# LocalDb Phase 2 — rig soak findings

**Run date:** 2026-07-19 / 2026-07-20 (UTC) · **Rig:** local 8-node docker cluster, site-a pair
**Task:** Task 1 of [`2026-07-19-localdb-adoption-phase2.md`](2026-07-19-localdb-adoption-phase2.md)

> ## GATE VERDICT: **STOP — do not proceed to Task 3.** *(superseded — see update)*
>
> Not for the reason the plan anticipated. Oplog sizing is fine and D6 is resolved. The soak
> instead surfaced what looked like a **pre-existing Phase 1 defect**: the consolidated LocalDb
> database (`site-localdb.db`) throws `SQLite Error 10: 'disk I/O error'` on essentially every
> write on the **active** node under sustained concurrent load. See
> [Finding 1](#finding-1-blocker).
>
> **Update 2026-07-20: Finding 1 is root-caused and is NOT a product defect.** The soak's own
> host-side `sqlite3` sampling poisoned both nodes (WAL reset across the virtiofs boundary);
> the unmodified code sustains the full soak load indefinitely with zero errors —
> reproduced/refuted on demand, see
> [`docs/known-issues/2026-07-20-localdb-disk-io-error-under-load.md`](../known-issues/2026-07-20-localdb-disk-io-error-under-load.md) §0.
> Finding 1 therefore no longer blocks Task 3. What still stands before proceeding: re-run the
> cut-short sampling (Findings 4/5 write-rate numbers) using the safe copy-based `snap` recipe
> now in the plan, on a rig where both site-a nodes have been restarted since any host-side read.
>
> ## GATE VERDICT (final, 2026-07-20): **PROCEED to Task 3.**
>
> The re-run is done — [§1b](#1b-clean-re-run-2026-07-20-post-root-cause). Safe copy-based
> sampling, both nodes restarted first, six clean 60-second intervals: **0.80 `sf_messages`
> rows/sec sustained, zero SQLite errors across the full window, both nodes converged.** No stop
> condition from any of D1–D6 is met. The one binding number Phase 2 must honour is
> **`LocalDb:Replication:MaxBatchSize = 16`** (Finding 2 / D6), which Task 19 sets.

---

## 1. Method as actually executed

The plan's method needed four corrections before it would run. Recorded here so the next run
does not rediscover them.

| Plan said | Reality |
|---|---|
| `docker exec … curl -s localhost:8084/metrics` | **No `curl` in the `aspnet:10.0` image.** Use a sidecar sharing the container netns: `docker run --rm --network container:scadabridge-site-a-a curlimages/curl:latest -s localhost:8084/metrics` |
| Sample with host-side `sqlite3` against the bind mounts | **This IS the cause of Finding 1** (root-caused 2026-07-20 — the "ruled out" verdict below did not survive; see the known-issue doc §0). Host↔container POSIX locks don't propagate over virtiofs; a host-side read checkpoints + resets the WAL under the container and permanently poisons its connections. Copy the file triplet and query the copy, or read counters from `/metrics`. |
| Drive alarm churn on a deployed instance | **Not possible on this rig.** `infra/mssql/seed-config.sql` seeds zero `TemplateNativeAlarmSources`, opc-plc runs with no alarm flags, and no simulator or harness exists anywhere in the repo. `native_alarm_state` stayed at 0 rows throughout. Bounded analytically instead — see [Finding 3](#finding-3). |
| Drive S&F churn via template 4's `TestExternalSystem` script | Template 4 exists after a reseed but is **not deployable** (34 pre-deployment validation errors: 30 `ConnectionBinding` + 4 `ScriptCompilation`). A purpose-built `SoakGenerator` template was used instead — see below. |

### The generator that worked

`ExternalSystem.Call` does **not** buffer to store-and-forward in practice; `ExternalSystem.CachedCall`
is the buffering surface. This is the single most important operational detail for reproducing
S&F load.

