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AMPS Server Documentation 5.3.4
AMPS Server Documentation 5.3.4
  • Welcome to AMPS 5.3.4
  • Introduction to AMPS
    • Overview of AMPS
    • Getting Started With AMPS
      • Installing AMPS
      • Starting AMPS
      • JSON Messages - A Quick Primer
      • spark: the AMPS command-line client
      • Evaluating AMPS on Windows or MacOS
      • Galvanometer and RESTful Statistics
    • AMPS Basics: Subscribe and Publish to Topics
    • State of the World (SOW): The Message Database
      • When Should I Store a Topic in the SOW?
      • How Does the SOW Work?
      • Configuration
      • Queries
      • Atomic Query and Subscribe
      • Advanced Messaging and the SOW
    • Record and Replay Messages with the AMPS Transaction Log
    • Message Queues
    • Scenario and Feature Reference
      • Recovery Strategies
    • Getting Support
    • Advanced Topics
    • Next Steps
  • AMPS Evaluation Guide
    • Introduction
    • Evaluation and Development with AMPS
    • Tips on Measuring Performance
    • Next Steps
  • AMPS User Guide
    • Introduction
      • Product Overview
      • Requirements
      • Organization of this Guide
        • Documentation Conventions
      • Technical Support
    • Installing and Starting AMPS
      • Installing AMPS
      • Starting AMPS
      • Production Configuration
    • Subscribe and Publish
      • Topics
      • Filtering Subscriptions by Content
      • Conflated Subscriptions
      • Replacing Subscriptions
      • Messages in AMPS
      • Message Ordering
      • Retrieving Part of a Message
    • AMPS Expressions
      • Syntax
      • Identifiers
      • AMPS Data Types
      • Grouping and Order of Evaluation
      • Logical Operators
      • Arithmetic Operators
      • Comparison Operators
      • LIKE Operator
      • Conditional Operators
      • Working with Arrays
      • Regular Expressions
      • Performance Considerations
    • AMPS Functions
      • AMPS Function Overview
      • String Comparison Functions
      • Concatenating Strings
      • Managing String Case
      • Replacing Text in Strings
      • String Manipulation Functions
      • Date and Time Functions
      • Array Reduce Functions
      • Geospatial Functions
      • Numeric Functions
      • CRC Functions
      • Message Functions
      • Client Functions
      • Coalesce Function
      • AMPS Information Functions
      • Typed Value Creation
      • Constructing Fields
      • Aggregate Functions
    • State of the World (SOW) Topics
      • How Does the SOW Work?
      • Using the State of the World
      • Understanding SOW Keys
      • Indexing SOW Topics
      • Programmatically Deleting Records from the Topic State
      • SOW Maintenance
        • Creating a Maintenance Schedule for a Topic
        • Setting Per-Message Lifetime
      • Storing Multiple Logical Topics in One Physical Topic
    • Querying the State of the World (SOW)
      • Overview of SOW Queries
      • Query and Subscribe
      • Historical SOW Topic Queries
      • Managing Result Sets
      • Batching Query Results
    • Out-of-Focus Messages (OOF)
    • State of the World Message Enrichment
    • Incremental Message Updates
      • Using Delta Publish
      • Understanding Delta Publish
      • Delta Publish Support
    • Receiving Only Updated Fields
      • Using Delta Subscribe
      • Identifying Changed Records
      • Conflated Subscriptions and Delta Subscribe
      • Select List and Delta Subscribe
      • Options for Delta Subscribe
    • Conflated Topics
    • Aggregation and Analytics
      • Understanding Views
      • Defining Views and Aggregations
      • Constructing Field Contents
      • Best Practices for Views
      • View Examples
      • Aggregated Subscriptions
    • Record and Replay Messages
      • Using the Transaction Log and Bookmark Subscriptions
      • Understanding Message Persistence
      • Configuring a Transaction Log
      • Replaying Messages with Bookmark Subscription
      • Managing Journal Files
      • Using amps-grep to Search the Journal
    • Message Queues
      • Getting Started with AMPS Queues
      • Understanding AMPS Queuing
      • Advanced Messaging and Queues
      • Replacing Queue Subscriptions
      • Handling Unprocessed Messages
      • Advanced Queue Configuration
      • Queue Subscriptions Compared to Bookmark Replays
    • Message Types
