MT Internals(enabling multi-tenant SaaS “in the cloud”)

Jan Vonka

Core Repository - Cloud / Hybrid Services

Agenda

• Multi-Tenant (MT) Overview

• MT Core

• MT 4.x and “in the cloud”• What’s new in Alfresco 4.x ?• How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?

• Summary and Feedback (Q & A)

MT Overview

MT Overview4.x instance – example 1

DB Content(Shared F/S)

Search (Solr)

Share

Repository (including Transforms)

APIs / Protocols(CMIS, REST, WebDAV,

…)

MT Overview4.x instance – example 2

DBDB2DB1

Content(Shared F/S)

Search nodesSolr2Solr1 Solr3

Share nodesSh2Sh1 Sh3

Repository ClusterR2R1 R3

Transformer nodesT2T1 T3

APIs / Protocols(CMIS, REST, WebDAV,

…)

MT Overview

ContentDB Search Index

Alfresco

Alfresco “vanilla” – single-tenant (single instance)

Alfresco – single-tenant (multi-instance)

MT Overview

ContentDB Search Index

Alfresco Cluster

ContentDB Search Index

AlfrescoCluster

ContentDB Search Index

AlfrescoCluster

ContentDB Search Index

Alfresco Cluster

T1 T2

T3 T4

Alfresco MT – multi-tenant (single instance)MT Overview

ContentDB Search Index

Alfresco Cluster

T1

T2

T3

T4

MT Overview

Why use MT ?

•Economies of scale• Lower licensing / TCO

•Easier to manage• Less administrative overhead, easier upgrades

•Scale• Cloud – multi-tenant SaaS (Software as a Service)

•New use-cases• Cloud – eg. B2B collaboration

MT Overview

Alfresco has provided multi-tenant option since v3

•Single instance / multiple tenants

•Each tenant can access logical repo

•Full partitioning (isolated tenants)

•UIs + APIs / Protocols

•Dynamic Models

MT Core

MT Core

MT implementation – tenant context

• Auth (Security) ctx => fully qualified userid• minimise impact on APIs + support standard

protocols• myuser@mytenant

• Internally partitioned by Alfresco “store”• workspace://SpacesStore

• workspace://@@mytenant@@SpacesStore

MT Core

MT implementation – tenant context (cont’)

• workspace://@@acme.com@@SpacesStore• Company Home

• Sites• Site1, Site2, …

• User Homes• fsmith@acme.com, jdoe@acme.com, …

• workspace://@@ano.co.uk@@SpacesStore• Company Home

• Sites• Site1, Site2, …

• User Homes• fsmith@ano.co.uk, jdoe@ano.co.uk

MT Core

MT implementation – create tenant

• When creating a tenant, we “bootstrap” the data …

• create tenant-specific stores (x5)• Live store (workspace://SpacesStore)• Version2 store• Archive store• User store• System store

• add to “alf_tenant” table• Tenant Domain, Enabled/Disabled, Content Root (if not co-

mingled)

MT Core

MT implementation – Services vs DAOs

•Services / APIs• “always” accessed in tenant ctx • notable exception is QuickShare service

• public/shared links => no login required

•Persistence DAOs • direct use• in some cases, apply to multiple / all (?) tenants

• eg. system-wide patches / jobs etc

MT Core

Quick reference … something to review later

• MultiTServiceImpl TenantService• Provides name mangling – injected in various

services

• MultiTAdminServiceImpl TenantAdminService• Manage tenants – create, disable / enable, delete

• MultiTNodeServiceInterceptor• example that wraps (intercepts) generic

NodeService• instead of injecting TenantService (or extending)

MT CoreSee: node-services-context.xml

<bean id="multiTNodeServiceInterceptor" class="org.alfresco.repo.tenant.MultiTNodeServiceInterceptor"> <property name="tenantService"> <ref bean="tenantService" /> </property></bean>

<bean id="mtAwareNodeService" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean" > <property name="targetName"> <value>dbNodeService</value> </property> <property name="proxyInterfaces"> <list> <value>org.alfresco.service.cmr.repository.NodeService</value> </list> </property> <property name="interceptorNames"> <list> <value>multiTNodeServiceInterceptor</value> </list> </property></bean>

<bean id="dbNodeService" class="org.alfresco.repo.node.db.DbNodeServiceImpl" init-method="init" > <!-- … more here … -></bean>

MT Core

Other examples …

• Core Services, eg.• NodeService -> FileFolderService• ContentService• SearchService• WorkflowService (JBPM + Activiti since v4)• … etc

• APIs & Protocols, eg.• WebScripts• CMIS• WebDAV

What’s new in Alfresco v4.x ?

What’s new in Alfresco v4

Changes include:• Activiti support for MT

• in addition to JBPM

• Solr support for MT• “core” tracking, tenant ctx filter, …

• MT pre-configured (enable w/ 1st tenant)• note: since Enterprise 4.0.2 / Community 4.2.a

What’s new in Alfresco v4

Changes include:

• Alf_Tenant table• replaces attribute list

• Common implementation• eg. for (tenant-based) caches

• Various bug fixes & other related improvements• from Cloud release + customer feedback

How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?

How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?

MT Core 4.x except hosted on AWS and …

Search Index (Solr)

DB (RDS) Content (S3)

Alfresco Cluster

How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?

… with Tenant (aka. Network switching)• Unlike MT core, cloud allows Tenant switching

• User has primary tenant• Can be invited to secondary tenants

• We split Tenant ctx from Auth ctx (see TenantUtil)

• Share + APIs support tenant switching• via cloud extensions for:

• Share / Surf• WebDAV protocol• SharePoint protocol• Core Repo APIs – including the new “public API”

How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?Scaling – networks, users, sites, documents, …

•Hosted Core MT might be “100s” of tenants

•Cloud supports “100s of thousands” of tenants• eg. 15000 companies signed up in first 3 months

•Generic improvements get pushed back to core code

Futures

Futures

Health warning – this slide is speculative

• Driven by both Enterprise and Cloud use-cases

• Scaling – scale & partition tiers, as needed• SharePoint Protocol• Refactor of MT dynamic models (+ CMIS 1.1)• More dynamic Share / platform (per-tenant overrides)• Public / Private / Hybrid – MT vs ST• …

• What would you like to see on the list ?

Summary

Summary

• MT Core• Fully partitioned by tenant context

• What’s new in Alfresco 4.x ?• Activiti, Solr, … + improvements & bug fixes

• How does Alfresco “in the cloud” differ ?• Network switching

• Please try it out• Download latest Community 4.2 …• http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Multi-Tenancy

Thank you

… Questions & Feedback ?

Photo credits: http://www.stonebalancing.com/