diff --git a/misc/CrossDataCenter.md b/misc/CrossDataCenter.md
index 5d9812d2ff..b515fd1458 100644
--- a/misc/CrossDataCenter.md
+++ b/misc/CrossDataCenter.md
@@ -6,52 +6,224 @@ These are temporary notes. This docs should be removed once we have cross-DC sup
These steps are already automated for embedded Undertow, see Cross-DC tests section in [HOW-TO-RUN.md](../testsuite/integration-arquillian/HOW-TO-RUN.md) document. For Wildfly they are not yet automated.
Following instructions are related to Wildfly server.
-What is working right now is:
+Right now, everything should work correctly in cross-dc environment. Especially:
- Propagating of invalidation messages for `realms`, `users` and `authorization` caches
- sessions, offline sessions and login failures are propagated between datacenters
+
+Documentation intro
+===================
+
+Keycloak has support for cross-datacenter (cross-site) replication. Typical usecase is, that you have multiple
+datacenters (sites) in different geographical locations. Every datacenter has it's own cluster of Keycloak servers.
+
+
+Here is the picture with some example architecture:
+
+https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TuP-tUCytyY/Wa-1b33MTxI/AAAAAAAAIjA/FSSSzfDP1uMqlhkyUqayb4NJwH-O7EFZQCLcBGAs/s1600/Cross-site%2Bdiagram.jpg
+
+QUESTION: Is this picture appropriate for the Keycloak/RHSSO docs or do we need some better?
+TODO: ATM there are databases missing in the picture. Also there is "keycloak" referenced everywhere, should be rather replaced with "RHSSO"
+or something universal for both Keycloak and RHSSO?
+
+QUESTION: Is it better to use term "site" or term "datacenter" . In the whole docs, I am using both (but probably term "datacenter" a bit more).
+Should it be consolidated?
+
+
+Prerequisities
+==============
+
+Cross-datacenter replication is quite an advanced topic. It's recommended that you have some background knowledge and go through
+those documents first:
+
+* Keycloak/RHSSO clustering - http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#_clustering
+With cross-datacenter, you will usually setup more independent Keycloak clusters.
+So it's good to understand how cluster works and basic concepts and requirements around it (Multicast, Loadbalancing, Shared database etc).
+
+* JDG Cross-Datacenter docs - https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html/administration_and_configuration_guide/set_up_cross_datacenter_replication
+Keycloak Cross-Datacenter uses JDG for the actual replication of infinispan data between the datacenters. So it's good to read and understand
+JDG first. We use the `Remote Client-Server Mode` described in here - https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html/administration_and_configuration_guide/set_up_cross_datacenter_replication#configure_cross_datacenter_replication_remote_client_server_mode
+
+
+
+Technical details
+=================
+
+Data
+----
+Keycloak is stateful application, which uses 2 main sources of data.
+* Database - is used to persist permanent data (EG. informations about the users).
+* Infinispan cache - is used to cache persistent data from DB and also to save some short-lived and often-changing metadata like user sessions.
+Infinispan is usually much faster then database, however the data saved here are not permanent and usually they don't survive cluster restarts.
+
+Assume you have 2 datacenters called `site1` and `site2` .
+For the cross-datacenter setup, we need to make sure that both sources of data work reliably and Keycloak
+servers from `site1` are eventually able to read the data saved by Keycloak servers on `site2` .
+Based on the environment, you have some flexibility to decide if you prefer:
+* Reliability - typically needed in Active/Active mode. Data written on `site1` need to be visible immediately on `site2`.
+* Performance - typically in Active/Passive mode. Data written on `site1` doesn't need to be visible immediately on `site2`.
+In some cases, they may not be visible on `site2` at all.
+
+More details about this is in [Modes section](#modes).
+
+
+
+Request processing
+------------------
+
+In typical scenario, end user's browser sends HTTP request to the [frontend loadbalancer server](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#_setting-up-a-load-balancer-or-proxy).
+Loadbalancer is usually HTTPD or Wildfly with mod_cluster, NGinx, HA Proxy or other kind of software or hardware loadbalancer.
+Loadbalancer then forwards HTTP requests to the underlying Keycloak instances, which can be spread among
+multiple datacenters (sites). Loadbalancers typically offer support for [sticky sessions](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#sticky-sessions),
+which means that loadbalancer is able to forward HTTP requests from one user always to the same Keycloak instance in same datacenter.
+
+There are also HTTP requests, which are sent from client applications to the loadbalancer. Those HTTP requests are `backchannel requests`.
+They are not seen by end user's browser and can't be part of sticky session between user and loadbalancer. Hence loadbalancer can forward
+the particular HTTP request to any Keycloak instance in any datacenter. This is challenging as some OpenID Connect or SAML flows require
+multiple HTTP requests from both user and application. Because we can't reliably rely on sticky sessions, it means that some data need to be
+replicated between datacenters, so they are seen by subsequent HTTP requests during particular flow.
+
+
+Modes
+-----
+
+According your requirements, there are 2 basic operating modes for the cross-dc setup:
+* Active/Passive - Here the users and client applications send the requests just to the Keycloak nodes in single datacenter.
+The second datacenter is used just as a `backup` for saving the data. In case of the failure in the main datacenter,
+the data can be usually restored from the second datacenter.