      • Default Message Types
      • BFlat Messages
      • MessagePack Messages
      • Composite Messages
      • Protobuf Message Types
      • Struct Message Types
    • Command Acknowledgment
      • Requesting Acknowledgments
      • Receiving Acknowledgments
      • Bookmark Subscriptions and Completed Acknowledgments
      • Bookmark Subscriptions and Persisted Acknowledgments
      • Acknowledgment Conflation and Publish Acknowledgements
    • Transports
      • Client Connections
      • Replication Connections
      • Transport Filters
    • Running AMPS as a Linux Service
      • Installing the Service
      • Configuring the Service
      • Managing the Service
      • Uninstalling the Service
    • Logging
      • Configuring Logging
      • Log Message Format
      • Message Levels
      • Message Categories
      • Logging to a File
      • Logging to a Compressed File
      • Logging to Syslog
      • Logging to the Console
      • Looking up Errors with ampserr
    • Event Topics
      • Client Status Events
      • SOW Statistics Events
      • Persisting Event Topics
    • Utilities
      • Command-Line Basic Client
      • Dump clients.ack File
      • Dump journal File
      • Dump queues.ack File
      • Dump SOW File
      • Dump Journal Topic Index File
      • Find Bookmark or Transaction ID in Transaction Log
      • Find Information in Error Log or Transaction Log
      • Identify Type of AMPS File
      • List/Explain Error Codes
      • Query Statistics Database
      • Statistics Database Report
      • Storage Performance Testing
      • Submit Minidump to 60East
      • Obsolete Utility: Upgrade File Formats
    • Monitoring AMPS
      • Statistics Collection
        • Time Range Selection
        • Output Formatting
      • Galvanometer
      • Configuring Monitoring
    • Automating AMPS with Actions
    • Replicating Messages Between Instances
      • Replication Basics
      • Configuring Replication
      • Replication Configuration Validation
      • Replication Resynchronization
      • Replication Compression
      • Destination Server Failover
      • Two-Way Replication
      • PassThrough Replication
      • Guarantees on Ordering
      • Replication Security
      • Understanding Replication Message Routing
      • Replicated Queues
      • Replication Best Practices
    • Highly Available AMPS Installations
      • Overview of High Availability
        • Example: Pair of Instances for Failover
        • Example: Regional Distribution
        • Example: Regional Distribution with HA
        • Example: Hub and Spoke / Expandable Mesh
      • Details of High Availability
      • Slow Client Management and Capacity Limits
      • Message Ordering Considerations
    • Operation and Deployment
      • Capacity Planning
      • Linux OS Settings
      • Upgrading AMPS
      • Using AMPS with a Proxy
      • Operations Best Practices
    • Securing AMPS
      • Authentication
      • Entitlement
      • Providing an Identity for Outbound Connections
      • Protecting Data in Transit Using TLS/SSL
    • Troubleshooting AMPS
      • Planning for Troubleshooting
      • Diagnostic Utilities
      • Finding Information in the Log
      • Reading Replication Log Messages
      • Troubleshooting Disconnected Clients
      • Troubleshooting Regular Expression Subscriptions
    • AMPS Distribution Layout
    • Optionally-Loaded Modules
      • Optional Functions
        • Legacy Messaging Functions
        • Special-Purpose Functions
      • Optional SOW Key Generator
        • Chaining Key Generator
      • Optional Authentication/Entitlements Modules
        • RESTful Authentication and Entitlements
        • Multimethod Authentication Module
        • Simple Access Entitlements Module
      • Optional Authenticator Modules
        • Multimethod Authenticator
        • Command Execution Authenticator
    • AMPS Statistics
    • File Format Versions
  • AMPS Configuration Guide
    • AMPS Configuration Basics
      • Getting Started With AMPS Configuration
      • Units, Intervals, and Environment Variables
      • Working With Configuration Files
      • Including External Files
    • Instance Level Configuration
    • Admin Server and Statistics
    • Modules
    • Message Types
    • Transports
    • Logging
    • State of the World (SOW)
      • SOW/Topic
      • SOW/*Queue
      • SOW/ConflatedTopic
      • SOW/View
    • Replication
