MeshGrpcBoundaryTests replaces the MeshClusterClientBoundaryTests deleted in step 1. Three
self-seeded single-member clusters sharing the ActorSystem name, joined ONLY by gRPC, driving
the REAL CentralCommunicationActor -> MeshGrpcCommandDialer -> Kestrel h2c ->
MeshCommandAuthInterceptor -> NodeCommandGrpcService -> NodeCommunicationActor -> EventStream:
1. No_cross_mesh_Akka_association_forms_between_central_and_either_site — the program's own
point, kept as a test rather than a live-gate note: each cluster stays single-member and
none ever holds another's address as a member.
2. One_dispatch_through_central_reaches_a_node_in_every_cluster_mesh — the fan, with each
site holding its OWN per-cluster PSK, so a dial that selected the wrong cluster's key
would be refused at the far side.
3. Falsifiability_control_a_dial_carrying_the_wrong_cluster_key_delivers_nothing — without
it, (2) cannot distinguish "the gRPC boundary carried it" from "something else in the
process did". The same node then accepts the right key, so the silence is the auth gate
and not a dead endpoint.
All three run fully offline — no Docker fixture — and pass.
Comment sweep across every remaining clusterclient|receptionist hit in src/ and tests/:
the program label becomes "mesh gRPC command plane", and every comment that described the
deleted transport as live now describes what actually runs (Dps = pair-local default,
Grpc = cross-mesh). mesh_transport.proto's header/service comments are reworded; no message,
field or enum is touched — the contract is locked. MeshCommActorPathTests is reshaped rather
than retired: the two paths still exist and still matter, but what a mismatch costs is now a
misleading Unavailable from the gRPC ingress rather than a silently dropped receptionist send.
The only surviving mentions of the old names are the ones that must survive: the fail-closed
rules that name "ClusterClient" as a retired value refused at boot, their tests, and this
test class's own account of what it replaces.
WithOtOpcUaRuntimeActors no longer builds a ClusterClient from
MeshTransport:CentralContactPoints, and NodeCommunicationActor.Props takes only the gRPC
IApplyAckSender. The ackRouter gate narrows from `useClusterClient || useGrpc` to `useGrpc`,
and the CentralClusterClientName constant is gone.
NodeCommunicationActor's no-transport warning now names MeshTransport:CentralGrpcEndpoints
and MeshTransport:Mode only — the old text pointed an operator at a key that no longer
exists.
Ripples in this step: the two ClusterClient-shaped facts in NodeCommunicationActorTests
(Send-not-SendToAll, and sender-wins-over-a-client) are deleted — the first has no subject
left, the second guarded a both-transports-present state that is now unconstructible. The
Runtime ServiceCollectionExtensions fact keeps its ackRouter pin and drops its
"no ClusterClient actor exists" half for the same reason.
CRITICAL. The ack deadline was one absolute DateTime computed once for the whole
endpoint walk. Against the characteristic WAN failure — a central that HANGS
(SYN black-hole, frozen host) rather than refusing — endpoint 1 burned the whole
AckTimeoutSeconds and endpoint 2 was then dialled with a deadline already in the
past: instant DeadlineExceeded, no packet leaving the node, the surviving central
never really tried. Failover looked like it ran and did not. It also contradicted
MeshTransportOptions' own documented "applied per endpoint, not per ack". The
deadline is now computed fresh inside the loop; headers stay hoisted (read-only,
sequential walk).
Two test gaps that let that survive are closed: nothing pinned the ackRouter gate
(narrowing it back to ClusterClient-only compiled and passed every test while
dead-ending every Grpc ack to DPS), and the deadline fact's lower bound accepted
any positive timeout at all. Both new pins are mutation-verified.
Docs corrected where they overstated the case: duplicate acks CANNOT mis-seal a
deployment — ConfigPublishCoordinator.HandleAck keys _acks by NodeId behind an
expected-set guard, so a duplicate overwrites its own entry. The single-endpoint
rule is defence in depth and a bound on wasted work, not a correctness
dependency; and the walk is at-least-once on the deadline path, not at-most-once.
Task 1B.2 — the node→central half of the ClusterClient→gRPC migration.
GrpcApplyAckSender walks MeshTransport:CentralGrpcEndpoints in order and
STOPS AT THE FIRST SUCCESS. That single `return` is the whole single-count
guarantee: the transport it replaces was ClusterClient.Send, deliberately not
SendToAll, because both central nodes forward to the SAME
ConfigPublishCoordinator singleton proxy — an ack posted to both would have the
coordinator count one node twice and could seal a deployment on a doubled count.
