Is it safe to use async/await inside akka.net actor

Question

In the following code, I am using the syntactic sugar provided by .net, the async/await approach, but read that this is not a good way of handling asynchronous operations within akka, and I should rather use PipeTo().

public class AggregatorActor : ActorBase, IWithUnboundedStash
{
    #region Constructor
    public AggregatorActor(IActorSystemSettings settings, IAccountComponent component, LogSettings logSettings) : base(settings, logSettings)
    {
        _accountComponent = component;
        _settings = settings;
    }
    #endregion

    #region Public Methods

    public override void Listening()
    {

        ReceiveAsync<ProfilerMessages.ProfilerBase>(async x => await HandleMessage(x));
        ReceiveAsync<ProfilerMessages.TimeElasped>(async x => await HandleMessage(x));
    }
    public override async Task HandleMessage(object msg)
    {
        msg.Match().With<ProfilerMessages.GetSummary>(async x =>
        {
            _sender = Context.Sender;
            //Become busy. Stash
            Become(Busy);

            //Handle different request
            await HandleSummaryRequest(x.UserId, x.CasinoId, x.GamingServerId, x.AccountNumber, x.GroupName);
        });
        msg.Match().With<ProfilerMessages.RecurringCheck>(x =>
        {
            _logger.Info("Recurring Message");
            if (IsAllResponsesReceived())
            {
                BeginAggregate();
            }
        });
        msg.Match().With<ProfilerMessages.TimeElasped>(x =>
        {
            _logger.Info("Time Elapsed");
            BeginAggregate();
        });
    }
    private async Task HandleSummaryRequest(int userId, int casinoId, int gsid, string accountNumber, string groupName)
    {
        try
        {
            var accountMsg = new AccountMessages.GetAggregatedData(userId, accountNumber, casinoId, gsid);
            //AskPattern.AskAsync<AccountMessages.AccountResponseAll>(Context.Self, _accountActor, accountMsg, _settings.NumberOfMilliSecondsToWaitForResponse, (x) => { return x; });
            _accountActor.Tell(accountMsg);

            var contactMsg = new ContactMessages.GetAggregatedContactDetails(userId);
            //AskPattern.AskAsync<Messages.ContactMessages.ContactResponse>(Context.Self, _contactActor, contactMsg, _settings.NumberOfMilliSecondsToWaitForResponse, (x) => { return x; });
            _contactActor.Tell(contactMsg);

            var analyticMsg = new AnalyticsMessages.GetAggregatedAnalytics(userId, casinoId, gsid);
            //AskPattern.AskAsync<Messages.AnalyticsMessages.AnalyticsResponse>(Context.Self, _analyticsActor, analyticMsg, _settings.NumberOfMilliSecondsToWaitForResponse, (x) => { return x; });
            _analyticsActor.Tell(analyticMsg);

            var financialMsg = new FinancialMessages.GetAggregatedFinancialDetails(userId.ToString());
            //AskPattern.AskAsync<Messages.FinancialMessages.FinancialResponse>(Context.Self, _financialActor, financialMsg, _settings.NumberOfMilliSecondsToWaitForResponse, (x) => { return x; });
            _financialActor.Tell(financialMsg);

            var verificationMsg = VerificationMessages.GetAggregatedVerification.Instance(groupName, casinoId.ToString(), userId.ToString(), gsid);
            _verificationActor.Tell(verificationMsg);

            var riskMessage = RiskMessages.GeAggregatedRiskDetails.Instance(userId, accountNumber, groupName, casinoId, gsid);
            _riskActor.Tell(riskMessage);

            _cancelable = Context.System.Scheduler.ScheduleTellOnceCancelable(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(_settings.AggregatorTimeOut), Self, Messages.ProfilerMessages.TimeElasped.Instance(), Self);
            _cancelRecurring = Context.System.Scheduler.ScheduleTellRepeatedlyCancelable(_settings.RecurringResponseCheck, _settings.RecurringResponseCheck, Self, Messages.ProfilerMessages.RecurringCheck.Instance(), Self);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            ExceptionHandler(ex);
        }
    }
    #endregion
}

As you can see in the example code, I am making use of async/await, and using the ReceiveAsync() method procided by Akka.net.

What is the purpose of ReceiveAsync(), if we cannot use async/await within an actor?

Answer 1

You can use async/await within an actor, however this requires a little bit of orchestration necessary to suspend/resume actor's mailbox until the the asynchronous task completes. This makes actor non-reentrant, which means that it will not pick any new messages, until the current task is finished. To make use of async/await within an actor you can either:

1. Use ReceiveAsync which can take async handlers.
2. Wrapping your async method call with ActorTaskScheduler.RunTask. This is usually useful in context of actor lifecycle methods (like PreStart/PostStop).

Keep in mind that this will work if a default actor message dispatcher is used, but it's not guaranteed to work, if an actor is configured to use different types of dispatchers.

Also there is a performance downside associated with using async/await inside actors, which is related to suspend/resume mechanics and lack of reentrancy of your actors. In many business cases it's not really a problem, but can sometimes be an issue in high-performance/low-latency workflows.