Focus Validity Scan
Last modified 16 Mar 2023 18:35 +01:00

This activity executes validity scan on focal objects.

It looks for objects whose validity is assumed to be changed (for example because they crossed their validTo timestamp, causing switching the object from enabled to disabled effective activation state), and recomputes them. The recomputation applies the changes stemming from the new activation state.

The activity works in one of two modes: standard mode and custom validity constraint mode.

Standard Mode of Operation

Normally, the validity scan activity recomputes all objects that have at least one validity interval value (i.e. the value of validFrom or validTo for object or for any of its assignments) falling into an interval of (lastScanTimestamp, thisScanTimestamp]. [1] [2]

  • lastScanTimestamp is the timestamp of last executed scan. It is stored in the task object in activityState container (or in task extension for versions before 4.4).

  • thisScanTimestamp is the current system time. It is not stored in the repository, as it is determined when the scanning activity run starts.

Custom Validity Constraint Mode

In this mode the activity looks for objects that have specified property fall between (lastScanTimestamp - offset, thisScanTimestamp - offset] where offset is the value given in the explicit validity constraint (the activateOn value).

Then it recomputes these objects, with the explicitly added triggered validity policy rule. Note that this is an experimental functionality.

Configuration Parameters

Parameter Description Default value

objects

What objects to scan. Normally, there is no need to specify the query. If it is present, the filter computed by the activity (e.g. filtering on validFrom and validTo properties) is added to it as a conjunction.

All of FocusType.

queryStyle

How to find the objects. See Performance Considerations below.

singleQuery

validityConstraint

Custom validity constraint.

None.

Distribution

The activity supports multithreaded and multi-node operation, although the latter is usually not necessary.

Performance Considerations

For small or medium scale deployments, the default configuration of this activity is adequate. However, for very large ones - like millions or tens of millions of objects - the database may have problems evaluating the query covering validity of both focal objects and their assignments.

Therefore, there is an option to execute this activity in two sub-activities: the first one looking for objects that have their validFrom and validTo properties falling into specified time interval, and the second one looking for objects that have their assignments' validFrom and validTo values falling there. These sub-activities can be run in a single task (the default setup) or in different task, based on the distribution/subtasks value.

Examples

Validity scanning task with the default configuration
<task xmlns="http://midpoint.evolveum.com/xml/ns/public/common/common-3">

    <name>Validity Scanner</name>
    <ownerRef oid="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002" type="UserType"/>
    <executionState>runnable</executionState>

    <schedule>
        <interval>900</interval>
    </schedule>

    <activity>
        <work>
            <focusValidityScan/>
        </work>
    </activity>
</task>
Validity scanning task with separate queries running in separate subtasks
<task xmlns="http://midpoint.evolveum.com/xml/ns/public/common/common-3">

    <name>Validity Scanner</name>
    <ownerRef oid="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000002" type="UserType"/>
    <executionState>runnable</executionState>

    <schedule>
        <interval>900</interval>
    </schedule>

    <activity>
        <work>
            <focusValidityScan>
                <queryStyle>separateObjectAndAssignmentQueries</queryStyle>
            </focusValidityScan>
        </work>
        <distribution>
            <subtasks/>
        </distribution>
    </activity>
</task>

Limitations

The validity scanner uses a simple recomputation to update the object state. In particular, this means that there are no deltas as input to the recomputation process. This has some negative consequences, namely that if some values (of assignments, associations, or any multi-value items in general) are deleted as a result, the deletion is not automatically applied to the respective objects.

A workaround is to set up ranges for any mappings that depend on the validity state of an object.

In the future we may implement the deltas here, so the usual "relative mode" of midPoint working would be applied during validation scan as well.

1. Note that parentheses mean open interval, i.e. interval that does not contain its boundary, whereas square brackets denote closed interval, i.e. one that contains the boundary. For example, (A,B] means values greater than A, and smaller or equal to B.
2. For complete understanding see the source code.
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