Remote Method Invocation (RMI)

Topics of today!!!
 What is Distributed Application?
 What is RMI?
 RMI System Layers
 RMI Architecture
 Remote Method Invocation API
 RMI Implementation
 RMI Flow
 RMI Example
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 What is Distributed Application?
 A Distributed Application is an application whose
processing is distributed across multiple networked
computers.

 The various models that can be used for developing

distributed applications
 Distributed Component Object Model(DCOM)
 Common Object Request Broker Architecture(CORBA)

 Remote Method Invocation(RMI)

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 What is RMI?
The distributed object model used by Java allows objects
in one JVM to invoke methods of objects in a separate
JVM. This is known as RMI.

Java Virtual Machine Java Virtual Machine

Client Object TCP Server Object

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 RMI System Layers
 The RMI system consists of three layers in its
architecture:

 Stub/Skeleton Layer – objects reside on the client and

server

 Remote Reference Layer – manages the references made

by the client to the remote object

 Transport Layer – connects the client and the server

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 RMI Architecture
Java Virtual Machine Java Virtual Machine

Client Object Server Object ‘S’

Object ‘S’ Stub Object ‘S’ Skeleton

Remote Reference Remote Reference

Layer Layer
TransportLayer TCP TransportLayer

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 Remote Method Invocation API
 The five packages in RMI API are:
 java.rmi
 java.rmi.registry
 java.rmi.server
 java.rmi.activation
 java.rmi.dgc
We shall be examining the first three in detail

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 The java.rmi Package
 The java.rmi package declares
 The Remote interface

 The MarshalledObject class

 The Naming class

 The RMISecurityManager class

 A number of exceptions that are used with remote

method invocations
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 The java.rmi.registry Package
 The interfaces and class of the java.rmi.registry
package are used to handle remote objects by name
and also to register those remote objects

 The java.rmi.registry package provides

 The Registry interface

 The RegistryHandler interface

 The LocateRegistry class.

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 The java.rmi.server Package
 The java.rmi.server package supports both client and
server aspects of RMI like a class implementation of
Remote interface, Client stub and Server skeleton
 Classes and Interfaces declared are :
 RemoteObject class  Skeleton interface

 RemoteServer class  RMIClassLoader class

 UnicastRemoteObject class  RMISocketFactory class

 RemoteStub class
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 RMI Implementation
 Implement RMI server
 Create Remote Interface
 Create a class that implements the remote interface

 Create stub and skeleton classes

 Copy Remote interface and stub to client

 Create and register remote objcet

 Implement the RMI client

 Call the remote interface by using the ‘lookup()’
method of the Naming class.

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 RMI Flow

Client Virtual Machine Server Virtual Machine

Client Remote Object 1

Stub Skeleton Server

1. Server Creates Remote Registry Virtual Machine

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object.
Remote Object
2. Server Registers Remote Registered
object with RMI registry 12
 RMI Flow (cont..)

Client Virtual Machine Server Virtual Machine

Client Remote Object

Stub Skeleton Server

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3
3.Client requests object from
Registry Virtual Machine
registry

Remote Object 4. Registry returns remote

Registered reference through interface
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 RMI Flow (cont..)

Client Virtual Machine Server Virtual Machine

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Client Remote Object

5 6 Server
Stub Skeleton

5. Client invokes stub method

Registry Virtual Machine
6. Stub talks to Skeleton
Remote Object
Registered 7. Skeleton invokes remote
object 14
 Hello World: Remote Interface
import java.rmi.*;

public interface HelloInterface extends Remote {

/*
* Remotely invocable method,
* returns the message of the remote object,
* such as "Hello, world!"
* throws a RemoteException
* if the remote invocation fails
*/
public String say() throws RemoteException;
}

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 Hello World: Remote Object
import java.rmi.*;
import java.rmi.server.*;
public class Hello extends UnicastRemoteObject
implements HelloInterface {
private String message;
/* Constructor for a remote object
* Throws a RemoteException if exporting the object fails
*/
public Hello (String msg) throws RemoteException {
message = msg;
}
/* Implementation of the remotely invocable method
*/
public String say() throws RemoteException {
return message;
}
}
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 Hello World: Server
import java.io.*;
import java.rmi.*;

public class HelloServer{

/*
* Server program for the "Hello, world!" example.
*/
public static void main (String[] args) {
try {
Naming.rebind ("SHello",
new Hello ("Hello, world!"));
System.out.println ("HelloServer is ready.");
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println ("HelloServer failed: " + e);
}
}
}

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 Hello World: Client
import java.io.*;
import java.rmi.*;

public class HelloClient{

/*
* Client program for the "Hello, world!" example
*/
public static void main (String[] args) {
try {
HelloInterface hello = (HelloInterface)
Naming.lookup ("SHello");
System.out.println (hello.say());
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println ("HelloClient failed: " + e);
}
}
}

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 References
• https://www.oracle.com/technical-resources/articles/javase/rmi-
corba.html

• https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/13/docs/specs/rmi/objm
odel.html

• https://www.cs.ait.ac.th/~on/O/oreilly/java-ent/dist/appd_01.htm

• https://www.tutorialspoint.com/java_rmi/java_rmi_introduction.
htm

• https://www.iitk.ac.in/esc101/05Aug/tutorial/rmi/overview.html

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