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Java CRaC (Coordinated Restore at Checkpoint) let's you create a Java instance that is stored as an image after startup. It's not a new concept, but now with AWS supporting it directly for Lambdas (see the SnapStart announcement below in the news section), it's about to go mainstream.

The first implementation of this capability that I know of, was over 25 years ago with GemStone/J, a fully persisted distributed JVM. It was too far ahead of it's time though, and you can barely find mention of it on the web now! Instead, the modern version of CRaC started a few years ago when it became clear that you could map a running image to disk and reload that later (based on the Linux Checkpoint and Restore In Userspace modules added since 2013).

The AWS implementation is firecracker (see the tools section below), and there are other implementations. CRaC implementations form a valuable addition to the overall fast startup landscape - which I cover in the articles section below with, of course, all the tips extracted as usual into this month's tips page

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News

Java performance tuning related news

• AWS Introduces Lambda SnapStart for Java - uses a CRaC implementation
• Condensers are program transformers that run between compile time and run time, transforming a program into a new, faster, and potentially smaller program
• Microsoft Build for OpenJDK adds an experimental compiler optimization that improves escape analysis

Tools

Java performance tuning related tools

• Java large off heap cache (OHC) originally developed for Apache Cassandra but spun out as independently usable
• Java library for quickly and efficiently parsing and writing UUIDs
• fire thingy from amazon for crac - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-accelerate-your-lambda-functions-with-lambda-snapstart/

Articles

• What the CRaC Superfast JVM startup (Gerrit Grunwald/Devoxx)
• The fast startup landscape is expanding! (Dan Heidinga/Devoxx)
• Techniques for a faster JVM start-up (Ionut Balosin/Devoxx)

Jack Shirazi

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