+
+* Active/Active - Here the users and client applications send the requests to the Keycloak nodes in both datacenters.
+It means that data need to be visible immediately on both sites and available to be consumed immediately from Keycloak servers on both sites.
+Especially if Keycloak server writes some data on `site1`, it is required that the data are available immediately for reading
+for Keycloak servers on `site2` at the time when the write on `site1` is finished.
+
+The active/passive mode is better for performance. More info about how to configure caches for both modes will follow
+in the [sync or async backups section](#sync-or-async-backups).
+
+
+Database
+--------
+Keycloak uses RDBMS to persist some metadata about realms, clients, users etc. See [this chapter](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#_database)
+for more details. In cross-datacenter setup, we assume that either both datacenters talk to same database or every datacenter
+has it's own database node and both database nodes are synchronously replicated. In both cases, it's required that when Keycloak server
+on `site1` persists some data and commits the transaction, those data are immediately visible by subsequent DB transactions on `site2`.
+
+Details of DB setup are out-of-scope of Keycloak, however note that many RDBMS vendors like PostgreSQL, MariaDB or Oracle offers
+replicated databases and synchronous replication. We tested Keycloak with those vendors:
+TODO: Details about MariaDB and Oracle RAC versions etc.
+
+
+Infinispan caches
+-----------------
+Here are some overview about the infinispan caches. More details about the details of the cache setup will follow later.
+
+**Authentication sessions**
+
+In Keycloak we have concept of authentication sessions. There is separate infinispan cache `authenticationSessions` used to save data during
+authentication of particular user. Requests from this cache usually involves just browser and Keycloak server, not the application. Hence we can
+rely on sticky sessions and `authenticationSessions` cache content doesn't need to be replicated among datacenters even if you are in Active/Active mode.
+
+
+**Action tokens**
+
+We have concept of [action tokens](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_development/index.html#_action_token_spi), which
+are used typically for scenarios when user needs to confirm some actions asynchronously by email.
+For example during `forget password` flow. The `actionTokens` infinispan cache is used to track metadata about action tokens
+(eg. which action token was already used, so it can't be reused second time) and it usually needs to be replicated between datacenters.
+
+
+**Caching and invalidation of persistent data**
+
+Keycloak uses infinispan for cache persistent data to avoid many unecessary requests to the database.
+Caching is great for save performance, however there is one additional challenge, that when some Keycloak
+server updates any data, all other Keycloak servers in all datacenters need to be aware of it, so they
+invalidate particular data from their caches. Keycloak uses local infinispan caches called `realms`, `users`
+and `authorization` to cache persistent data.
+
+We use separate cache `work`, which is replicated among all datacenters. The work cache itself doesn't cache
+any real data. It is defacto used just for sending invalidation messages between cluster nodes and datacenters.
+In other words, when some data is updated (eg. user `john` is updated), the particular Keycloak node sends
+the invalidation message to all other cluster nodes in same datacenter and also to all other datacenters.
+Every node then invalidates particular data from their local cache once it receives the invalidation message.
+
+
+**User sessions**
+
+There are infinispan caches `sessions`, `clientSessions`, `offlineSessions` and `offlineClientSessions`,
+which usually need to be replicated between datacenters. Those caches are used to save data about user
+sessions, which are valid for the whole life of one user's browser session. The caches need to deal with
+the HTTP requests from the end user and from the application. As described above, sticky session can't be
+always reliably used, but we still want to ensure that subsequent HTTP requests can see the latest data.
+Hence the data are usually replicated between datacenters.
+
+
+**Brute force protection**
+
+Finally `loginFailures` cache is used to track data about failed logins (eg. how many times user `john`
+filled the bad password on username/password screen etc). The details are described [here](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_admin/index.html#password-guess-brute-force-attacks) .
+It is up to the admin if he wants this cache to be replicated between datacenters. To have accurate count of login failures,
+the replication is needed. On the other hand, avoid replicating this data can save some performance. So if performance is
+more important then accurate counts of login failures, the replication can be avoided.
+
+More details about how can be caches configured is [in this section](#tuning-jdg-cache-configuration) .
+
+Communication details
+---------------------
+
+Under the covers, there are multiple separate infinispan clusters here. Every Keycloak node is in the cluster
+with the other Keycloak nodes in same datacenter, but not with the Keycloak nodes in different datacenters.
+Keycloak node doesn't communicate directly with the Keycloak nodes from different datacenters. Keycloak nodes use external JDG
+(or infinispan server) for communication between datacenters. This is done
+through the [Infinispan HotRod protocol](http://infinispan.org/docs/8.2.x/user_guide/user_guide.html#using_hot_rod_server) .
+
+QUESTION: Should we just remove "(or infinispan server)" from the docs? Background: Integration is tested with the JDG server 7.1.0 and
+Infinispan server 8.2.8. I think that for our customers (product documentation), we even don't want to mention to use community infinispan
+server in the product documentation and we always want to use JDG. For the community, I am not sure we can also always stick with the JDG 7.1.0
+or mention Infinispan 8.2.8 as an option as well?
+
+The infinispan caches on Keycloak side needs to be configured with the [remoteStore](http://infinispan.org/docs/8.2.x/user_guide/user_guide.html#remote_store),
+to ensure that data are saved to the remote cache, which uses HotRod protocol under the covers. There is separate infinispan cluster
+between JDG servers, so the data saved on JDG1 on `site1` are replicated to JDG2 on `site2` .
