Configuring HTTP connection pools
Optimize connections with external services by adjusting the number and duration of connections.
About this task
PingFederate uses an HTTP connection pool to communicate with external systems, including PingOne communication, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) gateways, some PingFederate adapters, and many other functions.
Most environments don’t need to tune HTTP connection pool values. Before you adjust timeout values, first investigate network latency, external-system capacity, and overall environment sizing.
If you tune the HTTP connection pool, adjust and test max-connections and max-connections-per-route first.
Use pf.runtime.threads.max as the starting point for sizing HTTP connection pools, represented as M. Because PingFederate maintains persistent connections, set max-connections-per-route to M. If the busiest flow can call D external destinations, set max-connections to M × D as a worst-case starting point. This helps prevent one high-volume route from delaying other routes.
In a clustered environment with P PingFederate engines, an external system might need up to P × M concurrent connections. Before you increase these values, verify that the external system can handle the concurrent load. Size the pool according to the capacity and limits of the back-end system, because increasing pool sizes beyond back-end capacity can increase load without improving performance.
Also ensure that the PingFederate host environment can support the additional resource usage, including open file limits and thread stack settings. Thread memory usage varies by operating system, architecture, and runtime behavior, so avoid assuming a fixed per-thread amount. When you scale connection pools, consider the cumulative committed-memory impact of many concurrent threads and datastore operations. If memory demand grows beyond available system memory, the operating system might terminate the process.
Learn more about sizing pf.runtime.threads.max in Tuning the server thread pool, and learn more about connection pool behavior and back-end capacity in Configuring connection pools to datastores.
Steps
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In a text editor, open the
<pf_install>/pingfederate/server/default/data/config-store/http-connection-pooling-manager.xmlfile. -
Modify the appropriate setting in
http-connection-pooling-manager.xml. Refer to the HTTP connection pool settings table for more information. -
(Optional) Update an HTTP connection pool setting by using a REST request to the PingFederate administrative API. Learn more in Accessing the API interactive documentation.
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If you updated the file directly, save and close the file.
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Restart PingFederate.
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For a clustered PingFederate environment, perform these steps on the administrative console node. Then go to System > Server > Cluster Management and click Replicate. Learn more in Replicating configurations.
HTTP connection pool settings
The http-connection-pooling-manager.xml file contains the following HTTP connection pool settings:
| Setting | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
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The maximum number of connections in the pool. |
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The maximum number of connections per route (port or URL). |
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The time, in milliseconds, available to establish a connection with the remote host. |
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The time, in milliseconds, available to retrieve a connection from the connection pool. |
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The time, in milliseconds, that a connection can stay idle before cleanup. |
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The time, in milliseconds, that a connection can stay idle before it returns to the pool for reuse. |
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The delay, in seconds, before the HTTP client cache is cleaned up. |