      • Replication Validation
    • Transaction Log
    • Authentication
    • Entitlement
    • Actions
      • Configuration for Actions
      • Choosing When an Action Runs
        • On a Schedule
        • On AMPS Startup or Shutdown
        • On a Linux Signal
        • On a REST Request
        • On Minidump Creation
        • On Client Connect or Disconnect
        • On Client Logon
        • On Client Offline Message Buffering
        • On Subscribe or Unsubscribe
        • On Incoming Replication Connections
        • On Outgoing Replication Connections
        • On Message Published to AMPS
        • On Message Delivered to Subscriber
        • On Message Affinity
        • On SOW Message Expiration
        • On SOW Message Delete
        • On OOF Message
        • On Message Condition Timeout
        • On Message State Change
        • On a Custom Event
      • Choosing What an Action Does
        • Rotate Error/Event Log
        • Compress Files
        • Truncate Statistics
        • Manage Transaction Log Journal Files
        • Remove Files
        • Delete SOW Messages
        • Compact SOW Topic
        • Query SOW Topic
        • Manage Security
        • Enable or Disable Transports
        • Publish Message
        • Manage Replication Acknowledgment
        • Extract Values from a Message
        • Translate Data Within an Action
        • Increment Counter
        • Raise a Custom Event
        • Execute System Command
        • Manage Queue Transfers
        • Create Minidump
        • Shut Down AMPS
        • Debug Action Configuration
      • Conditionally Stopping an Action
        • Based on File System Capacity
        • Based on an Expression
      • Examples of Action Configuration
        • Archive Journals Once a Week
        • Archive Journals On RESTful Command
        • Record Expired Queue Messages to a Dead Letter Topic
        • Copy Messages that Exceed a Timeout to a Different Topic
        • Deactivate and Reactivate Security on Signals
        • Reset Entitlements for a Disconnected Client
        • Extract Values from a Published Message
        • Shut Down AMPS When a Filesystem Is Full
        • Increment a Counter and Echo a Message
    • Protocols
  • AMPS Monitoring Guide
    • Statistics Types
    • Table Reference
    • Administrative Actions
    • Host Statistics
      • cpu
      • disks
      • memory
      • name
      • network
    • AMPS Instance Statistics
      • api
      • clients
      • config.xml
      • config_path
      • conflated_topics
      • cpu
      • cwd
      • description
      • environment
      • lifetimes
      • logging
      • memory
      • message_types
      • name
      • name_hash
      • pid
      • processors
      • queues
      • queries
      • replication
      • sow
      • statistics
      • subscriptions
      • timestamp
      • transaction_log
      • transports
      • tuning
      • uptime
      • user_id
      • version
      • views
  • AMPS Command Reference
    • Commands to AMPS
      • logon
      • Publishing
        • publish
        • delta_publish
      • Subscribing to and Querying Topics
        • subscribe
        • sow
        • sow_and_subscribe
        • unsubscribe
        • delta_subscribe
        • sow_and_delta_subscribe
      • Removing Messages (SOW/Topic or Message Queue)
      • heartbeat
      • flush
    • Responses from AMPS
      • sow: Content from Server
      • publish: Content from Server
      • oof: Content from Server
      • ack: Status from Server
      • group_begin / group_end : Result Set Delimiters
    • Protocol Reference
      • AMPS Protocol
      • Legacy Protocols Reference
    • Command Cookbook
      • Cookbook: Delta Publish
      • Cookbook: Delta Subscribe
      • Cookbook: Publish
      • Cookbook: SOW
      • Cookbook: SOW and Delta Subscribe
      • Cookbook: SOW and Subscribe
      • Cookbook: SOW Delete
      • Cookbook: Subscribe
  • Deployment Checklist
    • Ensure Sufficient Capacity
    • Apply System and AMPS Configuration
    • Create Maintenance Plan
    • Create Monitoring Strategy
    • Create Patch and Upgrade Plan
    • Create and Test Support Process
    • Conclusion
  • AMPS Clients
    • Performance Tips and Best Practices
    • C++
    • C#/.NET
    • Java
    • JavaScript
    • Python
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  1. AMPS User Guide
  2. State of the World (SOW) Topics

