In my case, this is the situation:
I’m using Marathon to execute Docker containers with my Akka applications. Now, 
Marathon, along with Marathon-DNS assigns each set of instances of a running 
service a DNS, so something like app-a.marathon.mesos (if marathon is running 
inside mesos). Now, every request to app-a.marathon.mesos goes through an LB 
which can go to any one of the running instances of app-a.

Now, app-a wants to ask an actor on app-b and app-b replies to the `sender()`, 
which should be the actor on `app-a`. Now I’m in a soup because:
I run app-a and bind it to listen for remoting on either the IP of the host its 
container is running on, in that case, only the reply part works correctly, 
because the asking actor is associated correctly.
I run app-a and ask it to bind to `app-a.marathon.mesos`, in which case, I see 
the sender on `app-b` as `application@app-a.marathon 
<mailto:application@app-a.marathon>.mesos` which is correct but it doesn’t have 
a specific reference to where the message came from.
I think the assumption is that the binding address per actor system is unique.

Best,

Ashesh Ambasta
www.asheshambasta.com

> On 09 Sep 2015, at 14:37, Endre Varga <endre.va...@typesafe.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Ashesh,
> 
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 2:25 PM, Ashesh Ambasta <ashesh.amba...@gmail.com 
> <mailto:ashesh.amba...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> Thank you for your time Endre.
> 
> Well, in my opinion, that is something that needs to be documented. Because 
> in my answering actor, I was using `sender()` to reply back. In this case, 
> the use of the word `sender` implies that some reference to the actual actor 
> that sent the message is maintained, whereas, it isn’t.
> 
> It is maintained, why do you concluded it isn't? Can you demonstrate with a 
> failing test case where sender() does not work?
> 
> The problem with a load balancer is that it reroutes TCP connections, so an 
> unsuspecting actor system thinks it connects to a certains system A while it 
> ends up being connected to B. Then it sends out messages that it thinks 
> should go to A, and then B rightly refuses them since those messages are not 
> destined for B, but A. 
> 
> -Endre
>  
> 
> Best,
> 
> Ashesh Ambasta
> www.asheshambasta.com <http://www.asheshambasta.com/>
>> On 09 Sep 2015, at 14:19, Akka Team <akka.offic...@gmail.com 
>> <mailto:akka.offic...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Ashesh,
>> 
>> You cannot use Akka Remoting with a load balancer. Any message send targets 
>> a specific actor on a specific system (this is what an ActorRef is), you 
>> cannot just take them and reroute them to unsuspecting systems.
>> 
>> You can either use Akka Routers to implement your balancing (no need for 
>> external load balancer), or you must use another technology to connect your 
>> containers (like HTTP; for example Akka Http or Spray).
>> 
>> -Endre
>> 
>> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 7:04 PM, Ashesh Ambasta <ashesh.amba...@gmail.com 
>> <mailto:ashesh.amba...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>> 
>> We're a young startup and we decided to stick with Akka for our production 
>> deployments. But we recently ran into a minefield of problems 
>> <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32461282/akka-ask-through-a-load-balancer>
>>  trying to set up our Akka applications on our new Mesosphere cluster where 
>> we use Marathon to deploy and run applications inside Docker containers.
>> 
>> I've really run out of options at this time and this is my remoting 
>> configuration: 
>> 
>> # Remoting configuration
>> app {
>>   host = ${?APP_HOST}
>>   akka {
>>     port = 11112
>>   }
>> }
>> akka {
>>   loglevel = DEBUG
>>   jvm-exit-on-fatal-error = false
>>   log-dead-letters = 1
>>   actor {
>>     provider = "akka.remote.RemoteActorRefProvider"
>>   }
>>   remote {
>>     enabled-transports = ["akka.remote.netty.tcp"]
>>     netty.tcp {
>>       hostname = ""
>>       port = ${?app.akka.port}
>> 
>> 
>>       bind-hostname = ${?app.host}
>>       bind-port = ${?app.akka.port}
>>     }
>>   }
>> }
>> 
>> 
>> When other remote actors `ask` an actor remotely, this is what I see in my 
>> logs:
>> [DEBUG] [09/08/2015 16:54:22.909] 
>> [application-akka.remote.default-remote-dispatcher-8] [Remoting] 
>> Associated[akka.tcp://application@10.0.2.23:11112 
>> <http://application@10.0.2.23:11112/>] <- 
>> [akka.tcp://application@10.0.2.23:11120 
>> <http://application@10.0.2.23:11120/>]
>> [ERROR] [09/08/2015 16:54:22.925] 
>> [application-akka.remote.default-remote-dispatcher-7][akka.tcp://application@10.0.2.23:11112/system/endpointManager/reliableEndpointWriter-akka.tcp%3A%2F%2Fapplication%4010.0.2.23%3A11120-1/endpointWriter
>>  
>> <http://application@10.0.2.23:11112/system/endpointManager/reliableEndpointWriter-akka.tcp%3A%2F%2Fapplication%4010.0.2.23%3A11120-1/endpointWriter>]
>>  dropping message [class akka.actor.ActorSelectionMessage] for non-local 
>> recipient 
>> [Actor[akka.tcp://application@centralapp-core.marathon.mesos:11112/]] 
>> arriving at [akka.tcp://application@centralapp-core.marathon.mesos:11112 <>] 
>> inbound addresses are [akka.tcp://application@10.0.2.23:11112 
>> <http://application@10.0.2.23:11112/>]
>> 
>> What would be the best way to handle this?
>> 
>> I've been trying my best to ask this question on Stackoverflow/IRC, but I've 
>> had no replies.
>> 
>> I'll appreciate any help.
>> 
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