+
+Finally the receiver JDG server then notifies Keycloak servers in it's cluster through the Client Listeners, which is a feature of
+HotRod protocol. Keycloak nodes on `site2` then update their infinispan caches and particular user session is visible on Keycloak nodes on
+site 2 too.
+
+See the picture in [intro section](#documentation-intro) for more details.
+
+QUESTION: Do we want to add another picture with the details for communication? Or is the picture in the intro section sufficient?
+
Basic setup
===========
-This is the example setup simulating 2 datacenters `site1` and `site2` . Each datacenter consists of 1 infinispan server and 2 Keycloak servers.
+This is the example setup simulating 2 datacenters `site1 ` and `site 2` . Each datacenter consists of 1 infinispan server and 2 Keycloak servers.
So 2 infinispan servers and 4 Keycloak servers are totally in the testing setup.
* Site1 consists of infinispan server `jdg1` and 2 Keycloak servers `node11` and `node12` .
* Site2 consists of infinispan server `jdg2` and 2 Keycloak servers `node21` and `node22` .
-* Infinispan servers `jdg1` and `jdg2` are connected with each other through the RELAY protocol and "backup" based infinispan caches in
-similar way as described in the infinispan documentation - https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html-single/administration_and_configuration_guide/#configure_cross_datacenter_replication_remote_client_server_mode .
-
+* Infinispan servers `jdg1` and `jdg2` are connected with each other through the RELAY2 protocol and `backup` based infinispan caches in
+similar way as described in the [JDG documentation](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html-single/administration_and_configuration_guide/#configure_cross_datacenter_replication_remote_client_server_mode) .
* Keycloak servers `node11` and `node12` forms cluster with each other, but they don't communicate with any server in `site2` .
-They communicate with infinispan server `jdg1` through the HotRod protocol (Remote cache).
+They communicate with infinispan server `jdg1` through the HotRod protocol (Remote cache). See [previous section](#communication-details) for the details.
* Same applies for `node21` and `node22` . They have cluster with each other and communicate just with `jdg2` server through the HotRod protocol.
-TODO: Picture on blog
-
-* For example when some object (realm, client, role, user, ...) is updated on `node11`, the `node11` will send invalidation message. It does it by saving special cache entry to the remote cache `work` on `jdg1` .
- The `jdg1` notifies client listeners in same DC (hence on `node12`) and propagate the message to it. But `jdg1` is connected through backup with `jdg2` too.
- So the entry is saved on `jdg2` too and `jdg2` will notify client listeners on nodes `node21` and `node22`.
- All the nodes know that they should invalidate the updated object from their caches. The caches with the actual data (`realms`, `users` and `authorization`) are infinispan local caches.
-
-TODO: Picture and better explanation?
-
-* For example when some userSession is created/updated/removed on `node11` it is saved in cluster on current DC, so the `node12` can see it. But it's saved also to remote cache on `jdg1` server.
- The userSession is then automatically seen on `jdg2` server through the backup cache `sessions` between `jdg1` and `jdg2` . Server `jdg2` then notifies nodes `node21` and `node22` through
- the client listeners (Feature of Remote Cache and HotRod protocol. See infinispan docs for details). The node, who is owner of the userSession (either `node21` or `node22`) will update userSession in the cluster
- on `site2` . Hence any user requests coming to Keycloak nodes on `site2` will see latest updates.
-
-TODO: Picture and better explanation?
-
-Example setup assumes all 6 servers are bootstrapped on localhost, but each on different ports.
+Example setup assumes all 6 servers are bootstrapped on localhost, but each on different ports. It also assumes
+that all 4 Keycloak servers talk to same database, which can be either locally set MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB
+or any other. In production, there will be rather separate synchronously replicated databases between datacenters as described in
+[this section](#database) .
-Infinispan Server setup
------------------------
-1) Download Infinispan 8.2.8 server and unzip to some folder
+
+JDG Server setup
+----------------
+
+1) Download JDG 7.1.0 server (or Infinispan 8.2.8 server for the community - TODO: Same question as in previous section applies here)
+and unzip to some folder. It will be referred in later steps as `JDG1_HOME` .
2) Change those things in the `JDG1_HOME/standalone/configuration/clustered.xml` in the configuration of JGroups subsystem:
@@ -64,7 +236,8 @@ Infinispan Server setup
```
-2.b) Add `relay` element to the end of the `udp` stack:
+2.b) Add `relay` element to the end of the `udp` stack. We will configure it in a way that our site is `site1` and the
+other site, where we will backup, is `site2`:
```xml
@@ -75,7 +248,9 @@ Infinispan Server setup
```
-2.c) Configure `tcp` stack to use TCPPING instead of MPING . Just remove MPING element and replace with the TCPPING like this:
+2.c) Configure `tcp` stack to use `TCPPING` protocol instead of `MPING` . Just remove `MPING` element and replace with the `TCPPING` like this.
