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Ehcache: deploy multiple versions of a Grails app (fix javax.management.InstanceAlreadyExistsException)

When a Grails application makes use of the Ehcache cache plugin in its default configuration it can be impossibile to perform deploys of multiple versions of the app, even though the container might support it.
The same plugin (in its default configuration) also breaks deploying multiple different Grails apps on the same container.

The problem is in the way the plugin generates the name for the cache (which will then be used to register the cache jmx bean): the name is by default set grails-cache-ehcache. When another second application or another application version is deployed registration will fail because the name already exists. The exception message is the following (indented for clarity):

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException:
Error creating bean with name 'ehCacheManagementService':
Invocation of init method failed;
nested exception is net.sf.ehcache.CacheException:
javax.management.InstanceAlreadyExistsException:
net.sf.ehcache:type=CacheManager,name=grails-cache-ehcache

The (undocumented) solution is easy to implement. Edit the Config.groovy file and add the following configuration bit:

grails.cache.config = {
  provider {
    name "ehcache-<yourappname>-"+(new Date().format("yyyyMMddHHmmss"))
  }
}

If you are using the ehcache.xml file instead it might be more difficult to randomize the cache name, but it could be done during the build.

Tested on Grails 2.1.5 and Tomcat 7.

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