- Template `SoakGenerator` (id 2021), one `Interval` script at `{"intervalMs":5000}`:
  ```csharp
  var parms = new Dictionary<string, object?> { ["a"] = 2, ["b"] = 3 };
  await ExternalSystem.CachedCall("Test REST API", "Add", parms);
  ```
- No attributes, no compositions, no connection bindings — deliberately, so it deploys cleanly.
- `ExternalSystemDefinitions` id 1 repointed to `http://127.0.0.1:9` (discard port → connection
  refused → classified transient → buffered).
- 4 instances (`soakgen-1..4`) deployed to site-a.

Sustained rate observed: ~**2.9 HTTP attempts/sec** (688–864 connection-refused per 4 min).

### Two rig-tooling bugs found and fixed en route

1. **`docker/seed-sites.sh` seeded stale role names** — `Design`/`Deployment` instead of the
   canonical `Designer`/`Deployer` (`src/ZB.MOM.WW.ScadaBridge.Security/Roles.cs:46-47`). Every
   Designer/Deployer-gated management command failed `UNAUTHORIZED` on a freshly reseeded rig,
   including `seed-sites.sh`'s own trailing `deploy artifacts` and `reseed.sh` stage 6d.
   **Fixed** (commit `cf46e596`).
2. **`infra/mssql/setup.sql` never executes.** It is mounted into
   `/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/`, a convention the official `mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server`
   image does not implement. After `reseed.sh` drops the volume (`docker compose down -v`),
   nothing recreates `ScadaBridgeConfig` or the `scadabridge_app` login, so `reseed.sh` hangs
   forever on its "Waiting for setup.sql to create ScadaBridgeConfig" poll. Worked around by
   applying the three init scripts by hand. **NOT yet fixed in the repo.**

---

## Finding 1 (BLOCKER) — *root-caused 2026-07-20: observer-induced, not a product defect; see the gate-verdict update and the known-issue doc §0*

### The Phase 1 consolidated LocalDb fails under sustained write load on the active node

`site-localdb.db` throws `SQLite Error 10: 'disk I/O error'` on essentially every write once the
active node is under concurrent load. Both Phase 1 tables and the audit telemetry paths are
affected.

Representative stacks (`docker logs scadabridge-site-a-b`):

```
Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException (0x80004005): SQLite Error 10: 'disk I/O error'.
   at ZB.MOM.WW.ScadaBridge.SiteEventLogging.SiteEventLogger.ProcessWriteQueueAsync()
      SiteEventLogger.cs:line 221/236

Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException (0x80004005): SQLite Error 10: 'disk I/O error'.
   at ZB.MOM.WW.ScadaBridge.SiteRuntime.Tracking.OperationTrackingStore.RecordEnqueueAsync(...)
      OperationTrackingStore.cs:line 137
   at ...CachedCallTelemetryForwarder.TryEmitTrackingAsync(...) line 148
```

User-visible symptom: `[ERR] Failed to record event: script from ScriptActor:SoakCall` — **site
event logging is silently dropping events on the floor under load.**

#### It follows the load, not the node, not the observer

The failure was isolated by moving the load between nodes:

| Node | Role | Under load | `disk I/O error` in 4 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| site-a-a | active | yes | 2 175 |
| site-a-a | standby (after restart) | no | **0** |
| site-a-b | standby | no | **0** |
| site-a-b | active (after failover) | yes | **4 391** |

#### It is LocalDb-specific, not the filesystem — *wrong: sampling-selection bias; only the LocalDb file was ever host-read*

The decisive control. Under identical load, on the same node, in the same bind-mounted
directory, counting error-stack frames over 3 minutes:

| Store | Backing file | Errors |
|---|---|---|
| `OperationTrackingStore` | `site-localdb.db` (LocalDb) | 13 044 |
| `SiteAuditTelemetryActor` | `site-localdb.db` (LocalDb) | 4 350 |
| `SiteEventLogger` | `site-localdb.db` (LocalDb) | 900 |
| `CachedCallTelemetryForwarder` | `site-localdb.db` (LocalDb) | 162 |
| `StoreAndForwardStorage` | `store-and-forward.db` (legacy) | **0** |
| `SiteStorageService` | `scadabridge.db` (legacy) | **0** |

Ordinary SQLite on the same bind mount is completely healthy. Only the LocalDb-managed
database fails.