+The `initial_hosts` element points to the hosts `jdg1` and `jdg2`, which in our example setup are both on `localhost`,
+but differs just in the port offset:
```xml
@@ -89,6 +264,20 @@ Infinispan Server setup
```
+NOTE:
+This is just an example setup to have things quickly running. In production, you are not required to use `tcp` stack for the
+JGroups `RELAY2`, but you can configure any other stack. For example the other instance of UDP protocol, if the network between your
+datacenters is able to support multicast. Similarly you are not required to use `TCPPING` as discovery protocol. And in production,
+you probably won't use `TCPPING` due it's static nature. Site names are
+also configurable.
+
+Details of this setup are out-of-scope of the Keycloak documentation. You can take a look at JDG documentation and JGroups documentation
+for more details.
+ENDNOTE
+
+TODO, QUESTION: I guess we want to document Amazon setup? Should we add the link to the Amazon setup documentation here?
+
+
3) Add this into `JDG1_HOME/standalone/configuration/clustered.xml` under cache-container named `clustered` :
```xml
@@ -114,14 +303,35 @@ Infinispan Server setup
```
+
+NOTE: Details about the configuration options inside `replicated-cache-configuration` are explained in [later section](#tuning-jdg-cache-configuration). Also
+with possibilities to tweak some of those options.
+ENDNOTE
4) Copy the server into the second location referred later as `JDG2_HOME`
5) In the `JDG2_HOME/standalone/configuration/clustered.xml` exchange `site1` with `site2` and viceversa in the configuration of `relay` in the
JGroups subsystem and in configuration of `backups` in the cache-subsystem.
-NOTE: It's currently needed to have different configuration files for both sites as Infinispan subsystem doesn't support
-replacing site name with expressions. See https://issues.jboss.org/browse/WFLY-9458 for more details.
+In other words, the `relay` element should look like this:
+
+```
+
+
+
+```
+
+And the backups like this:
+
+```
+
+ _jdg1:site1
site2 --> _jdg2:site2
```
+When use the MBean `jgroups:type=protocol,cluster="cluster",protocol=GMS`, you should see that attribute member contains just single member. On JDG1
+it should be like this:
+
+```
+(1) jdg1
+```
+
+And on JDG2 like this:
+```
+(1) jdg2
+```
+
+In production, you can have more JDG servers in every datacenter. You just need to ensure that JDG servers in same datacenter are using
+same multicast address (In other words, same `jboss.default.multicast.address` during startup). Then in jconsole in `GMS` protocol
+view, you will see all the members of current cluster.
+
+
Keycloak servers setup
----------------------
-1) Download Keycloak 3.3.0.CR1 and unzip to some location referred later as `NODE11`
+1) Unzip keycloak server distribution to some location referred later as `NODE11`
-2) Configure shared database for KeycloakDS datasource. Recommended to use MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL. See Keycloak docs for more details
+2) Configure shared database for KeycloakDS datasource. Recommended to use MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL for testing purposes.
+See [this section](#database)] for more details.
+
+Note again, that in production you will likely need to have separate database server in every datacenter and both database servers
+should be synchronously replicated to each other. In the example setup, we just use single database and connect all 4 Keycloak servers to it.
3) Edit `NODE11/standalone/configuration/standalone-ha.xml` :
@@ -235,7 +466,7 @@ from `sessions` cache is that `cache` property value are different):
```
-3.7) Add outbound socket binding for the remote store into `socket-binding-group` configuration:
+3.7) Add outbound socket binding for the remote store into `socket-binding-group` element configuration:
```xml
@@ -269,7 +500,7 @@ from `sessions` cache is that `cache` property value are different):
```
cd NODE11/bin
./standalone.sh -c standalone-ha.xml -Djboss.node.name=node11 -Djboss.site.name=site1 \
--Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.100 -Dremote.cache.port=12232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
+-Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.1 -Dremote.cache.port=12232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
-Djboss.socket.binding.port-offset=3000
```
@@ -279,22 +510,26 @@ cd NODE11/bin
````
cd NODE12/bin
./standalone.sh -c standalone-ha.xml -Djboss.node.name=node12 -Djboss.site.name=site1 \
--Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.100 -Dremote.cache.port=12232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
+-Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.1 -Dremote.cache.port=12232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
-Djboss.socket.binding.port-offset=4000
````
-The cluster nodes should be connected. This should be in the log of both NODE11 and NODE12:
+The cluster nodes should be connected. Something like this should be in the log of both NODE11 and NODE12:
```
Received new cluster view for channel keycloak: [node11|1] (2) [node11, node12]
```
+NOTE: The channel name in the log might be different.
+ENDNOTE
+
+
7) Start `NODE21` :
```
cd NODE21/bin
./standalone.sh -c standalone-ha.xml -Djboss.node.name=node21 -Djboss.site.name=site2 \
--Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.101 -Dremote.cache.port=13232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
+-Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.2 -Dremote.cache.port=13232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
-Djboss.socket.binding.port-offset=5000
```
@@ -309,7 +544,7 @@ Received new cluster view for channel keycloak: [node21|0] (1) [node21]
```
cd NODE22/bin
./standalone.sh -c standalone-ha.xml -Djboss.node.name=node22 -Djboss.site.name=site2 \
--Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.101 -Dremote.cache.port=13232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
+-Djboss.default.multicast.address=234.56.78.2 -Dremote.cache.port=13232 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true \
-Djboss.socket.binding.port-offset=6000
```
@@ -319,6 +554,10 @@ It should be in cluster with `NODE21` :
Received new cluster view for channel keycloak: [node21|1] (2) [node21, node22]
```
+NOTE: The channel name in the log might be different.
