Suppose I want to add trivial custom interceptor like this:

public class LocalIndexInterceptor extends BaseCustomInterceptor {
    @Override
    protected void start() {
        System.out.println("Start method executed");
    }
  // override some command methods here   
}

When I attach the interceptor via:

cache.getAdvancedCache().addInterceptor(new LocalIndexInterceptor(), 0);

the start method never gets called and nothing is printed. When I add the interceptor during the cache configuration (via ConfigurationBuilder.customInterceptor().addInterceptor().interceptor()), everything works fine and the start method is executed.

I noticed at the @Start annotation Javadoc: "Method level annotation that indicates a (no-param) method to be called on a component registered in the ComponentRegistry when the cache starts.", so I get it that it's not executed since the cache is already started. However, without the start() method being executed, I cannot access cache additional object (DistributionManager, RpcManager) in the interceptor, which might be needed (and I needed it ).