Grpc Unary calls not giving any response after client is in idle for some time(30mins)

[vamsideepak]

Problem description

Client is in idle mode for almost 30 mins and after that If I made any calls I am able to see the response in streaming calls but for Unary calls it is not giving any response. So I thought it is problem with idle timers/deadlines for calls but how streaming is working when compare to the Unary calls. I tried below Keep alive options but still no luck. Is there any other way ?

Note : my client communication is happening via Named Pipes

Code

const sslCreds = this.electronService.grpc.credentials.createInsecure();
    const keepAliveOptions = {
      'grpc.idle_timeout_ms': 31536000000, // One year in milliseconds
      'grpc.keepalive_time_ms':31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_timeout_ms': 31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_permit_without_calls':1,
    }
  
    this.scannerClient = new this.LittlePackage.GrpcService(this.periPheralPort, sslCreds,keepAliveOptions);

clientGetScanData(data) {
    console.log('this.scannerClient', this.scannerClient);
    this.scannerClient.GetScanData({
      pmSessionId: data.sessionId,
      transactionID: data.transactionId
    }, this.metadata, async (err, res) => {

      if (res) {
       console.log('res', res);
      }
    
    })
  }

Environment

• OS name - windows 11
• Node version - 16.14.0
• Node installation - exe manual installation
• Package name and version- gRPC@1.10.6

Additional context

Observed the below option when I console the scannerClient

[murgatroid99]

The channel argument to change the client idle timeout is grpc.client_idle_timeout_ms, not grpc.idle_timeout_ms. That's why it uses the default value in your test.

This is a bug caused specifically by the unix: URL scheme, which is why we didn't catch it before. The fix for that bug is in #2750, and I will publish that soon.

[vamsideepak]

@murgatroid99 I have done the below options

const keepAliveOptions = {
      'grpc.client_idle_timeout_ms': 31536000000, // One year in milliseconds
      'grpc.keepalive_time_ms':31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_timeout_ms': 31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_permit_without_calls':1,
      
    }

Now unary calls are working fine but streaming is not working until I refresh the my application.

[murgatroid99]

What do you mean "streaming is not working"? What actual problem are you experiencing?

Also, the bug has been fixed, so you should upgrade to @grpc/grpc-js@1.10.8 and revert the grpc.client_idle_timeout_ms setting. I also recommend setting more useful keepalive settings, now that we know that keepalives are not the cause of the problem. 1 minute is a reasonable value for the keepalive time, and 20 seconds is the default value for the keepalive timeout.

[vamsideepak]

@murgatroid99 Just now upgraded to @grpc/grpc-js@1.10.8 and checking on it .

Initial problem:
My client is idle for sometime like almost 1 hour and after that if I make Grpc call to the server then it is not happening , and to make it work I need to restart my client then only it is working again.

After some Changes:
I have added the below configurations for keep alive and after this if client is idle for 1 hour then I am not able to receive any streaming calls data.

const keepAliveOptions = {
      'grpc.client_idle_timeout_ms': 31536000000, // One year in milliseconds
      'grpc.keepalive_time_ms':31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_timeout_ms': 31536000000,
      'grpc.keepalive_permit_without_calls':1,
      
    }

Note: I am using the named Pipe communication.

How can I make my client alive until the server is down ... ? My client calls needs to work until the grpc server is down.

[murgatroid99]

I suggest that you try the following configuration

const keepaliveOptions = {
  'grpc.keepalive_time_ms': 60000
}

with all of the other options unset.

[vamsideepak]

@murgatroid99 Thanks for your inputs . I will close this once everything is working fine on my end after testing with recent upgrade of grpc.

[vamsideepak]

Upgraded to @grpc/grpc-js@1.10.8 and I made Client 30 minutes IDLE and then tried to call the server grpc method, but it is not giving any response . After calling I am showing modal popup on UI and it struck there only. I do not know how to make client calls alive until the grpc server is down.
I have done following configurations as you mentioned.

const keepaliveOptions = {
  'grpc.keepalive_time_ms': 60000
}

I want my client to remain active even if it's idle for a day or two without any calls. It should be ready to make calls whenever I trigger the gRPC server methods.

Temporary solutions I found:

1. Client need to reconnect to the Server
   2.Server should restart once without restarting the client
   By making above changes everything works well again.

[murgatroid99]

I think we need more information to determine what is causing this problem. Can you run your client and server with the environment variables GRPC_TRACE=all and GRPC_VERBOSITY=DEBUG, perform the test that results in this problem, and share the output?

[vamsideepak]

@murgatroid99 sure will do that and update here.

[vamsideepak]

@murgatroid99 This has been tested and working fine . Thanks for all the quick response. Happy coding.