Interactive Demo: Visualizing Akka Cluster Node Lifecycles

Akka Cluster, Behind The Scenes

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Akka Cluster and related Akka toolkit modules provide a powerful way to scale high performance microservices and preserve data consistency in Reactive, cloud native applications. Yet until now, much of that power is expressed behind the scenes.

In this hands-on session with Hugh McKee, O’Reilly author and Developer Advocate at Lightbend, you’ll be able to install a very simple dashboard to visualize, deploy, and interact with Akka Cluster nodes and their lifecycles. Here are the details:

• Intro and set up (10 min) - We walk through the what and how of Akka Cluster and the browser dashboard. For those who want to get started immediately, you can install the project directly. The only prerequisites are Git, Maven, and Java 8+.
• Cluster Dashboard (10-15 min) - We explore the sample application structure, useful CLI commands, dashboard layout, and the different states of Akka Cluster nodes.
• Node Lifecycle Interaction (15-20min) - In this more interactive part where users provide their own cluster scenarios, we fully review the lifecycle of Akka Cluster nodes, how they form clusters using gossip protocols, and what happens as nodes leave, join, or are forcibly removed from the cluster or become unreachable.

Build Your Own Demo To Show Others

This interactive session is an accompaniment to Hugh's ongoing blog series called "How Akka Cluster Works", which features multiple Projects with each project comprising of multiple videos. The first of these projects (the same as this project) is revealed in Akka Cluster Quickstart Dashboard - Part 1: Getting Started, where Hugh goes through the first steps at a easy-to-follow pace. There is also Part 2, which you can find at the bottom of the Part 1 post.

If you're looking to explore even more of Akka Platform, including Akka Streams, Akka HTTP, Split Brain Resolver, and more, then sit down with one of our experts in a personal demo: 

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