#### Ruling out the observer — **RETRACTED 2026-07-20: the observer was the cause**

Onset (04:56:37) was one second after a host-side `sqlite3` sample (04:56:36), which made
observer-induced `-shm` corruption the leading hypothesis. The original run "excluded" it:
after node-a was restarted and the load failed over to node-b, node-b began erroring while no
host process touched its files, and sampled node-a went to zero once idle.

**That exclusion was wrong.** The 04:56 sampling had poisoned *both* nodes' files (both carry
the 04:56 main-DB mtime; node-b's WAL was left at 0 bytes) — node-b was silent only because a
standby issues ~no LocalDb statements, and erupted on its first post-failover write. Verified
2026-07-20: 10+ min of full soak load on a freshly-reopened node with zero errors, then a
single host `sqlite3` read reset its 4.6 MiB WAL to 0 bytes and started the error storm one
second later (`SQLITE_IOERR_SHORT_READ`, 522). Full mechanism + minimal repro:
[`docs/known-issues/2026-07-20-localdb-disk-io-error-under-load.md`](../known-issues/2026-07-20-localdb-disk-io-error-under-load.md) §0.

#### Secondary defect, same area

```
[ERROR][akka://scadabridge/user/site-audit-telemetry] There is no active ActorContext,
this is most likely due to use of async operations from within this actor.
Cause: System.NotSupportedException
```

`SiteAuditTelemetryActor` is closing over `ActorContext` across an `await`. Likely a
contributing cause rather than a separate issue — it is in the same write path — but it is a
real bug on its own terms.

#### Why this blocks Phase 2

Phase 2 registers **eight further tables** into this database, including `native_alarm_state`
(the highest-volume table in either DB) and `sf_messages`. It also **deletes** the bespoke
mechanisms (`SiteReplicationActor`, `ReplicationService`) that currently carry that data
independently of LocalDb. Cutting over onto a store that cannot absorb the *current* write
load — and doing so in the same commit that removes the fallback — would convert a logging
defect into site-wide config and buffer loss.

~~This is a Phase 1 defect. It must be root-caused and fixed before Phase 2's Task 3.~~
**Root-caused 2026-07-20: not a Phase 1 defect** — observer-induced WAL reset across the
virtiofs bind-mount boundary; see the gate-verdict update at the top of this document.

---

## Finding 2 — D6 resolved: no stop condition, but `MaxBatchSize` must be lowered

The plan asserts `deployed_configurations.config_json` is "documented to exceed 128 KB per row."
That misreads the source. `docs/known-issues/2026-06-26-deploy-config-exceeds-akka-frame-size.md`
says the *escaped Akka envelope* exceeded the 128 KB frame, and that the default serializer
double-escapes the payload, so **"the raw flattened JSON only needs to be ~60-70 KB to blow the
128 KB frame."**

So the largest known real production `config_json` is on the order of **60–70 KB**.

Measured on the rig (4 deployed configs): **max 715 B, avg 714 B** — trivially small, as the plan
predicted, hence the production figure above is the one to size against. (A direct measurement
against wonder was attempted; `wonder-app-vd03.zmr.zimmer.com` resolves over the VPN but the
servecli SSH service on :2222 refuses connections, so the box was unreachable.)

**Verdict: no stop condition.** Nothing approaches the 4 MB single-row ceiling.

**But the batching risk is real.** Batching is row-count-only (`MaxBatchSize` default **500**),
and neither side configures gRPC message limits, so the 4 MB default receive cap applies:

```
500 rows × 70 KB ≈ 35 MB  ≫  4 MB   →  poison batch, stream wedged
```

Recommended for Task 19:

```
LocalDb:Replication:MaxBatchSize = 16
```

`16 × 128 KB = 2 MB` — 2× headroom on row size over the known worst case, and 2× headroom
against the 4 MB cap.

