QuestDB Start/End/Delta reads of a tag being written intermittently failed
BadHistoryOperationUnsupported (InvalidCastException: Column 'ts_3' is null):
the StartEnd query referenced its CTE four times and QuestDB opens a table
reader per reference, so a row committed between two of them was counted but
not picked. MinimumActualTime/MaximumActualTime had the same race and returned
a value-less Good.
(a) SQL
- QuestDB StartEnd: one scan, one GROUP BY — first()/last() for the
any-quality picks, arg_min/arg_max keyed on the usable rows' time for the
usable picks (no str_value: arg_min has no VARCHAR form; only Delta reads
them). Byte-identical output to the old query on a 1M-row tag, ~15% faster.
- SqlServer StartEnd: one windowed pass + conditional MAX (was five CTE
references); identical output, 1.4-3x faster.
- ActualTime kept on both backends: every single-scan form measured 1.2-2.4x
slower; its inconsistency is absorbed by (b).
(b) Defence in depth on both backends
- ReadBucket takes DbDataReader and reads absent picks as null
(ReadStoredOrNull) instead of throwing.
- AggregateEvaluator: Delta with a missing first/last usable pick and
ActualTime with a missing extreme are BadNoData (were BadAggregateInvalidInputs
/ a value-less Good); Start/End with no pick already were.
- Unit tests (Sql.Common evaluator, QuestDb + SqlServer mappers over a
DataTableReader) fail with the guards removed.
LiveWriteReadRaceStressTests (QuestDB integration, opt-in via
HISTORIAN_QUESTDB_STRESS_SECONDS, Category=SlowUnit): single-row writer vs
4 tight-loop readers. Old code: 6 faults in ~105k reads; new: 0 in 106k.
Docs: Historian.md QuestDB processed-read note; F2 (Min/Max on the interval
start: SDK raw, ours Calculated) and F3 (integer tags: SDK casts interpolated
values to the integer type, ours Double) added to the SDK-parity deviations.
- IHistorianDataSource.ReadEventsAsync(..., bool reverse, ...) overload: reverse = Part 11 window (lo, hi]
newest-first by (time, id) DESC. Default forwards forward reads and throws NotSupportedException for
reverse (Null); Gateway refuses explicitly (ascending-only stream). Server answers
BadHistoryOperationUnsupported instead of silently returning the earliest N ascending.
- SqlServer / QuestDB serve reverse natively (ORDER BY time DESC, id DESC + TOP/LIMIT).
- Node manager: reverse event reads page with continuation points; direction stored in the cursor
(HistoryContinuationState.Reverse) so a resume continues in the cursor's direction; reverse tie clusters
over-fetched forward and sliced from the newest end (SliceTieCluster(reverse:)); end-only reads with a
cap page backward from EndTime (mirrors raw).
- Resumed event pages over-fetch by the boundary skip, so every non-final page is a full cap page.
- Tests: node-manager reverse paging (ties, clusters, coarse resolution, overfetch bound, resume
direction both ways, end-only, unsupported backend); shared EventReadConformance on SqlServer +
QuestDB; over-the-wire reverse paging; offline Gateway pin of the UTC DateTime.MaxValue bound through
the published client's proto conversion (in-process gRPC capture) and FILETIME.
- docs/Historian.md event paging section.
M1: the time-weighted family (incl. Total, formerly a pushed-down SUM) streams
raw window rows into the C# evaluator. New shared knob
ServerHistorian:MaxTimeWeightedRawRows (default 1,000,000; <=0 unbounded with a
Validate warning) flows through HistorianBackendRegistry into both providers.
The window query is capped at cap+1 (SQL Server TOP (@maxRows), QuestDB LIMIT $4);
one row past the cap throws the new Core.Abstractions
HistoryReadLimitExceededException, which the node manager maps to
BadTooManyOperations for that node. Not counted as a backend health failure;
bound rows are not counted; per-sample aggregates are not capped.
M2: reverse Interpolative is anchored at the later time (Part 13): points at
End - i*interval, emitted latest first. 10:00->09:00 @1h yields 10:00.
L1: Partial bit (0x4, = Opc.Ua.AggregateBits.Partial) on non-Bad results of a
truncated last interval (time-weighted family; per-sample family is a follow-up).
L2/L3: aligned with the SDK AggregateCalculator.GetTimeBasedStatusCode
(decompiled from Opc.Ua.Server 1.5.378.106): TreatUncertainAsBad=false counts
Uncertain time (Uncertain samples, held-into-outage, extrapolation) as Good
time; data but no non-Bad time => generic Bad (0x80000000); BadNoData only
when there is no data at all. Consequence: a live tag's latest interval reads
Good (documented).
L5: release note no longer claims Total matches the Gateway Integral exactly
(AVEVA's divisor is unverified); it notes Total is now evaluated in C# and
subject to the cap.
Tests: unit (reverse Interpolative x3, Partial, Bad vs BadNoData incl. an
open-ended outage, cap helpers, SDK bit oracles); conformance (reverse
Interpolative, raw-row cap at/over/0, bounds not counted, health unaffected);
node manager BadTooManyOperations; options default + warning. Each new
behaviour falsified by mutation (aggregator x9, data-source cap checks on
both backends against the real DBs, node-manager catch).
IHistorianDataSource.TimestampResolutionTicks (default 1; QuestDB 10). A drained tie
cluster now steps off T by the resolution, so a forward one-value-per-page read on a
microsecond backend no longer re-reads the same sample forever (C1). QuestDB AtTime
results carry the client's original request time (M3); regression for the NEXT seek
skipping a tombstone (M1). Conformance backend wires the real writer and updater.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ef2ozxS7QPanGT8uoATbTe
QuestDbHistorianDataSource serves Raw (LIMIT $n, no continuation, R8), AtTime
(chunked LIMIT 1 neighbour seeks, <=50 times per statement), Events and
Processed (one statement per node, bucket = (cast(ts AS LONG)*10 - start)/interval,
shared BucketPlan/AggregateEvaluator/AtTimeEvaluator). Every sample read filters
NOT deleted; every row goes through StoredSample.FromStored; RC2 long.MinValue
read repair. QuestDbConformanceBackend (seed/read-back) for the conformance suite;
writer/updater factories are T7 placeholders.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ef2ozxS7QPanGT8uoATbTe
Joseph Doherty