How to use Grpc retries in Java temporal workflows

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1

Hi @maxim @temporal_angie

How we can use grpc retries in java temporal workflow activities ??

Can u please share any useful document for this??

Thanks,
Sachin Nimawat

2

Can you give more info on what exactly you mean by this? Thanks

3

Hi @tihomir

Instead of using Temporal in built retries ..we want to use grpc retries options for the retrying activities in Java temporal worflows.

How we can use grpc retry options??

Thanks

4

Sorry I still dont fully get question.

Temporal activity retries are not really gRPC retries. They are orchestrated durably by Temporal server. End to end activity execution including all its retries can consist of multiple unique gRPC calls between your sdk workers and server, so there isnt really a single gRPC call.

gRPC retry options in sdk itself like RpcRetryOptions, WorkflowServiceStubOptions are for sdk calls to the server, so like retries for operations like StartWorkflowExecution, RespondActivityTaskCompleted etc. They are not used for activity retries.

If you mean like that inside an activity you make a gRPC call to a downstream service, and you within your activity code want to use gRPC retries, rather than making a single call, and failing activity to have Temporal retry it based on your activity retry options
yeah you can do that, and would have to code that yourself in activity code.
Just note that honestly this is not really recommended as it makes it pretty hard to set Temporal activity timeouts such as StartToClose activity timeout.
For this type of requirement at least from what I have seen is you can use some external service that does retries for you and then async returns result/failure after all retries.
So from Temporal perspective, you have a short activity that invokes this service, Temporal activity completes, then in your workflow code you await result that can come in via signal for example.