+ENDNOTE
+
+
9) Test:
9.1) Go to `http://localhost:11080/auth/` and create initial admin user
@@ -328,7 +567,8 @@ Received new cluster view for channel keycloak: [node21|1] (2) [node21, node22]
9.3) Open 2nd browser and go to any of nodes `http://localhost:12080/auth/admin` or `http://localhost:13080/auth/admin` or `http://localhost:14080/auth/admin` . After login, you should be able to see
the same sessions in tab `Sessions` of particular user, client or realm on all 4 servers
-9.4) After doing any change (eg. update some user), the update should be immediatelly visible on any of 4 nodes as caches should be properly invalidated everywhere.
+9.4) After doing any change in Keycloak admin console (eg. update some user or some realm), the update
+should be immediately visible on any of 4 nodes as caches should be properly invalidated everywhere.
9.5) Check server.logs if needed. After login or logout, the message like this should be on all the nodes `NODEXY/standalone/log/server.log` :
@@ -338,5 +578,337 @@ the same sessions in tab `Sessions` of particular user, client or realm on all 4
Event 'CLIENT_CACHE_ENTRY_REMOVED', key '193489e7-e2bc-4069-afe8-f1dfa73084ea', skip 'false'
```
-This is just a starting point and the instructions are subject to change. We plan various improvements especially around performance. If you
-have any feedback regarding cross-dc scenario, please let us know on keycloak-user mailing list referred from [Keycloak home page](http://www.keycloak.org/community.html).
\ No newline at end of file
+
+Administration of Cross-DC deployment
+=====================================
+
+Few tips and possibilities related to the Cross-DC deployment.
+
+* When you run the Keycloak server inside datacenter, it is required that database referenced in `KeycloakDS` datasource
+is already running and available in that datacenter. It is also necessary that JDG server referenced by the `outbound-socket-binding`, which
+is referenced from the infinispan cache `remote-store` elements, is already running. Otherwise Keycloak server will fail to start.
+
+
+* Every datacenter can have more database nodes if you want to support database failover and better reliability.
+In that case, the JDBC URL used in the configuration of the `KeycloakDS` datasource in `standalone-ha.xml`
+needs to contain URLs of all the actual database nodes of the particular DC.
+
+QUESTION: Is more info needed? Example of the JDBC URLs with more DB nodes? Or is it out of our scope?
+
+
+* As mentioned before in [the JDG Server setup section](#jdg-server-setup), every datacenter can have more JDG servers
+running in the cluster. This is useful if you want some failover and better fault tolerance.
+The hotrod protocol used for communication between JDG servers and Keycloak servers has a feature that JDG servers will
+automatically send new topology to the Keycloak servers about the change in
+the JDG cluster, so the remote store on Keycloak side will know to which JDG servers it can connect.
+Read the JDG/Infinispan and Wildfly documentation for more details around this.
+
+QUESTION: Should we provide more info? Or rather wait for the feedback from customers and community?
+
+
+* It is highly recommended that master JDG server is running in every site before the Keycloak servers in **any** site
+are executed. Like in our example, we executed both `jdg1` and `jdg2` first and all Keycloak servers afterwards. The details are described in
+[next section](#bringing-sites-offline-and-online).
+
+
+Bringing sites offline and online
+=================================
+
+For example, assume this scenario.
+
+1) Site `site2` is entirely offline from the `site1` perspective. It means that all JDG servers on `site2` are off *or* the network between `site1` and `site2` is broken.
+2) You run Keycloak servers and JDG server `jdg1` in site `site1`
+3) Someone login on some Keycloak server on `site1`.
+4) The Keycloak server from `site1` will try to write the session to the remote
+cache on `jdg1` server, which is supposed to backup data to the `jdg2` server in the `site2`. See [this section](#communication-details) for
+the details.
+5) Server `jdg2` is offline or unreachable from `jdg1`. So the backup from `jdg1` to `jdg2` will fail.
+6) The exception is thrown in `jdg1` log and the failure will be propagated from `jdg1` server to Keycloak servers as well because
+the default `FAIL` backup failure policy is configured. See [this section](#backup-failure-policy) for details around the backup policies.
+7) The error will happen on Keycloak side too and user may not be able to finish his login.
+
+According to your environment, it may be more or less probable that the network between sites is unavailable or temporarily broken (split-brain).
+In case that this will happen, it's good that JDG servers on `site1` are aware of the fact that JDG servers on `site2` are
+unavailable (In other words, that `site2` is offline), so they will stop
+trying to reach servers in `jdg2` site and the backup failures won't happen. This is called `Take site offline` .
+
+Take site offline
+-----------------
+
+There are 2 ways to take the site offline.
+
+1) **Manually by admin** - Admin can use the `jconsole` or other tool and run some JMX operations to manually take the particular site offline.
+This is useful especially if the outage is planned. With `jconsole`, you can connect to the `jdg1` server and use the MBean `jboss.datagrid-infinispan:type=Cache,name="sessions(repl_sync)",manager="clustered",component=XSiteAdmin`
+and then operation `takeSiteOffline` with the argument `site2` as shown in the picture. You can then check the operation `status` to check
+if site is really offline. See the picture for details:
+
+PICTURE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g6tJ979lSmlcR7g3AWDj4cUc0xWKruiH/view?usp=sharing
+
+WARNING: This turned off the backup to `site2` for the cache `sessions`. The same steps usually needs to be done for all the
+other Keycloak caches mentioned [here](#sync-or-async-backups) .