How Does the SOW Work?

PreviousState of the World (SOW) TopicsNextUsing the State of the World

Last updated 1 year ago

Much like tables in a relational database, topics in the AMPS SOW persist the most recent update for each message. AMPS identifies a message by using a unique key for the message. The SOW key for a given message is similar to the primary key in a relational database: each value of the key is a unique message. The first time a message is received with a particular SOW key, AMPS adds the message to the SOW. Subsequent messages with the same SOW key value update the message.

There are several ways to create a SOW key for a message:

  • Most applications specify that AMPS assigns a SOW key based on the content of the message. The fields to use for the key are specified in the SOW topic definition, and consist of one or more XPath expressions. AMPS finds the specified fields in the message and computes a SOW key based on the name of the topic and the values in these fields. 60East recommends this approach unless an application has a specific need for a different approach.

  • A topic can also be configured to require that a publisher provide a SOW key for each message when publishing the message to AMPS.

  • AMPS also supports the ability for custom SOW key generation logic to be defined in an AMPS module, which will be invoked to generate the SOW key for each message. While these SOW keys are generated automatically by AMPS, rather than being provided by the publisher, the logic to generate these keys is provided by the module, and the configuration required (if any) is determined by the module.

The following diagrams demonstrate how the SOW works, using a SOW topic that is configured to have AMPS determine the SOW key based on the /orderId field within the message. As each message comes in, AMPS uses the contents of the /orderId field to generate a SOW key for the message. The SOW key is used to identify unique records in the SOW, so AMPS will store a distinct record for each distinct /orderId value published to this topic. The calculated SOW key will be returned in the SowKey header of messages received from the topic in the SOW.

In the previous diagram, two messages are published where neither of the messages have matching keys existing in the ORDERS topic. The messages are both inserted as new messages.

Some time after these messages are processed, an update comes in for the order with an orderId of 2. This message changes the price from 120 to 95. Since the incoming message has an orderId of 2, this matches an existing record and overwrites the existing message for the same SOW key, as seen in the diagram below. AMPS replaces the entire record with the contents of the update.

Although the SOW key is derived from the content of the message in many cases, the SOW key is distinct from the content of the message. Each record in a SOW topic has a distinct SOW key, which is stored with the record. The SOW stores the full message in the message type format for performance. There is no re-serialization required to send a message to subscribers.

By default, a topic recorded in the SOW is persistent. For these topics, AMPS stores the contents of the SOW for that topic in a dedicated, memory-mapped file. This means that the total SOW does not need to fit into memory, and that the contents of the SOW database are maintained across server restarts. You can also define a transient SOW topic, which does not store the contents of the SOW to a persisted file.

The SOW file is separate from the transaction log, and you do not need to configure a transaction log to use a SOW. When a transaction log is present that covers the SOW topic, on restart AMPS uses the transaction log to keep the SOW up to date. When the latest transaction in the SOW is more recent than the last transaction in the transaction log (for example, if the transaction log has been deleted), AMPS takes no action. If the transaction log has newer transactions than the SOW, AMPS replays those transactions into the SOW to bring the SOW file up to date. If the SOW file is missing or damaged, AMPS rebuilds the SOW by replaying the transaction log from the beginning of the log.

When a SOW topic is persistent, each Topic must be stored in a separate file. Only one instance of AMPS can access a given file; the same copy of the SOW file cannot be used by multiple instances of AMPS.

When the SOW for a Topic is transient, AMPS does not store the SOW for this topic across restarts. In this case, AMPS will synchronize the SOW with the transaction log when the server starts to restore the state of the topic. By default, this recovery processes the entire transaction log. You can use the RecoveryPoint configuration option to specify that the topic should have only new publishes or should recover from a specific point in time (for example, you could use an environment variable to provide a timestamp to the RecoveryPoint so that AMPS recovers only the last 24 hours of messages.)

A SOW topic named ORDERS with a key definition of /orderID
Updating the IBM record by matching incoming message keys