1;
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)");
# sleep 10 seconds
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)"); # will return
...
Example 1.4. Modifying expire time for existing entries
...
$mct(test) = 1;
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)");
$mctex(test) = 10; # set expire time to 10 seconds
# sleep 10 seconds
xlog("stored value is $mct(test)"); # will return
...
This module is an addition to the existing htable functionality, not a
replacement. In smaller architectures or installations where only one
instance needs access to the hash table the htable module is easier to
setup, as no dedicated server needs to be provided. But when a
distributed storage facilility is necessary, or one want to separate
the storage from the SIP server, this module could be used.
2. Implementation notes
2.1. Data safety
2.2. Size restrictions
Important notes about made assumptions and adaptions that were
necessary for the proper integration of this library into Kamailio.
2.1. Data safety
Don't store data in memcached that you don't also have somewhere else.
This system was designed as fast cache, and not for persistent storage.
The memcached server can crash, machines can reboot or are restarted.
If the memcache storage pool gets fulls, it starts to drop the least
used items, even if they are not yet expired. So don't store any data
in it where it would be a problem when it disappear from one moment to
the other.
2.2. Size restrictions
The maximum key length that is supported from memcached is 250
characters. In order to support longer keys in the Kamailio
configuration script they are hashed with MD5. This should normally be
safe against collisions, as the value space is sufficiently large
enough.
The maximum value size that is supported is 1MB. The reason for this is
the internal memory manager used from memcached. But normally this
restriction should be not a problem in the SIP environment where this
module is used.
3. Dependencies
3.1. Kamailio Modules
3.2. External Libraries or Applications
3.1. Kamailio Modules
The following modules must be loaded before this module:
* No dependencies on other Kamailio modules.
3.2. External Libraries or Applications
The following libraries or applications must be installed before
running Kamailio with this module loaded:
* the libmemcached library.
* the memcached server implementation.
4. Parameters
4.1. servers (str)
4.2. expire (integer)
4.3. mode (integer)
4.4. timeout (integer)
4.5. memory (integer)
4.6. stringify (integer)
4.1. servers (str)
The servers to connect to. At the moment only one server is supported.
Default value is “localhost:11211”.
Example 1.5. Set servers parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "servers", "localhost:11211")
...
4.2. expire (integer)
The default expire value of entries in memcached in seconds. The
maximal value is 2592000 (about 30 days). A value of zero means that no
automatic expiration is done, memcached will then delete the least used
items when the cache gets full.
Please note that memcached implements lazy caching, that means items
are only deleted when they requested (they are of course not delivered
to the client), or on insertion of new entries when the cache is full.
Items can also be deleted before there expire time when the available
space in memory is exhausted.
It is possible to override this default value when adding a key with
the mct psuedo-variable, or later on by setting a different timeout for
an existing key with the mctex pseudo-variable.
Default value is “10800”s (3h).
Example 1.6. Set expire parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "expire", 10800)
...
4.3. mode (integer)
The used storage mode for the memcached module for write access to the
hash table. A value of “0” means to set (overwrite) the old value, with
a value of “1” the module will not overwrite it. Here every entry to
the hash table could be written only once, subsequent inserts will
fail.
Default value is “0” (overwrite).
Example 1.7. Set mode parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "mode", 0)
...
4.4. timeout (integer)
The timeout for the memcache servers access in milliseconds.
Default value is “5000” (5s).
Example 1.8. Set timeout parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "timeout", 10000)
...
4.5. memory (integer)
The memory mode for the memcached client library. The library can use
the system memory manager or the internal memory manager from Kamailio.
The system memory manager configuration is the default, most
implementations (like other projects) probably use this approach as
well. The internal memory configuration should be faster and protects
better against memory leaks that could bring down your server, as the
available memory pool is limited by the Kamailio configuration.
Default value is “0” (use system memory manager).
Example 1.9. Set memory parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "memory", 1)
...
4.6. stringify (integer)
The string mode for the memcached module. By default the module checks
the flags for each returned value from the memcached library to decide
to evaluate it as string or numerical value. If you need
interoperability with existing applications that are not able to set
this flag, you can force the module to evaluate all values as strings.
Default value is “0” (don't force string values).
Example 1.10. Set stringify parameter
...
modparam("memcached", "stringify", 1)
...
5.1. Exported pseudo-variables
5.1. Exported pseudo-variables
* $mct(key)
* $mct(key=>expiry)
* $mcinc(key)
* $mcdec(key)
* $mctex(key)
Exported pseudo-variables are documented at
http://www.kamailio.org/wiki/.