+STOPWARNING
+
+There are also ways to take site offline manually with usage of CLI. More details about this is
+in the [JDG documentation](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html/administration_and_configuration_guide/set_up_cross_datacenter_replication#taking_a_site_offline)
+
+QUESTION: Should we provide some CLI script to help taking site offline for all our caches? And similarly for putting sites back online
+and do the state transfer?
+
+
+
+2) **Automatically** - After some amount of failed backups, the `site2` will be usually automatically taken offline. This is done due the
+configuration of `take-offline` element inside the cache configuration as configured [here](#jdg-server-setup) .
+
+```
+
+```
+
+It means that site will be automatically taken offline for the particular single cache if there are at least 3 subsequent failed backups
+and there is no any success backup within 60 seconds.
+
+Automatically taking site offline is useful especially if the broken network between sites is unplanned. It's disadvantage is, that
+there will be some failed backups until the network outage is detected, which could also mean the failures on the application side.
+For example, there will be failed logins for some users or big login timeouts. Especially if `failure-policy` with value `FAIL` is used.
+
+WARNING: The tracking if site is offline or not is again tracked separately for every cache.
+ENDWARNING
+
+
+Take site online
+----------------
+
+
+Once your network is back and `site1` and `site2` can talk to each other, you may need to put the site online. This needs to be done
+manually through JMX or CLI in similar way as described in the [previous section](#take-site-offline).
+The JMX operation is `bringSiteOnline` . Again, you may need to check all the caches and bring them online.
+
+Once the sites are put online, it's usually good to:
+* Do the [state transfer](#state-transfer)
+* Manually [clear the Keycloak caches](#clear-caches) .
+
+State transfer
+-------------
+
+State transfer is manually required step. JDG doesn't do this automatically as
+for example during split-brain, it's just the admin who may need to decide which site has preference and hence if state-transfer
+needs to be done bi-directionaly between both sites or just unidirectionally (EG. just from `site1` to `site2`, but not from `site2` to `site1`).
+
+During bi-directional state transfer, it will ensure that entities, which were created *after* split-brain on `site1` will be transferred
+to `site2` . This is no issue as they don't exist yet on `site2` . Similarly entities created *after* split-brain on `site2` will be transferred
+to `site1` . Possible problematic parts are the entities, which exists *before* split brain on both sites and which were updated during split-brain
+on both sites. In that case one of the site will *win* and will overwrite the updates done during split-brain by the second part.
+
+Unfortunately there is no any universal solution to this. Split-brains and network outages are just state, which is usually impossible to be handled 100%
+correctly with 100% consistent data between sites. For the case of Keycloak, it typically is not critical issue. In worst case, users
+will need to re-login again to their clients. Or have the improper count of loginFailures tracked for brute force protection. See JDG/JGroups/Infinispan
+docs for more tips how to deal with split brain.
+
+The state transfer can be done through JMX. Operation name is `pushState` . There are few other operations to monitor status, cancel push state etc.
+More info about state transfer is in JDG docs - https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_data_grid/7.1/html/administration_and_configuration_guide/set_up_cross_datacenter_replication#state_transfer_between_sites
+
+Clear caches
+------------
+
+After split-brain it's also safe to manually clear caches in Keycloak admin console. Reason is, that there might be some data changed in DB
+on `site1` and the event, that cache should be invalidated wasn't transferred during split-brain to `site2` .
+Hence Keycloak nodes on `site2` may still have some stale data in their caches.
+
+To clear the caches, take a look at http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_admin/index.html#_clear-cache .
+
+When network is back, it's sufficient to clear the cache just on one Keycloak node on any random site.
+The event about cache invalidation will be sent to all the other Keycloak nodes in all sites. However it needs
+to be done for all the caches (realms, users, keys).
+
+
+Tuning JDG cache configuration
+==============================
+
+Backup failure policy
+---------------------
+
+By default, the configuration of backup `failure-policy` in the infinispan cache configuration in JDG `clustered.xml`
+file is configured as `FAIL` . According your preferences, you may change it to `WARN` or `IGNORE` .
+
+The difference between `FAIL` and `WARN` is, that when JDG server tries to backup data to the other site and the backup fails (EG. second site
+is temporarily unreachable or there is concurrent transaction, which is trying to update same entity),
+then the failure will be propagated back to the caller (Keycloak server) if the `FAIL` policy is used.
+The Keycloak server will then try to retry the particular operation few times. However if the second site is really unavailable,
+the retry will fail too and the user might see the error after some longer timeout (EG. 1 minute).
+
+With `WARN` policy, the failed backups are not propagated from JDG server to the Keycloak server. User won't see the error and the
+failed backup will be just ignored. There will just be some shorter timeout,
+typically 10 seconds as that's the default timeout for backup. It can be changed by the attribute `timeout` of `backup` element.
+There won't be retries. There will just be the WARNING message in the JDG server log.
+
+The potential issue is, that in some cases, there may be just some very short network outage between sites, where the retry
+(usage of the `FAIL` policy) may help, so with `WARN` (without retry), there will be some data inconsistencies between sites.
