4.6. Mortal and Immortal Data

In addition to storing entities, Red Hat JBoss Data Grid allows you to attach mortality information to data. For example, using the standard put(key, value) creates an entry that will never expire, called an immortal entry. Alternatively, an entry created using put(key, value, lifespan, timeunit) is a mortal entry that has a specified fixed life span, after which it expires.

In addition to the lifespan parameter, JBoss Data Grid also provides a maxIdle parameter used to determine expiration. The maxIdle and lifespan parameters can be used in various combinations to set the life span of an entry.

As a default, newly created entries do not have a life span or maximum idle time value set. Without these two values, a data entry will never expire and is therefore known as immortal data.

Entry mortality (or its expiration values) can be set by setting the life span and maximum idle time values for the entry. After being set, these values must be persisted in the cache stores to ensure that they survive eviction and passivation.