Distributed Computing – Unit III – Chapter 7 - Lecture 2

Java Remote Method Invocation

Satish Narayana Srirama

satish.srirama@uohyd.ac.in

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 Outline
• The Java RMI Architecture
• Object Registry
• The API for the Java RMI

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 Remote Method Invocation
• Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is an object-oriented
implementation of the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) model
• It is an API for Java programs only
• Using RMI, an object server exports a remote object and registers it
with a directory service
– e.g. RMI registry
• The object provides remote methods, which can be invoked in
client programs
• Syntactically:
– A remote object is declared with a remote interface, a Java interface
– The remote interface is implemented by the object server
– An object client accesses the object by invoking the remote methods
associated with the objects using syntax provided for remote method
invocations

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 The Java RMI Architecture
Directory service

object object
client server
supports the interface with
the application program

maps the platform-independent stub/skeleton stub skeleton

layer to the platform-dependent transport
layer; carries out remote reference protocols remote reference layer remote reference layer
transport layer transport layer
sets up, maintains, and shuts down
connections; and carries out the
transport protocol

logical data path

physical data path

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 Object Registry
• The RMI API allows a number of directory services to be
used for registering a distributed object
• We will use a simple directory service called the RMI
registry, rmiregistry
– It is provided with the Java Software Development Kit (SDK)
• The RMI Registry is a service whose server, when active,
runs on the object server’s host machine by convention
– By default, it runs on the TCP port 1099
• Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) can also be used
for registering
– More general than the RMI registry
– Defined to be independent of any specific directory service
implementation
– Supports LDAP, DNS, RMI, CORBA etc.
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jndi/overview/index.html
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 The interaction between the stub and
the skeleton
• A time-event diagram describing the interaction
between the stub and the skeleton

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 The API for the Java RMI
• The Remote Interface
• The Server-side Software
– The Remote Interface Implementation
– Stub and Skeleton Generation
– The Object Server
• The Client-side Software

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 The Remote Interface
• A Java interface contains declarations or
signatures of methods
– Classes that implement the interface must provide
implementations for the methods
• A java remote interface is an interface that
inherits from the java.rmi.Remote interface
– This allows the interface to be implemented using RMI
syntax
• Each method signature in the interface must
throw java.rmi.RemoteException

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 A sample remote interface

• The RemoteException is raised when errors occur during the

processing of a remote method call
– The exception is required to be caught in the method caller’s program
• Causes of such exceptions
– Exceptions that may occur during interprocess communications such
as access failures and connection failures
– Problems unique to remote method invocations, including errors
resulting from the object, the stub, or the skeleton not being found
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 The Server-side software
• A server object provides the methods of the
interface to a distributed object
• Each server object must
– Implement each of the remote methods specified in
the interface
– Register a server object, which contains the method
implementations, with a directory service
• e.g., RMI registry or JNDI
• It is recommended that the two parts be
provided as separate classes

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 The Remote Interface Implementation
• A server class implements the remote
interface

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 The Object Server
• The object server class is a class whose code
instantiates and exports an object of the remote
interface implementation
• Exporting the remote object is necessary to make
it available to receive incoming calls
• The rebind() method will overwrite any reference
in the registry bound with the given reference
name
– If the overwriting is not desirable, there is also a bind()
method

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 The Object Server - continued

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 The Object Server - continued
• When an object server is executed, the exporting of
the distributed object causes the server process
– To begin to listen and wait for clients to connect and
request the service of the object
• An RMI object server is a concurrent server
– Each request from an object client is serviced using a
separate thread of the server
• Note that if a client process invokes multiple remote
method calls, these calls will be executed concurrently
– Unless provisions are made in the client process to
synchronize the calls

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 Stub and Skeleton Generations
• In RMI, each distributed object requires a proxy
for the object server and the object client
– Known as the object’s skeleton and stub, respectively
• These proxies are generated from the
implementation of a remote interface using the
RMI compiler rmic
– rmic <class name of the remote interface
implementation>
– E.g. rmic ImplementRemoteHello
• This step is no longer necessary from Java
Standard Edition 5.0

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 The RMI Registry
• An RMI registry can be activated by using the
rmiregistry utility which comes with the Java
Software Development Kit (SDK)
– Unix: rmiregistry <port number>
– Windows: start rmiregistry
• The port number is a TCP port number
– If no port number is specified, port number 1099 is
assumed
• The registry will run continuously until it is shut
down (via CTRL-C, for example)
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 The Client-side Software
• The program for the client class is like any
other Java class
• The syntax needed for RMI involves
– Locating the RMI Registry in the server host
– Looking up the remote object reference for the
server object
• The object reference can then be cast to the remote
interface class and the remote methods can be invoked
• It is a common mistake to cast the object retrieved
from the registry to the interface implementation class
or the server object class
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 The Client-side Software - continued
Demo

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 RMI Example 2
• Invoking remote methods with parameters is
also similar to the Example 1
Demo
• Exporting the remote object by inheriting
UnicastRemoteObject

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Comparison of the RMI and the socket
APIs
• The remote method invocation API is an efficient tool for
building network applications
• It can be used in lieu of the socket API in a network
application
• Some of the tradeoffs between the RMI API and the socket
API are as follows:
– The socket API is closely related to the operating system, and
hence has less execution overhead
• For applications which require high performance, this may be a
consideration
– The RMI API provides the abstraction which eases the task of
software development
• Programs developed with a higher level of abstraction are more
comprehensible and hence easier to debug

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 References & Books
• Chapter 7, M. L. Liu (2004), Distributed
Computing: Principles and Applications, First
Edition, Pearson Publications.
• Some of the slides are adapted from the lecture
materials provided by the reference book
• Getting Started Using Java RMI
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes
/guides/rmi/hello/hello-world.html
• RMI (Remote Method Invocation)
https://www.javatpoint.com/RMI
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