+This can also happen if there is an attempt to update same entity concurrently on both sites.
+
+The question is, how bad inconsistencies are. Usually it means that user just need to re-authenticate.
+
+With `WARN` policy, it may happen that single-use cache, which is provided by the `actionTokens` cache and which handles that
+particular key is really single
+use, may "successfully" write the same key twice. But for example the OAuth2 specification mentions that code must be single-use.
+See [here](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-10.5) .
+With the `WARN` policy, this may not be strictly guaranteed and the same code could be written twice if there is an attempt to write
+it concurrently in both sites.
+
+If there is real longer network outage or split-brain, then with both `FAIL` and `WARN`, the other site will be taken offline after some
+time and failures as described [here](#take-site-offline) . With the default 1 minute timeout, it is usually after 1-3 minutes
+until all the involved caches are taken offline. Then all the operations will work fine from the end user perspective.
+You just need to manually restore the site when it's back online as mentioned [here](#take-site-online) .
+
+In summary, if you expect often longer outages between sites and it's acceptable for you to have some data inconsistencies and
+not 100% accurate single-use cache, but you never want end-users to see the errors and long timeouts, then switch to `WARN` .
+
+The difference between `WARN` and `IGNORE` is, that with `IGNORE` there are even no warnings in the JDG log. See more details in the Infinispan
+documentation.
+
+
+Lock acquisition timeout
+------------------------
+The default configuration is using transaction in NON_DURABLE_XA mode with acquire timeout 0. This means that
+transaction will fail-fast if there is other transaction in progress for same key.
+
+The reason for switch this to 0 instead of default 10 seconds was to avoid possible deadlock issues. With Keycloak,
+it can happen that same entity (typically session entity or loginFailure) is updated concurrently from both sites.
+This can cause deadlock under some circumstances, which will cause the transaction blocked for 10 seconds. See [this
+ JIRA](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JDG-1318) for details (TODO: REMOVE THIS NOTE NOTE: It was decided on some PM call
+ to mention this issue in our docs if I understood correctly).
+
+With timeout 0, the transaction will immediately fail and then will be retried from Keycloak if backup `failure-policy` with
+the value `FAIL` is configured. As long as the second concurrent transaction is finished, the retry will be usually successful and entity
+will have applied updates from both concurrent transactions.
+
+We see very good consistency and results for concurrent transaction with this configuration, so at least for now is
+recommended to keep it.
+
+The only (non-functional) problem is the exception in the JDG log, which happen every time when the lock is not
+immediately available.
+
+
+
+SYNC or ASYNC backups
+---------------------
+
+One important note on the `backup` element is a `strategy` attribute and decide whether it needs to be `SYNC` or `ASYNC` . Actually we have
+7 caches, which might be cross-dc aware, and those can be configured in 3 different modes regarding cross-dc:
+1) SYNC backup
+2) ASYNC backup
+3) No backup at all
+
+If the `SYNC` backup is used, then the backup is synchronous and operation is considered finished on the caller (Keycloak server) side
+once the backup is processed on the second site. This has worse performance than `ASYNC`, but on the other hand, you are sure that subsequent reads
+of the particular entity (EG. user session) on `site2` will see the updates from `site1` . Also it's needed if you want data
+consistency as with `ASYNC` the caller is not notified at all if backup to the other site failed.
+
+For some caches, it's even possible to not backup at all and completely skip writing data to the JDG server. For setup this, you can avoid
+to use `remote-store` element for the particular cache on the Keycloak side (file `KEYCLOAK_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone-ha.xml`) and
+the particular `replicated-cache` element is also not needed on the JDG side then.
+
+By default, all 7 caches are configured with `SYNC` backup, which is the safest option. Few things to consider:
+
+* If you are using active/passive mode (all Keycloak servers are in single site `site1` and the JDG server in `site2` is used purely as
+backup. More details [here](#modes)), then it's usually fine to use `ASYNC` strategy for all the caches to save the performance.
+
+* The `work` cache is used mainly to send some messages (EG. cache invalidation events) to the other site. It's also used to ensure that some
+special events (EG. userStorage synchronizations) happen just on single site. It's recommended to keep it in `SYNC` strategy.
+
+* The `actionTokens` cache is used as single-use cache to track that some tokens/tickets were used just once. For example
+[Action tokens](#infinispan-caches) or OAuth2 codes. It's possible to switch it to `ASYNC` to save some performance, but then it's not
+guaranteed that particular ticket is really single-use. For example if there is concurrent request for same ticket in both sites, then
+it's possible that both requests will be successful with the `ASYNC` strategy. So it depends if you prefer better
+security (`SYNC` strategy) or better performance (`ASYNC` strategy).
+
+* The `loginFailures` cache may be possibly used in all 3 modes. If there is no backup at all, it means that count of login failures for user
+(See [here](#infinispan-caches) for details) will be counted separately for every site. This has some security implications,
+however it has some performance advantages. Also it mitigates the possible risk of DoS. For example if attacker
+simulates 1000 concurrent requests of trying username/password of the user on both sites, it will mean lots of the messages
+between the sites, which may result in network congestion. The `ASYNC` strategy might be even worse as the attacker
+requests won't be blocked by waiting for the backup to the other site, resulting in potentially even bigger network traffic.
