Cache providers for Hibernate 2nd level cache

[asookazian]

http://solutionsfit.com/blog/2009/04/06/second-level-caching-still-an-effective-performance-tuning-technique/

is a great article about using Hibernate 2nd level cache for credit card entity (read mostly entity) with EHCache as the cache provider.  I am identifying our read-mostly entities/tables for use of @Cache and query cache as per the article for performance boost.

EHCache and JBoss Cache are covered in JPA/Hibernate book as well as section 32.2 of Seam (Yuan, Orshalick, etc.) book.

Please describe good/bad experiences with both cache providers (or any other supported alternatives like OSCache, SwarmCache) and which ones perform the best.

We have a 2 node JBoss 4.2 horz cluster without state replication so I'm thinking EHCache may be a viable option for us (single JVM support whereas JBoss Cache supports cluster).

Is 2nd level cache in our case even recommended? (i.e. is it worth the effort to gain a sizable performance boost or not?)

[jeanluc]

Is 2nd level cache in our case even recommended? (i.e. is it worth the effort to gain a sizable performance boost or not?)

There are too many variables and unknowns about the application and usage patterns for someone not in your team to give an applicable answer. Try it, measure it and then decide.

[swd847]

You need a cache that supports clustering, otherwise changes made by a user on server1 will not be visible to a user on server2, leading to much confusion.