Hazelcast Flake ID Generator: A Comprehensive Guide

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Hazelcast Flake ID Generator: A Comprehensive Guide

Overview

As distributed systems and applications are gaining traction, the role of unique identifiers across numerous nodes becomes essential. This issue is relevant when working with a distributed data platform. A popular in-memory data grid, Hazelcast has a perfect remedy for this problem in the form of the Hazelcast Flake ID Generator.

In essence, the Hazelcast Flake ID Generator provides a means to create globally unique IDs that are distributed and non-coordinated in nature. IDs are usually used for user ids, transaction ids and a number of other unique system wide objects.

This article will cover all the details, why you should use this ID generator, and how to use it.

Also know about:

1. What is Hazelcast Flake ID Generator?

The Hazelcast Flake ID Generator is a tool built to generate unique, distributed, and thread-safe IDs in a highly scalable manner. It is part of the Hazelcast platform and is designed specifically for distributed environments. The generated IDs are long integers (64-bit) and are produced without the need for coordination between nodes in a Hazelcast cluster, making them fast and reliable.

The key feature of the Flake ID Generator is its ability to create globally unique IDs that are consistent even across multiple nodes in a cluster. This is particularly useful in large-scale systems where several independent nodes are required to generate IDs simultaneously without conflicts.

2. Why Do We Need a Distributed ID Generator?

In distributed systems, one of the major challenges is ensuring that each entity or object has a unique identifier. Traditional ID generation methods, such as auto-incremented database IDs, may not work well when the system spans multiple servers or regions. In these cases, relying on a single database or central service to generate IDs can become a bottleneck and a single point of failure.

A distributed ID generator like Hazelcast’s Flake ID solves these problems by allowing multiple nodes in the system to generate IDs independently, without the risk of duplicates. This significantly improves performance and fault tolerance.

3. How Does Hazelcast Flake ID Generator Work?

Hazelcast Flake ID Generator relies on a timestamp-based system combined with node-specific information to ensure that IDs are unique across the cluster. Each ID consists of a timestamp, a node ID, and a sequence number, which allows for the generation of millions of unique IDs per second on each node.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how the Flake ID Generator works:

  • Timestamp: The generator uses the current system time in milliseconds to create the first part of the ID.
  • Node ID: Each node in the cluster has a unique identifier, which is embedded into the ID to ensure no two nodes can generate the same ID.
  • Sequence Number: For each node, a local sequence number is incremented for every ID generated within the same millisecond, allowing for multiple IDs to be generated within the same timestamp.

The combination of these three components ensures that every ID generated is unique across time and space.

4. Flake ID Format Explained

The IDs generated by the Hazelcast Flake ID Generator are 64-bit integers. These IDs are composed of the following:

  • 41 bits for the timestamp, representing the number of milliseconds since a custom epoch.
  • 10 bits for the node ID, which allows up to 1,024 nodes in the cluster.
  • 12 bits for the sequence number, which means that up to 4,096 IDs can be generated per node per millisecond.

This structure allows for efficient and scalable ID generation, even in large, distributed systems. The timestamp ensures chronological ordering of IDs, while the node ID and sequence number guarantee uniqueness.

5. Advantages of Hazelcast Flake ID Generator

Using the Hazelcast Flake ID Generator comes with several advantages:

  • High Performance: IDs are generated locally without coordination between nodes, ensuring low latency and high throughput.
  • Global Uniqueness: The combination of timestamp, node ID, and sequence number guarantees that IDs are unique across all nodes in the cluster.
  • Scalability: Hazelcast Flake ID Generator can scale to handle millions of IDs per second, making it suitable for large-scale applications.
  • Fault Tolerance: Even if some nodes go down, the remaining nodes can continue generating unique IDs without any issue.
  • Chronological Ordering: Since the IDs are timestamp-based, they are roughly in chronological order, which can be beneficial for sorting or indexing.

6. Common Use Cases for Flake ID Generator

The Hazelcast Flake ID Generator is widely used in various distributed applications. Some common use cases include:

  • Database Record IDs: When multiple databases or shards are used, generating unique IDs for records across all databases is crucial.
  • Transaction IDs: In financial or e-commerce systems, each transaction needs a unique ID that can be tracked across multiple services.
  • User IDs: For applications with large user bases, unique user IDs are required to avoid conflicts, especially when user data is stored in distributed databases.
  • Event Tracking: Systems that log millions of events per second can use Flake IDs to uniquely identify each event.

7. Integrating Hazelcast Flake ID with Your Application

Integrating the Flake ID Generator with your application is straightforward. Hazelcast provides an easy-to-use API to work with Flake IDs.

Here’s an example of how you can integrate it into a Java application:

package com.javatecharc.demo.generator;

import com.hazelcast.core.Hazelcast;
import com.hazelcast.core.HazelcastInstance;
import com.hazelcast.flakeidgen.FlakeIdGenerator;

public class FlakIdGeneratorExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        HazelcastInstance hazelcastInstance = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
        FlakeIdGenerator flakeIdGenerator = hazelcastInstance.getFlakeIdGenerator("javatecharc-flake-id-generator");

        // Generate a unique ID
        long uniqueId = flakeIdGenerator.newId();
        System.out.println("Generated ID: " + uniqueId);

        hazelcastInstance.shutdown();
    }
}

In this example, the Hazelcast instance creates a new Flake ID Generator, which can then be used to generate unique IDs. Each call to newId() produces a new, globally unique ID.

8. Performance Considerations and Benchmarks

The Hazelcast Flake ID Generator is designed for high performance, and it can generate millions of IDs per second across a cluster. The performance is largely unaffected by the size of the cluster, as each node generates IDs independently.

In benchmark tests, the Flake ID Generator has shown minimal latency and excellent throughput, even when handling a large number of nodes and ID requests. The local generation of IDs eliminates the need for any network calls, making the process extremely fast.

9. Best Practices for Using Flake ID Generator

To get the most out of the Hazelcast Flake ID Generator, consider the following best practices:

  • Use Multiple Generators: If your system needs IDs for different purposes (e.g., user IDs, transaction IDs), create separate Flake ID Generators for each.
  • Monitor System Time: Since the generator relies on system time, ensure that your nodes’ clocks are synchronized to avoid potential issues with timestamp-based IDs.
  • Avoid Overloading a Single Node: Although the Flake ID Generator is highly scalable, distributing the ID generation load across multiple nodes can prevent potential bottlenecks.

10. Conclusion

The Hazelcast Flake ID Generator is a powerful tool for generating globally unique IDs in distributed environments. Its ability to generate millions of IDs per second, combined with the guarantees of uniqueness and scalability, makes it a great choice for applications that require fast, reliable ID generation.

Whether you’re building a large-scale microservices architecture, handling millions of database records, or simply need a robust solution for unique identifiers, Hazelcast Flake ID Generator is a tool that should be on your radar. By following the best practices and understanding its architecture, you can seamlessly integrate this feature into your applications and reap the benefits of fast, distributed ID generation.

The sample code available over the github.

Happy Coding! 😊

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