The list is an availability list, not a fan-out list.
No retry beyond that one ordered pass, no queue: the receptionist buffered
nothing and retried nothing, and this is like-for-like, not an upgrade to
delivery guarantees. All endpoints failing is still a DROP — but a loud one,
naming the node, deployment, correlation id and the status each endpoint
answered with, which is what separates "central is down" from "central rejected
this node's key". The bearer never reaches a log; only endpoints and status
codes do. Per-endpoint GrpcChannel cache and the endpoint loop clone
GrpcDeploymentArtifactFetcher; the cluster id in x-otopcua-cluster comes from
this node's own cluster-<id> role via RoleParser, off the same bound
Cluster:Roles ClusterRoleInfo reads.
SendAsync never throws: the caller discards the task, so an escaping exception
would become an unobserved fault — a drop with no log line, the exact failure
mode this migration removes.
NodeCommunicationActor gains an OPTIONAL ackSender; every existing test compiles
and passes unedited. It is checked before the ClusterClient so the two can never
both fire. The registration arm creates no ClusterClient under Grpc.
NOTE — one wiring change beyond the actor: DriverHostActor's ackRouter is now
`useClusterClient || useGrpc ? nodeComm : null`. Left at ClusterClient-only, a
Grpc node's ack would have gone out on the DPS deployment-acks topic and never
reached the sender at all.
Phase 2 Task 5. DriverHostActor and ScriptedAlarmHostActor now subscribe to the
node-local EventStream alongside their existing DPS topic subscriptions, so the
transport flag lives ENTIRELY on the publishing side -- exactly one of the two
ever publishes, and the switch can be flipped or reverted without touching a
single subscriber.
Note the alarm case is not symmetric: the DPS subscribe there still carries the
node-LOCAL publisher (OtOpcUaServerHostedService's OPC UA Part 9 method calls),
which never crosses the boundary and stays on DPS in both modes. Only the
central AdminUI leg moves.
Renamed DriverHostActor._coordinatorOverride to _ackRouter. Under ClusterClient
mode that ref is the NodeCommunicationActor, emphatically not a coordinator,
and the old name would send the next reader looking for one.
Adds two wiring tests, because the unit tests either side of this seam BOTH pass
with the subscription deleted -- the comm actor's test asserts a probe receives
the message, and the host tests drive the actor by direct Tell. Neither notices
a missing PreStart subscribe. Sabotage-verified: deleting either subscription
reddens exactly its own wiring test and nothing else.
Three things went wrong while writing those tests, all worth keeping:
- The first version raced. ActorOf returns before PreStart runs, and an
EventStream.Publish with no subscriber is dropped silently -- no buffering, no
dead letter. Fixed with a warm-up whose ack proves PreStart completed; the
comment says why it is not ceremony.
- The alarm version was VACUOUS: it told the host directly INSIDE the assertion
window alongside the relay, so the direct Tell alone produced the log the
assertion waited for. Split into warm-up (outside) and relay (inside).
- The alarm test needs its own ActorSystem: the shared harness pins
loglevel = WARNING and the only signal an unowned alarm gives is a Debug line.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GASWkNEi68FSCtvr6rLoEW
Phase 2 Task 4. Node-side end of the boundary, registered with the receptionist
per node rather than as a singleton so central's contact rotation reaches
whichever node answers.
Inbound commands are re-emitted on the node's EventStream, NOT back onto their
DistributedPubSub topic. DPS is mesh-wide and central SendToAll-s to every
node's comm actor, so a DPS republish would deliver N copies of every command
to every subscriber. The EventStream is node-local by construction. It also
avoids a registration handshake with actors spawned later: ScriptedAlarmHostActor
is a CHILD of DriverHostActor and has no registry key, so there is no ref to
hand in at wiring time.
Each inbound type is listed explicitly rather than caught by a ReceiveAny, so an
unknown type dead-letters loudly instead of being republished blind onto a
stream where every subscriber ignores it.
Outbound is ApplyAck only, and it uses Send rather than SendToAll -- the deploy
coordinator is one singleton behind central's proxy, so SendToAll would deliver
one ack per central node and the coordinator would count this node twice.
Notably there is NO Ask across this boundary in Phase 2: every migrated command
is fire-and-forget, which is why this actor is far smaller than the sister
project's equivalent and needs no sender preservation at all.
Sabotage-verified twice: deleting the AlarmCommand handler and flipping Send to
SendToAll each redden exactly their own test.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GASWkNEi68FSCtvr6rLoEW
Joseph Doherty