The article explains that HSF’s default Hessian2 serializer cannot handle Java 9 immutable collections like Set.of() because it only serializes the writeReplace proxy object and skips the actual elements, leading to a null‑array InvalidObjectException during deserialization.
When an HSF service receives a parameter created with Java 9's immutable collection factories such as Set.of(), the default Hessian2 serializer drops the collection elements, causing a NullArray InvalidObjectException and resulting in a SERVER_SERIALIZE_ERROR on the server side, which can be avoided by using mutable collections or a compatible serializer.
The article analyzes a critical service outage caused by missing initialization checks for a core dependency, leading to uncaught ExceptionInInitializerError, thread pool exhaustion, and unresponsive HSF services, and outlines the investigation steps, root cause, and three concrete remediation actions.
This article explains how Alibaba engineers transformed millions of HSF microservices into MCP servers without code changes by leveraging the Higress AI gateway, detailing the ecosystem components, step‑by‑step migration process, challenges of rapid MCP evolution, and strategic insights for AI infrastructure teams.
This article explains how Alibaba engineers use the Higress AI gateway to offload MCP protocol and transform large‑scale HSF RPC services into MCP servers without modifying application code, covering challenges, required components, step‑by‑step migration, and practical insights for AI‑native infrastructure.
HSF (High‑speed Service Framework) is Alibaba’s high‑performance SOA solution that decouples monolithic applications via non‑blocking RPC, offering service discovery, dynamic routing, grouping, and both synchronous and asynchronous calls, configurable serialization, timeout, and thread pools, and employing patterns such as proxy, chain‑of‑responsibility, observer and decorator.
An in‑depth look at how switching a Java backend method from returning null to List.of() caused a serialization quirk that made Node’s HSF client receive a tagged object instead of an empty array, and the simple fix to avoid the pitfall.
The migration of Xianyu’s legacy Idlecenter service split into code migration—defining clear RPC‑service boundaries, moving middleware together, and avoiding refactoring—and traffic migration using HSF routing to shift load transparently, enabling gray releases, observability, sub‑second rollbacks, cutting effort to one person‑week per service with zero faults and a reusable checklist.
The article explains how Alibaba merged its proprietary HSF framework with the open‑source Dubbo, outlines the technical challenges of cloud‑native migration, describes Dubbo 3.0’s new features such as the Triple protocol and Service Mesh integration, and shares a large‑scale production case from DingTalk.
HSF 2.2 introduces a clear three‑domain architecture, async call interceptors, multi‑application support, and several serialization and map‑operation optimizations that together reduced CPU usage, network traffic and latency, enabling Alibaba to handle over 3.5 trillion calls during the 2017 Double‑11 event.
This article explains how to split a classic layered architecture into microservices using Domain‑Driven Design, shares real‑world HSF/EDAS case studies, discusses deployment, operation, performance, and common microservice patterns, and offers practical best‑practice recommendations.
