Closes deferred-work-register rows 89 and 90, and corrects their premise twice.
THE RULE
The `data_connection_definitions` store wins wherever it has an opinion; an
instance's flattened `Connections` entry is a deploy-time snapshot and is
authoritative only for names the store has never owned (the deploy-only site,
where that table is legitimately empty).
PREMISE CORRECTION 1 — the peer's DCL is EMPTY, not stale
`DeploymentManagerActor` is a `site-{SiteId}`-scoped singleton and the only
sender of Create/RemoveConnectionCommand, to its OWN node's `dcl-manager`
(which exists on every node but is populated only where the singleton runs).
So the standby serves nothing. The real defect is that `_createdConnections`
is in-memory per singleton incarnation: a restart or failover rebuilds every
connection from the flattened snapshots and silently discards a newer
connection-only artifact deploy. Row 89 is therefore create-time, not
message-delivery, and NOT replication-specific — the same loss happens on an
unreplicated single-node restart.
PREMISE CORRECTION 2 — a changed config never reached a LIVE connection either
`DataConnectionManagerActor.HandleCreateConnection` is create-only (warns and
returns on a name it holds), so `EnsureDclConnection`'s documented "re-issues
the create so the DCL adopts the new configuration" has never been true on any
node. Now surfaced with a Warning saying exactly that, once per changed config.
Not fixed here: stop-and-recreate drops every tag subscription and InstanceActor
cancels its subscribe-retry timer on first success, so nothing re-subscribes.
MECHANISM
`data_connection_definitions` gains its first production reader. It is read on
the SAME off-thread task as the deployed configs (`ReadStoreSnapshotAsync`), by
the boot load and every sweep tick, into an actor-thread-confined arbitration
overlay applied BEFORE the boot batch and BEFORE the sweep's repair loop. A
CDC-delivered definition change converges within one tick on whichever node runs
the singleton — no new cross-node message. A failed definitions read yields null
and leaves the overlay untouched (distinct from an empty list, which is a real
answer); clearing it would reintroduce the ping-pong through the error path.
THE PING-PONG, KILLED BY CONSTRUCTION
§7.4 of the sweep memo rejected a store-level pass because two sources would
flip the single per-name hash slot, recreating the actor every tick. That is a
property of WHERE the hash is computed: every ensure path now resolves the
winner BEFORE hashing, so only one configuration can ever occupy the slot. The
artifact-deploy path writes its rows into the overlay in the same pass, closing
the same flip arriving through the other door.
REMOVAL (row 90)
Both removal paths share `RemoveConnectionCentrally` and record an in-memory
tombstone, so a centrally removed connection is not resurrected by the next
instance start — a pre-existing bug. Tombstones are deliberately not persisted;
a definition row reappearing clears one.
TESTS
tests/.../Actors/DclConnectionArbitrationTests.cs — 8 tests. Fail-before
(behavioral revert: overlay inert + tombstone check disabled): 5 fail, 3 pass;
the 3 passers are the two deploy-only regression guards and the ping-pong guard.
DOCS
New decision memo docs/plans/2026-08-17-dcl-connection-arbitration-decision.md
(topology, rule, ping-pong mechanism, tombstones, residuals); Component-SiteRuntime,
Component-DataConnectionLayer + their docs/components mirrors; the §7.4 residual in
the sweep memo marked closed with its premise corrected.
An Instance Actor started by a self-heal came up with NO DCL connection actors,
so every tag it subscribed was answered "Unknown connection: <name>" by the DCL
manager indefinitely. Proven live 2026-08-16 by the row-78 close-out probe: the
sweep correctly started the replication-seeded instances, then every subscribe
failed for 6+ min until a second pair restart.
Root cause is narrower than the register assumed. A DCL connection actor is
never created from data_connection_definitions -- that table has no production
reader at all (GetAllDataConnectionDefinitionsAsync is called only by a test).
It exists only as a side effect of starting an instance, from the Connections
map inside that instance's own flattened config, via EnsureDclConnections.
That ensure was the CALLER's job and only two of the four callers made it:
CreateInstanceActorBatch (boot) ensured OK
ApplyDeployment (deploy) ensured OK
StartStoredInstance MISSING <- row-67 ensure-started + row-78 sweep
HandleEnableResult MISSING <- enabling a disabled instance
The two misses are the two paths added after the original pair -- the signature
of a convention living at call sites instead of in the funnel.
It was never replication-specific: the boot load reads only ENABLED configs, so
a node booting with an instance disabled never creates its connections either,
and enabling it afterwards hit the identical dead end on an ordinary
unreplicated site.
Fix: EnsureDclConnections moves into CreateInstanceActor, already documented as
the single Instance Actor creation funnel (it is where the running revision is
stamped for the same reason), and the two caller-side calls are removed. Placed
before the already-exists guard so the two paths that already called it keep
their exact previous semantics. No new message, option or DCL change -- it
reuses EnsureDclConnection's existing per-name hash guard, so steady state is
silent. Structural rather than another guard: a fifth start path cannot forget.
Deliberately NOT done, with rationale in the memo: a sweep pass over
data_connection_definitions. It would not have fixed row 85 (that table is empty
on a site that has only ever received instance deploys), and re-hashing from it
would fight the deploy path over the same per-name hash slot, recreating
connection actors and dropping live subscriptions on a loop. Two residual
sibling gaps (connection-only artifact deploy replicating to a peer that never
adopts it, and the mirror-image removal case) are recorded in the memo and the
component docs as open, not silently skipped.
Tests: SelfHealCreatesDclConnectionTests, 7 tests asserting on the
CreateConnectionCommand messages sent to a recording DCL stand-in. Verified
fail-before against a behavioral revert (call removed from the funnel, restored
at the two original sites): 4 fail / 3 pass, the 3 being steady-state silence
plus two refactor guards that must pass on both sides.
Docs: sweep design memo gains section 7; Component-SiteRuntime,
Component-DataConnectionLayer, docs/components/SiteRuntime and
docs/components/DataConnectionLayer updated (the deploy-flow step ordering in
docs/components/SiteRuntime was stale as written).
TemplateEngine (alarm-script-ref ordering, native-alarm-sources not in
revision hash, composition cycle checks, 9-step pipeline), SiteRuntime
(alarm on-trigger scripts run with a restricted context; PreStart seeds
children from defaults before overrides arrive), DataConnectionLayer
(UnsubscribeAlarmsRequest stashed in Connecting), StoreAndForward (InFlight/
Delivered are dead enum values; notifications can park at 50 retries),
ExternalSystemGateway (CachedWrite returns void + enqueues directly; log levels).
Joseph Doherty