lmxopcua/docs/operations/2026-07-20-localdb-pair-replication.md

LocalDb pair replication — operations runbook

Phase 1 scope. Every driver-role OtOpcUa node keeps a consolidated ZB.MOM.WW.LocalDb SQLite database. Today it caches exactly one thing: the deployed-configuration artifact, chunked, so a node can boot from cache when central SQL Server is unreachable. That cache can optionally replicate to the node's redundant pair peer over the library's gRPC sync. Replication is default-OFF and fail-closed. This runbook covers enabling it, the operational rules that keep a pair converging, and the DB-inspection safety rules.

What replicates, and what it buys you

• Replicated tables: deployment_artifacts (the artifact, split into base64 chunks) and deployment_pointer (one current-deployment pointer per cluster). Registered — in this order, after the DDL — by LocalDbSetup.OnReady.
• The payoff: in a redundant driver pair, either node can be the one that applied the latest deploy and wrote the cache. With replication on, the peer holds a byte-identical copy. So a node that restarts into a central-SQL outage can boot the current config even if it never applied that deploy itself — its peer did, and the row replicated.
• Convergence model: last-writer-wins per primary key, HLC-stamped. Both nodes also store locally after every apply, so the pair converges to identical content regardless of which node deployed. Retention (newest-2 deployments per cluster) prunes on one node and the deletes replicate as tombstones.

Enabling replication on a pair

Replication has two knobs, both under LocalDb:

Key	Role	Notes
LocalDb:SyncListenPort	binds the dedicated h2c sync listener	0 (default) = no listener, replication off. Set the same non-zero port on both nodes of the pair.
LocalDb:Replication:PeerAddress	the address this node dials	Set on one node (the initiator); leave empty on the other (passive). The stream is bidirectional — one dial carries both directions.
LocalDb:Replication:ApiKey	bearer token for the sync stream	Must be byte-identical on both nodes. See fail-closed rule below. Supply via ${secret:...} / env — never a cleartext literal in production config.
LocalDb:Replication:MaxBatchSize	rows per replication batch	16 for the artifact cache. Batching is row-count-only against gRPC's 4 MB message cap; artifact chunk rows are ≈171 KB, so 16 × 171 KB ≈ 2.7 MB stays under the cap. Raising it risks tripping the cap.

Example (site-a-1 initiator, site-a-2 passive):

site-a-1:  LocalDb__SyncListenPort=9001
           LocalDb__Replication__PeerAddress=http://site-a-2:9001
           LocalDb__Replication__ApiKey=${secret:site-a-localdb-sync-key}
           LocalDb__Replication__MaxBatchSize=16
site-a-2:  LocalDb__SyncListenPort=9001
           LocalDb__Replication__ApiKey=${secret:site-a-localdb-sync-key}   # no PeerAddress
           LocalDb__Replication__MaxBatchSize=16

Kestrel note. Setting SyncListenPort makes the Host add an explicit Listen* for the h2c sync listener. An explicit Listen* makes Kestrel ignore ASPNETCORE_URLS entirely, so the Host also re-binds the primary HTTP port in the same block. If you change the primary port, verify both :<httpPort> and :<syncPort> appear in the startup "Now listening on" lines.

The ApiKey rule (fail-closed)

The replication library's passive endpoint verifies no authentication — the host LocalDbSyncAuthInterceptor is the only gate, and it is fail-closed:

• No key configured ⇒ every sync call is refused (PermissionDenied). "No key" is never "no auth required".
• A key mismatch ⇒ the pair silently stops converging. The initiator's stream is rejected at the peer; nothing errors loudly. A typo in one node's key looks exactly like "replication is broken". If a pair is not converging, check the keys match first.

Operational rules

• Stop / start the pair together where you can. Each node keeps working (and caching locally) while its peer is down; the outage is not a data-loss event — the surviving node accumulates writes and the peer catches up on rejoin. But a long-lived solo node drifts further from its peer, so avoid leaving a pair split for extended periods.
• Tombstone-retention resurrection window. Retention prunes to the newest 2 deployments and replicates the prune as tombstones. Tombstones are themselves retained only for a bounded window. If a node is offline longer than the tombstone-retention window, a delete that happened during its outage may no longer be expressible as a tombstone on rejoin — a pruned deployment could briefly reappear until the next deploy re-prunes it. Keep pair outages well inside that window.
• What boot-from-cache does NOT cover. The cache is a fallback for central-SQL outages at boot, not a replacement for central. A new deployment still requires central SQL — the cache is only read when the central fetch fails at startup. When central returns, the node resumes fresh-config behavior. Boot-from-cache logs a running-from-cache signal; treat a node that stays on it as a central-connectivity incident, not steady state.

Inspecting the LocalDb file — safety rules

The database runs in WAL mode. These rules exist because violating them corrupted a live DB in the 2026-07-20 ScadaBridge incident:

• Never run sqlite3 on the live file (host-side, against a bind-mounted or container path). Opening a live WAL DB from a second process across virtiofs poisons the WAL. Always copy the triplet first and query the copy:

  docker cp <node>:/app/data/otopcua-localdb.db      /tmp/localdb.db
  docker cp <node>:/app/data/otopcua-localdb.db-wal  /tmp/localdb.db-wal
  docker cp <node>:/app/data/otopcua-localdb.db-shm  /tmp/localdb.db-shm
  sqlite3 /tmp/localdb.db 'SELECT cluster_id, deployment_id FROM deployment_pointer;'
  

• Metrics come from the container, not a host curl (aspnet:10.0 has no curl):

  docker run --rm --network container:<node> curlimages/curl:latest -s localhost:<httpPort>/metrics | grep localdb_
  

• If an anomaly appears within seconds of your own measurement, suspect the measurement. Restart both nodes and re-observe untouched before blaming the library.

Useful queries (on a copied triplet)

-- What each node thinks the current deployment is
SELECT cluster_id, deployment_id, revision_hash, applied_at_utc FROM deployment_pointer;

-- Convergence check: the pointer's origin stamp should match on both nodes
SELECT pk_json, hlc, node_id, is_tombstone
FROM __localdb_row_version WHERE table_name = 'deployment_pointer' ORDER BY pk_json;

-- Replication backlog (should drain to 0 when a pair is caught up)
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM __localdb_oplog;

See also

• docs/Redundancy.md — the pair-local config cache section.
• docs/Configuration.md — the LocalDb appsettings section.
• The two-node convergence harness: tests/Server/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Host.IntegrationTests/LocalDb/.