# Client Reconnection and Session Reattachment

Apache ActiveMQ Artemis clients can be configured to automatically reconnect or
re-attach to the server in the event that a failure is detected in the
connection between the client and the server.

## 100% Transparent session re-attachment

If the disconnection was due to some transient failure such as a temporary
network outage and the target server was not restarted, then the sessions will
still exist on the server, assuming the client hasn't been disconnected for
more than [connection-ttl](connection-ttl.md)

In this scenario, Apache ActiveMQ Artemis will automatically re-attach the
client sessions to the server sessions when the connection reconnects. This is
done 100% transparently and the client can continue exactly as if nothing had
happened.

The way this works is as follows:

As Apache ActiveMQ Artemis clients send commands to their servers they store
each sent command in an in-memory buffer. In the case that connection failure
occurs and the client subsequently reattaches to the same server, as part of
the reattachment protocol the server informs the client during reattachment
with the id of the last command it successfully received from that client.

If the client has sent more commands than were received before failover it can
replay any sent commands from its buffer so that the client and server can
reconcile their states.Ac

The size of this buffer is configured with the `confirmationWindowSize`
parameter on the connection URL. When the server has received
`confirmationWindowSize` bytes of commands and processed them it will send back
a command confirmation to the client, and the client can then free up space in
the buffer.

The window is specified in bytes.

Setting this parameter to `-1` disables any buffering and prevents any
re-attachment from occurring, forcing reconnect instead. The default value for
this parameter is `-1`. (Which means by default no auto re-attachment will
occur)

## Session reconnection

Alternatively, the server might have actually been restarted after crashing or
being stopped. In this case any sessions will no longer exist on the server and
it won't be possible to 100% transparently re-attach to them.

In this case, the Apache ActiveMQ Artemis client will automatically reconnect
and *recreate* any sessions and consumers on the server corresponding to the
sessions and consumers on the client. This process is exactly the same as what
happens during failover onto a backup server.

Client reconnection is also used internally by components such as core bridges
to allow them to reconnect to their target servers.

Please see the section on failover [Automatic Client Failover](ha.md) to get a
full understanding of how transacted and non-transacted sessions are
reconnected during failover/reconnect and what you need to do to maintain *once
and only once* delivery guarantees.

## Configuring reconnection/reattachment attributes

Client reconnection is configured using the following parameters:

- `retryInterval`. This optional parameter determines the period in
  milliseconds between subsequent reconnection attempts, if the connection to
  the target server has failed. The default value is `2000` milliseconds.

- `retryIntervalMultiplier`. This optional parameter determines a multiplier
  to apply to the time since the last retry to compute the time to the next
  retry.

  This allows you to implement an *exponential backoff* between retry attempts.

  Let's take an example:

  If we set `retryInterval` to `1000` ms and we set `retryIntervalMultiplier`
  to `2.0`, then, if the first reconnect attempt fails, we will wait `1000` ms
  then `2000` ms then `4000` ms between subsequent reconnection attempts.

  The default value is `1.0` meaning each reconnect attempt is spaced at equal
  intervals.

- `maxRetryInterval`. This optional parameter determines the maximum retry
  interval that will be used. When setting `retryIntervalMultiplier` it would
  otherwise be possible that subsequent retries exponentially increase to
  ridiculously large values. By setting this parameter you can set an upper limit
  on that value. The default value is `2000` milliseconds.

- `reconnectAttempts`. This optional parameter determines the total number of
  reconnect attempts to make before giving up and shutting down. A value of
  `-1` signifies an unlimited number of attempts. The default value is `0`.

All of these parameters are set on the URL used to connect to the broker.

If your client does manage to reconnect but the session is no longer available
on the server, for instance if the server has been restarted or it has timed
out, then the client won't be able to re-attach, and any `ExceptionListener` or
`FailureListener` instances registered on the connection or session will be
called.

## ExceptionListeners and SessionFailureListeners

Please note, that when a client reconnects or re-attaches, any registered JMS
`ExceptionListener` or core API `SessionFailureListener` will be called.