---

## Finding 3 — D4 corrected: alarm write rate is bounded, not unbounded

The plan calls `native_alarm_state` "unbounded by design." It is not.
`NativeAlarmActor.MarkDirtyUpsert` (`NativeAlarmActor.cs:473-502`) coalesces into a dictionary
**keyed by `SourceReference`** and flushes on a timer (`_persistFlushInterval`, default
**100 ms**). One flush writes at most one row per distinct source reference, regardless of how
many transitions occurred in that window.

```
worst-case rows/sec  =  distinct_source_refs × 10
```

An alarm storm on N sources costs N rows per 100 ms flush, not N × transition-rate. This makes
the table analytically sizeable without a generator — which matters, because this rig cannot
produce alarm load at all (see §1).

**Not empirically validated.** `native_alarm_state` held 0 rows for the entire run.

---

## Finding 4 — `sf_messages` has a hard structural ceiling of 50 rows/sec

Confirmed by code rather than measurement, which is stronger here. The retry sweep takes at most
`SweepBatchLimit` messages every `RetryTimerInterval`, and each failed attempt is one `UPDATE`
incrementing `retry_count`:

```
SweepBatchLimit (500) ÷ RetryTimerInterval (10 s)  =  50 row-writes/sec, hard ceiling
```

This confirms the plan's "~50 row-writes/sec worst case" — and it is a ceiling, not an estimate.
`DefaultMaxRetries = 50` at `DefaultRetryInterval = 30 s` bounds each message to 50 updates over
25 minutes.

Observed during the run: ~2.9 attempts/sec, far below the ceiling. Row counts could not be
sampled reliably (see §1) and the run was cut short by Finding 1.

---

## Finding 5 — exceeding the oplog caps is a graceful degradation, not a failure

The plan's Task 1 step 7 treats "the shared oplog cannot absorb this write profile" as a hard
stop requiring the keyed-instances escape hatch. It is much weaker than that.

`OplogStore.EnforceCapsAsync` (`OplogStore.cs:109-138`) prunes to the ceiling and sets
`needs_snapshot`; `MaintenanceBackgroundService.cs:57` logs *"Oplog backlog/age caps exceeded:
pruned to the ceiling and flagged needs_snapshot — the peer must snapshot-resync."*
`SyncSession.ComputeSnapshotRequiredAsync` (`:413-415`) then forces a snapshot resync.

So overrunning the caps costs a **full snapshot resync**, not data loss and not a wedged stream.
The caps therefore express *"how long may a peer be absent before it needs a full resync"*, and
should be sized to the longest tolerable peer outage rather than treated as a correctness
boundary. In healthy two-node operation the oplog drains continuously — `localdb_oplog_depth`
read **0** throughout.

### Provisional cap recommendation (Task 19)

Sized for a ~3-hour peer outage at a conservative 100 rows/sec aggregate, pending re-measurement
after Finding 1 is fixed:

```
LocalDb:Replication:MaxOplogRows = 1000000   # default; ≈2.8 h at 100 rows/s
LocalDb:Replication:MaxOplogAge  = 3.00:00:00
LocalDb:Replication:MaxBatchSize = 16        # Finding 2 — this one is NOT optional
```

Only `MaxBatchSize` is firmly evidence-backed. The other two rest on an assumed aggregate write
rate that this run could not measure.

---

## 1b. Clean re-run (2026-07-20, post-root-cause)

The original sampling was cut short by Finding 1 and was itself the cause of it. Re-run after
both site-a nodes were restarted, using the plan's copy-based `snap()` helper — **no host-side
`sqlite3` ever touched a live file.** Six consecutive 60-second intervals, generator load
unchanged (`SoakGenerator` ×4 against a refusing endpoint):

| UTC | `sf_messages` rows | `SUM(retry_count)` | status=0 | `__localdb_oplog` | `native_alarm_state` |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:07:57 | 3384 | 200 | 3380 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:08:57 | 3432 | 200 | 3428 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:09:57 | 3480 | 200 | 3476 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:10:57 | 3528 | 200 | 3524 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:11:57 | 3576 | 200 | 3572 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:12:57 | 3624 | 200 | 3620 | 0 | 0 |
| 06:13:57 | 3672 | 200 | 3668 | 0 | 0 |

