Spring Boot connecting to Pivotal Cloud Cache - spring

Question

My project is using Spring Boot version 2.0.4-RELEASE.
We are deploying onto Pivotal Cloud Foundry and are using the Pivotal Cloud Cache service service which uses Apache Geode.
My code is up and running if I use the gemfire shell to create the Cloud Cache regions but I would like to create these regions from my code instead so that nothing is missed.
I have the following config class where I try to create a region
package com.mycompany.services.config;
import org.apache.geode.cache.ExpirationAction;
import org.apache.geode.cache.ExpirationAttributes;
import org.apache.geode.cache.GemFireCache;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionShortcut;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.data.gemfire.PartitionedRegionFactoryBean;
import org.springframework.data.gemfire.config.annotation.EnableCachingDefinedRegions;
import org.springframework.data.gemfire.config.annotation.EnablePdx;
#Configuration
#EnableCachingDefinedRegions
#EnablePdx()
public class Config {
#Bean
public PartitionedRegionFactoryBean<?, ?> createCacheRegion(GemFireCache gemfireCache) {
int expirationTime = 600;
String regionName = "cacheRegion";
PartitionedRegionFactoryBean<?, ?> newRegion = new PartitionedRegionFactoryBean<>();
newRegion.setCache(gemfireCache);
newRegion.setClose(false);
newRegion.setPersistent(true);
newRegion.setName(regionName);
ExpirationAttributes entryTimeToLive = new ExpirationAttributes(expirationTime, ExpirationAction.INVALIDATE);
newRegion.setEntryTimeToLive(entryTimeToLive);
newRegion.setShortcut(RegionShortcut.REPLICATE);
return newRegion;
}
}
However - when this code runs on Pivotal Cloud Foundry - I get the following error
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] 2018-11-08 17:46:09.795 ERROR 19 --- [ main] o.s.boot.SpringApplication : Application run failed
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'dqsCacheRegion' defined in class path resource [com/mycompany/services/config/Config.class]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: operation is not supported on a client cache
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1699) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:573) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:495) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.lambda$doGetBean$0(AbstractBeanFactory.java:317) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:315) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:199) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:740) ~[spring-beans-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:869) ~[spring-context-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:550) ~[spring-context-5.0.8.RELEASE.jar!/:5.0.8.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.ServletWebServerApplicationContext.refresh(ServletWebServerApplicationContext.java:140) ~[spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:762) [spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:398) [spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:330) [spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1258) [spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
2018-11-08T17:46:09.797+00:00 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] [OUT] at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1246) [spring-boot-2.0.4.RELEASE.jar!/:2.0.4.RELEASE]
Can anyone offer any advise on what I need to do in order to create Pivotal Cloud Cache (Apache Geode) regions in my code as opposed to having to create them using the gemfire shell
Thank you
Damien

Answer 1

Client applications can't create regions on the servers, it's a task that should be executed by an operator with admin privileges, either through gfsh, individual cache.xml configuration files or the cluster configuration service. Allowing clients to arbitrarily create regions could be counter-productive and generate a huge amount of unused regions on your cluster and unnecessary noise and overhead, which is not recommended at all for production environments.
That said, Spring Data for Apache Geode/GemFire allows you to push your configuration to the Cluster from a client application automatically, which is useful in developments environments. I don't know if this is allowed by the Pivotal Cloud Cache internal policies and restrictions, you might want to check directly with Pivotal.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.