Port OtOpcUa's bootstrap guard (lmxopcua d1dac87f) to ScadaBridge's
BuildHocon bootstrap. Both pair nodes are self-first seeds, so a true
simultaneous cold start (shared site power event) races FirstSeedNodeProcess
on both and forms two 1-node clusters that never merge.
Opt-in dark switch ScadaBridge:Cluster:BootstrapGuard:Enabled (default off,
guard-off behavior byte-identical). When on: BuildHocon emits an empty seed
list so Akka does not auto-join, and ClusterBootstrapCoordinator (IHostedService,
registered in both the Central and Site composition roots) picks the join order
from ClusterBootstrapGuard's pure decision core — the lower canonical host:port
is the founder (self-first, forms immediately); the higher node TCP-probes the
founder up to PartnerProbeSeconds and joins peer-first if reachable, else
self-first (cold-start-alone preserved). Decides before a single JoinSeedNodes,
never re-forms mid-handshake.
Review notes carried over: case-insensitive founder tie-break; fail-fast
validation of probe timings when enabled; higher-node-cold-start-alone covered
by a real-ActorSystem test. 21 unit + 5 real-cluster tests (incl. the headline
both-cold-start-together-form-one-cluster).
Every node now lists ITSELF as seed-nodes[0] and its partner second. Akka runs
FirstSeedNodeProcess -- the only bootstrap path that can form a NEW cluster when
no peer answers InitJoin -- exclusively for seed-nodes[0]; every other node runs
JoinSeedNodeProcess and retries InitJoin forever. That is why a lone cold-starting
central-b never came Up (the "registered outage gap"), and self-first ordering
closes it using Akka's own protocol.
- 6 node appsettings swapped (the *-node-b configs; the -a nodes were already
self-first). All 14 shipped node configs now satisfy the invariant.
- StartupValidator enforces it at boot, comparing host AND port -- the invariant
fails silently when broken, so it is enforced loudly. NOTE: the gitignored
deploy/wonder-app-vd03/ overlay must be reordered before its next deploy or
that node will refuse to boot.
- SelfFirstSeedBootstrapTests: real in-process clusters at production
failure-detection timings, incl. a falsifiability control proving the OLD
peer-first ordering never forms.
Rejected alternative (implemented, measured, discarded): an external self-form
timer calling Cluster.Join(SelfAddress) after a window. It sits outside Akka's
join handshake and so cannot tell "no seed answered" from "a seed answered and
the join is in flight". On a routine standby restart the peer is alive but the
join stalls behind removal of the node's own stale incarnation; a Join(self)
during TryingToJoin abandons the in-flight join and forms a second cluster at
the same address -- still split after 90s. Docs that claimed self-first ordering
was unsafe for simultaneous cold start are corrected: while mutually reachable
the InitJoin handshake converges them to one cluster (measured).
Two-node keep-oldest could NEVER survive a crash of the oldest/active node:
Akka.NET 1.5.62 KeepOldest.OldestDecision only lets down-if-alone rescue a
side with >= 2 members, so the 1-vs-1 survivor takes DownReachable and downs
ITSELF — proven live on the rig ('SBR took decision ... including myself')
before this change. static-quorum(1) is worse (IsTooManyMembers -> DownAll);
keep-majority just re-keys the fatal crash to the lowest address.
SplitBrainResolverStrategy gains 'auto-down' (new default): BuildHocon emits
Akka's AutoDowning provider with auto-down-unreachable-after = StableAfter.
The leader among the REACHABLE members downs the unreachable peer, so the
survivor takes over singletons and /health/active in ~25s regardless of which
node died. Accepted trade (explicit owner decision): a real network partition
runs dual-active until an operator restarts one side. keep-oldest remains
supported; DownIfAlone validation is now scoped to it.
Live drill on the rebuilt rig: active-crash TAKEOVER in 28s (victim still
down; all 7 singletons Younger->Oldest), standby-crash removal 27s with 0
routing blips; victims rejoin as standby in 2s. New real-cluster tests pin
both directions (SbrFailoverTests.AutoDown_*); TwoNodeClusterFixture gains a
strategy knob. All 16 appsettings flipped (src, docker, docker-env2, and the
gitignored wonder-app-vd03 overlay on disk — owner must sync to the host).
Docs: decision record docs/plans/2026-07-21-auto-down-availability-decision.md,
Component-ClusterInfrastructure downing section rewritten, drill + README
reworked (active mode now asserts takeover), deferred-work SBR row resolved.
Validator lowers the seed-count floor to 1 when AllowSingleNodeCluster is set,
otherwise still requires 2 and points operators at the flag. The plan's
deploy/wonder-app-vd03/appsettings.Central.json edit is skipped: that production
deploy artifact is not tracked in this repo (only its deployment record doc is).
Remove project bookkeeping citations from shipped code comments across the
solution: hyphenated task IDs (WP-14, StoreAndForward-025), milestone/task/
issue refs (M3, Task 4, Audit Log #23, #21), Bundle X task-bundle labels,
and C/D/K/S/T phase labels.
Comment text only — no code logic, string/log literals, or XML-doc structure
changed. Genuine descriptions are preserved (only the citation is stripped),
and technical lookalikes are retained (UTF-8, SHA-256, T00:00:00, M365,
UTC-5, pre-C4/pre-C5 schema versions). Flagged by the new CommentChecker
TaskReferenceInComment / TrackingReferenceInComment checks plus targeted
grep passes; full solution builds clean, append-only guard tests pass.
Joseph Doherty