Akka Can't Create Remote Actor Dynamically: Scala

Question

I have a server-client architecture where there are many clients and one server. I'd like to create an actor in each client and put them on the server actor system.

I tried to do this dynamically. After creating the actor remotely (which I'm not sure is successful) I can't select it. Here is my server:

   class TestActorSystem {
    val system = ActorSystem("testSystem", ConfigFactory.load("server.conf"))

    def shutdown = system.shutdown()

Server Config:

akka {
  #loglevel = "DEBUG"
  actor {
     provider = "akka.remote.RemoteActorRefProvider"
  }
  remote {
     enabled-transports = ["akka.remote.netty.tcp"]
     netty.tcp {
         hostname = "127.0.0.1"
         port = 2552
     }
     log-sent-messages = on
     log-received-messages = on
  }
}

Here is my client:

  class Client(id: String, remoteAddress: Address) {

    def this(id: String) = {
      this(id, Address("akka.tcp", "testSystem", "127.0.0.1", 2552))
    }

    implicit val timeout = Timeout(600.seconds)

    val conf = ConfigFactory.load()
    val system = ActorSystem("client", ConfigFactory.load("client.conf"))

    val remote = remoteAddress.toString

    private val broadcaster = system.actorSelection(Props[MyActor].withDeploy(Deploy(scope = RemoteScope(remoteAddress))), name = "joe")

    def shutdown() = system.shutdown

    def send = {
      val c = system.actorSelection("akka.tcp://testSystem@127.0.0.1:2552/user/joe")
      c ! "simple message"
    }

  }

Client Config:

   akka {
 #log-config-on-start = on
 stdout-loglevel = "DEBUG"
 loglevel = "DEBUG"
 actor {
     provider = "akka.remote.RemoteActorRefProvider"
 }
 remote {
   enabled-transports = ["akka.remote.netty.tcp"]
   log-sent-messages = on
   log-received-messages = on
   netty.tcp {
         hostname = "127.0.0.1"
         port = 0
   }
 }
}

I start the server and then run the client, here is what I think is the relevant error message:

[INFO] [04/04/2014 09:32:09.631] [testSystem-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-17] [akka://testSystem/user/joe] Message [java.lang.String] from Actor[akka://testSystem/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://testSystem/user/joe] was not delivered. [1] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.

I've also tried to create remote actors through my configuration file with similar results. Any idea appreciated! I'm not sure if this matters but I'm running this code through my IDE.

Answer 1

You should use actorOf to create actors instead of actorSelection.

val ref = system.actorOf(
            Props[SampleActor].withDeploy(
                Deploy(scope = RemoteScope(address))))

See Programmatic Remote Deployment