+The count of login failures also won't be accurate with the `ASYNC` strategy.
+
+For the environments with slower network between datacenters and probability of DoS, it's recommended to not backup `loginFailures` cache at all.
+
+* Caches `sessions` and `clientSessions` are usually recommended to keep in `SYNC` strategy. Switching them to `ASYNC` strategy is possible just
+if you are sure that user requests and backchannel requests (requests from client applications to Keycloak as described [here](#request-processing))
+will be always processed on same site. This is true for example if:
+ * You use active/passive mode as described [here](#modes).
+ * All your client applications are using Keycloak [Javascript Adapter](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/securing_apps/index.html#_javascript_adapter).
+ Javascript adapter sends the backchannel requests within browser and hence they participate on the browser sticky session and
+ will end on same cluster node (hence on same site) as the other browser requests of this user.
+ * Loadbalancer is able to serve the requests based on client IP address (location) and the client applications are deployed on both sites.
+ For example you have 2 sites LON and NYC. As long as your applications are deployed in both LON and NYC sites too, you can ensure
+ that all the user requests from London users will be redirected to the applications in LON site and also to the Keycloak servers in LON site.
+ Backchannel requests from the LON site client deployments will end on Keycloak servers in LON site too. On the other hand, for the American
+ users, all the Keycloak requests, application requests and backchannel requests will be processed on NYC site.
+
+* For `offlineSessions` and `offlineClientSessions` it's similar. With the difference, that you even don't need to backup them at all
+if you never plan to use offline tokens for any of your client applications.
+
+
+Generally, if you are in doubt and the performance is not a blocker for you, it's safer to keep the caches in `SYNC` strategy.
+
+
+WARNING: Regarding the switch to SYNC/ASYNC backup, make sure that you edit the `strategy` attribute of the the `backup` element. For example
+like this:
+```
+
+```
+
+Not the `mode` attribute of cache-configuration element.
+ENDWARNING
+
+
+Troubleshooting
+===============
+
+Few tips:
+
+* It's recommended to go through the [example setup](#basic-setup) and have this one working first, so that you have some understanding
+of how things work. It's also good to read The whole chapter to have some understanding of things.
+
+* Check in jconsole cluster status (GMS) and the JGroups status (RELAY) of JDG as described in [the part for JDG setup](#jdg-server-setup) .
+If it doesn't look as expected, then the issue is likely in the setup of JDG servers.
+
+* For the keycloak servers, you should see some message like this during the server startup
+
+```
+18:09:30,156 INFO [org.keycloak.connections.infinispan.DefaultInfinispanConnectionProviderFactory] (ServerService Thread Pool -- 54)
+Node name: node11, Site name: site1
+```
+
+Make sure that the site name and the node name looks as expected during the startup of Keycloak server.
+
+* Make sure that Keycloak servers are in cluster as expected. Hence only the Keycloak servers from same datacenter are in cluster with each other.
+This can be also checked in JConsole through the GMS view. Also look
+at [cluster troubleshooting](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#troubleshooting) for the additional details.
+
+* Check the infinispan statistics, which are again available through JMX. For example, you can try to login and then see if the new session
+was successfully written to both JDG servers and is available in the `sessions` cache there. This can be done indirectly by checking
+the count of elements in the `sessions` cache for the MBean `jboss.datagrid-infinispan:type=Cache,name="sessions(repl_sync)",manager="clustered",component=Statistics` .
+and attribute `numberOfEntries` . After login, there should be one more entry for `numberOfEntries` on both JDG servers on both sites.
+
+* Enable DEBUG logging as described [here](#keycloak-servers-setup) . For example if you login and you think that the new session is not
+available on the second site, it's good to see the Keycloak server logs and check that listeners were triggered as described in
+the [the setup section](#keycloak-servers-setup). If you don't know and want to ask on keycloak-user mailing list, it's good to send the log
+files from Keycloak servers on both datacenters to the email. Either add the log snippets to the mails or put the logs somewhere and reference them from mail
+to avoid put big attachements to the mail sent to the mailing list.
+
+* If you updated the entity (EG. user) on Keycloak server on `site1` and you don't see that entity updated on the Keycloak server on `site2`, then
+the issue can be either in the replication of the synchronous database itself or just that Keycloak caches are not properly invalidated. You may
+try to temporarily disable the Keycloak caches as described [here](http://www.keycloak.org/docs/latest/server_installation/index.html#disabling-caching)
+to nail down if the issue is in replicated database. Also it may help to manually connect to the database and check if data are updated
+as expected. This is specific to every database, so we won't describe here.
+
+* Sometimes you may see the exceptions related to locks like this in JDG log:
+
+```
+(HotRodServerHandler-6-35) ISPN000136: Error executing command ReplaceCommand,
+writing keys [[B0x033E243034396234..[39]]: org.infinispan.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: ISPN000299: Unable to acquire lock after
+0 milliseconds for key [B0x033E243034396234..[39] and requestor GlobalTx:jdg1:4353. Lock is held by GlobalTx:jdg1:4352
+```
+
+Those exceptions are not necessarily an issue. They may happen anytime when concurrent edit of same
+entity is triggered on both DCs. Which can be the often case in some deployment. Usually the Keycloak is notified about the failed operation
+and will retry it, so from the user's point of view, there is usually not any issue.
\ No newline at end of file