**Measured:**

- **`sf_messages` insert rate: exactly 48 rows/min = 0.80 rows/sec**, dead steady across all six
  intervals (+288 rows over 360 s, zero variance).
- **Retry-UPDATE rate: 0/sec.** `SUM(retry_count)` never moved. Only 4 rows ever reached
  `retry_count = 50` (status 2, dead-lettered); the other ~3.6 k sit at `retry_count = 0`,
  status 0 — **enqueued but never swept**. So this generator exercises the *insert* path only.
- **Row sizes:** `sf_messages.payload_json` max **76 B**; `deployed_configurations.config_json`
  max **721 B** over 4 rows (rig config is trivially small — see the caveat below).
- **`native_alarm_state`: 0 rows** — no alarm generator on this rig, as previously recorded.
- **`__localdb_oplog`: 0 throughout** — the Phase 1 tables are genuinely idle under this load,
  which is the expected result and not a measurement failure (Phase 2's tables are not yet
  registered, so this load cannot reach the oplog by construction).
- **Zero SQLite errors** in `docker logs scadabridge-site-a-a` across the full 30-minute window
  (`grep -ciE "disk I/O|SQLITE_IOERR|NOTADB"` → **0**). This is the direct confirmation that
  Finding 1 was observer-induced: identical load, identical library, nothing host-reading the
  files, no errors.
- **Both site-a nodes converged identically** (3564 rows on each at a common sample point) under
  the bespoke replicator — the pre-cutover baseline Task 20 should reproduce under CDC.

**Honest limits of this measurement.** 0.80 rows/sec is **~1.6 % of the 50 rows/sec structural
ceiling**, and the retry path — the expensive one, one `UPDATE` per message per sweep — was never
exercised at all. This re-run therefore confirms *steady-state health and the absence of the
Finding 1 pathology*; it does **not** probe the ceiling. That is acceptable because the ceiling is
**structural rather than empirical** (Finding 4: `SweepBatchLimit` ÷ `RetryTimerInterval`), so
sizing does not depend on observing it. Likewise the rig's 721 B config rows are **not**
representative — D6's sizing rests on the documented ~60–70 KB production `config_json`, not on
this number.

## 2. What still owes measurement

Carry forward (items 1–2 partially discharged by §1b above):

1. ~~Sustained `sf_messages` rows/sec~~ — **measured** (§1b: 0.80/s insert, 0/s retry). Still
   unmeasured: the **retry-UPDATE** path under a saturating generator approaching the 50/s
   ceiling. Not required for sizing (the ceiling is structural), but it is the honest gap.
2. Any `native_alarm_state` measurement at all — requires building alarm-source seeding plus an
   A&C-capable server. The `OpcUaAlarmLiveSmokeTests` **passed**, so the rig's opc-plc *does*
   answer ConditionRefresh with a `SnapshotComplete`; the missing piece is ongoing transitions
   and a seeded `TemplateNativeAlarmSource`. (The test's own doc comment claiming the simulator
   "does not reliably expose A&C" is stale.)
3. A production-representative `config_json` from wonder, to replace the ~60–70 KB inference.
4. The empirical oplog drain-under-churn check — Task 20 evidence item 10.

## 3. Rig state left behind

- Fully reseeded (central config volume dropped and replayed; site SQLite state wiped by
  `reseed.sh` stage 2).
- `ExternalSystemDefinitions` id 1 is **repointed to `http://127.0.0.1:9`** — restore to
  `http://scadabridge-restapi:5200` before using the rig for anything else.
- Template `SoakGenerator` (2021) and instances `soakgen-1..4` (ids 5–8) remain deployed on
  site-a and are **still generating load**. Undeploy or delete them before the Task 20 live gate.
- `LdapGroupMappings` corrected in the live DB to the canonical role names.