Failover scenario in Synapse - FailoverMediator

[Vikas]

Hi,   I was trying to make a failover mediator up and running, here is a description of the stuff:    * Failover Scenario -----------------------------   Say a service, http://stockquotes.com has http://stockquotesbackup1.com and http://stockquotesbackup2.com as backups in case it goes down or fails.   So if a request comes in for stockquotes, then the service http://stockquotes.com is called, if the reply is a fault then http://stockquotesbackup1.com is invoked. If it also returns a problem then http://stockquotesbackup2.com is called. In case the last service also returns a fault, the response sent to the consumer is a fault.   *The need ---------------   For failover to be performed by a mediator(assuming it has all the related data, like the locations of the failover/backup services) it would need the original request that came to it.   *The difficulty --------------------   The message receiver [the default one in Axis2, used to send requests to the native services/Endpoints], takes the request SynapseMessage, invokes the native service, gets the reply message (assuming its a In-Out case). It then goes on to replace the request message's content with that of the reply message, hence the original request is lost. If the first service fails then the service invoked after it never gets the request message but only the fault message.   *The way-out --------------------   * Writing custom MessageReceiver for failover - This is highly AXIS2 based. In case we want to hide our axis2 environment and give users a complete Synapse Experience, this would be the least bit appreciative. Moreover, a mediator writer having to work with MessageReceivers sounds no good. This would be the safest option, to use a receiver which will fit the need. But is it feasible and fits into the architecture, i.e. having different message receivers for different end points.   * Providing a clone option for the SynapseMessageContext - We can override the clone method, and provide a SynapseMessage getCopy( ) method in the SynapseMessage's implementations. This will be problematic as it could be misused also.   Am I walking the wrong path or missing something obvious??   Comments please..   ~Vikas