# Client Failover

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis clients can be configured to automatically
[reconnect to the same server](#reconnect-to-the-same-server),
[reconnect to the backup server](#reconnect-to-the-backup-server) or
[reconnect to other live servers](#reconnect-to-other-live-servers) in the event
that a failure is detected in the connection between the client and the server.
The clients detect connection failure when they have not received any packets
from the server within the time given by `client-failure-check-period` as explained
in section [Detecting Dead Connections](connection-ttl.md).

## Reconnect to the same server
Set `reconnectAttempts` to any non-zero value to reconnect to the same server,
for further details see
[Reconnection and failover attributes](#client-failover-attributes).

If the disconnection was due to some transient failure such as a temporary
network outage and the target server was not restarted, then the sessions will
still exist on the server, assuming the client hasn't been disconnected for
more than [connection-ttl](connection-ttl.md)

In this scenario, the client sessions will be automatically re-attached to the
server sessions after the reconnection. This is done 100% transparently and the
client can continue exactly as if nothing had happened.

The way this works is as follows:

As Apache ActiveMQ Artemis clients send commands to their servers they store
each sent command in an in-memory buffer. In the case that connection failure
occurs and the client subsequently reattaches to the same server, as part of
the reattachment protocol the server informs the client during reattachment
with the id of the last command it successfully received from that client.

If the client has sent more commands than were received before failover it can
replay any sent commands from its buffer so that the client and server can
reconcile their states.Ac

The size of this buffer is configured with the `confirmationWindowSize`
parameter on the connection URL. When the server has received
`confirmationWindowSize` bytes of commands and processed them it will send back
a command confirmation to the client, and the client can then free up space in
the buffer.

The window is specified in bytes.

Setting this parameter to `-1` disables any buffering and prevents any
re-attachment from occurring, forcing reconnect instead. The default value for
this parameter is `-1`. (Which means by default no auto re-attachment will
occur)

## Reconnect to the backup server
Set `reconnectAttempts` to any non-zero value and `ha` to `true` to reconnect
to the back server, for further details see
[Reconnection and failover attributes](#client-failover-attributes).

The clients can be configured to discover the list of live-backup
server groups in a number of different ways. They can be configured
explicitly or probably the most common way of doing this is to use
*server discovery* for the client to automatically discover the list.
For full details on how to configure server discovery, please see [Clusters](clusters.md).
Alternatively, the clients can explicitly connect to a specific server
and download the current servers and backups see [Clusters](clusters.md).

By default, failover will only occur after at least one connection has
been made to the live server. In other words, by default, failover will
not occur if the client fails to make an initial connection to the live
server - in this case it will simply retry connecting to the live server
according to the reconnect-attempts property and fail after this number
of attempts.

## Reconnect to other live servers
Set `failoverAttempts` to any non-zero value to reconnect to other live servers,
for further details see
[Reconnection and failover attributes](#client-failover-attributes).

If `reconnectAttempts` value is not zero then the client will try to reconnect
to other live servers only after all attempts to
[reconnect to the same server](#reconnect-to-the-same-server) or
[reconnect to the backup server](#reconnect-to-the-backup-server) fail.

## Session reconnection

When clients [reconnect to the same server](#reconnect-to-the-same-server)
after a restart, [reconnect to the backup server](#reconnect-to-the-backup-server)
or [reconnect to other live servers](#reconnect-to-other-live-servers) any sessions
will no longer exist on the server and it won't be possible to 100% transparently
re-attach to them. In this case, any sessions and consumers on the client will be
automatically recreated on the server.

Client reconnection is also used internally by components such as core bridges
to allow them to reconnect to their target servers.

## Failing over on the initial connection

Since the client does not learn about the full topology until after the
first connection is made there is a window where it does not know about
the backup. If a failure happens at this point the client can only try
reconnecting to the original live server. To configure how many attempts
the client will make you can set the URL parameter `initialConnectAttempts`.
The default for this is `0`, that is try only once. Once the number of
attempts has been made an exception will be thrown.

For examples of automatic failover with transacted and non-transacted
JMS sessions, please see [the examples](examples.md) chapter.

## Reconnection and failover attributes

Client reconnection and failover is configured using the following parameters:

- `retryInterval`. This optional parameter determines the period in
  milliseconds between subsequent reconnection attempts, if the connection to
  the target server has failed. The default value is `2000` milliseconds.

- `retryIntervalMultiplier`. This optional parameter determines a multiplier
  to apply to the time since the last retry to compute the time to the next
  retry.

  This allows you to implement an *exponential backoff* between retry attempts.

  Let's take an example:

  If we set `retryInterval` to `1000` ms and we set `retryIntervalMultiplier`
  to `2.0`, then, if the first reconnect attempt fails, we will wait `1000` ms
  then `2000` ms then `4000` ms between subsequent reconnection attempts.

  The default value is `1.0` meaning each reconnect attempt is spaced at equal
  intervals.

- `maxRetryInterval`. This optional parameter determines the maximum retry
  interval that will be used. When setting `retryIntervalMultiplier` it would
  otherwise be possible that subsequent retries exponentially increase to
  ridiculously large values. By setting this parameter you can set an upper limit
  on that value. The default value is `2000` milliseconds.

- `ha`. This optional parameter determines weather the client will try to
  reconnect to the backup node when the live node is not reachable.
  The default value is `false`.
  For more information on HA, please see [High Availability and Failover](ha.md).

- `reconnectAttempts`. This optional parameter determines the total number of
  reconnect attempts to make to the current live/backup pair before giving up.
  A value of `-1` signifies an unlimited number of attempts.
  The default value is `0`.

- `failoverAttempts`. This optional parameter determines the total number of
  failover attempts to make after a reconnection failure before giving up and
  shutting down. A value of `-1` signifies an unlimited number of attempts.
  The default value is `0`.

All of these parameters are set on the URL used to connect to the broker.

If your client does manage to reconnect but the session is no longer available
on the server, for instance if the server has been restarted or it has timed
out, then the client won't be able to re-attach, and any `ExceptionListener` or
`FailureListener` instances registered on the connection or session will be
called.

## ExceptionListeners and SessionFailureListeners

Please note, that when a client reconnects or re-attaches, any registered JMS
`ExceptionListener` or core API `SessionFailureListener` will be called.