File-Based Persistence Properties

Broker configuration properties related to file-based persistence are listed under File-Based Persistence Properties. These properties let you configure various aspects of how the file-based data store behaves.

All persistent data other than messages is stored in separate files: one file each for destinations, durable subscriptions, and transaction state information. Most messages are stored in a single file consisting of variable-size records. You can compact this file to alleviate fragmentation as messages are added and removed (see Managing Physical Destination Disk Utilization). In addition, messages above a certain threshold size are stored in their own individual files rather than in the variable-sized record file. You can configure this threshold size with the broker property imq.persist.file.message.max_record_size.

The broker maintains a file pool for these individual message files: instead of being deleted when it is no longer needed, a file is returned to the pool of free files in its destination directory so that it can later be reused for another message. The broker property imq.persist.file.destination.message.filepool.limit specifies the maximum number of files in the pool. When the number of individual message files for a destination exceeds this limit, files will be deleted when no longer needed instead of being returned to the pool.

When returning a file to the file pool, the broker can save time at the expense of storage space by simply tagging the file as available for reuse without deleting its previous contents. You can use the imq.persist.file.message.filepool.cleanratio broker property to specify the percentage of files in each destination’s file pool that should be maintained in a “clean” (empty) state rather than simply marked for reuse. The higher you set this value, the less space will be required for the file pool, but the more overhead will be needed to empty the contents of files when they are returned to the pool. If the broker’s imq.persist.file.message.cleanup property is true, all files in the pool will be emptied at broker shutdown, leaving them in a clean state; this conserves storage space but slows down the shutdown process.

In writing data to the data store, the operating system has some leeway in whether to write the data synchronously or “lazily” (asynchronously). Lazy storage can lead to data loss in the event of a system crash, if the broker believes the data to have been written to the data store when it has not. To ensure absolute reliability (at the expense of performance), you can require that all data be written synchronously by setting the broker property imq.persist.file.sync.enabled to true. In this case, the data is guaranteed to be available when the system comes back up after a crash, and the broker can reliably resume operation.