Windows
Azure SDK CTP Release Notes
May 2009 CTP
Table
of Contents
This document contains the release notes for the Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of the Windows® Azure™ SDK.
The following software and configurations are required to install and use the Windows Azure SDK.
Please note that you must uninstall any previous versions of the Windows Azure SDK before installing the May 2009 CTP.
The SDK is available in a 64-bit version and a 32-bit version.
· The 64-bit (x64) version of the SDK requires a 64-bit version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2008.
· The 32-bit (x86) version of the SDK requires a 32-bit version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2008.
Note The 32-bit version of the SDK cannot be installed on a 64-bit operating system; running the SDK under Wow64 is not supported.
The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is required to install and run the SDK.
Depending on what kind of service you wish to build, you may wish to enable different IIS 7.0 components. Follow the appropriate set of instructions below to configure these components for your operating system.
1. From the Start menu, choose All Programs | Administrative Tools | Server Manager.
2. In Server Manager, under Features Summary, choose Add Features.
3. In the Add Features dialog, under .NET Framework 3.0 Features, select the .NET Framework 3.0. Under WCF Activation, select HTTP Activation. Click the Next button to install.
4. In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, verify that Web Server (IIS) appears in the list of available roles. If it does not, click Add Roles to install Internet Information Services.
5. In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, click Web Server (IIS).
6. In the Add Role Services dialog, expand Web Server, then Common HTTP Features. Select Static Content.
7. In the Add Role Services dialog, expand Web Server, then Application Development. Select ASP.NET.
8. Click the Next button to install.
1. From the Start menu, choose Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. Under Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, select Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation.
4. Under Internet Information Services, expand World Wide Web Services.
5. Under Application Development Features, select ASP.NET.
6. Under Common HTTP Features, choose Static Content.
7. Install the selected features.
1. From the Start menu, choose All Programs | Administrative Tools | Server Manager.
2. In Server Manager, under Features Summary, choose Add Features.
3. In the Add Features dialog, under .NET Framework 3.0 Features, select the .NET Framework 3.0. Under WCF Activation, select HTTP Activation. Click the Next button to install.
4. In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, verify that Web Server (IIS) appears in the list of available roles. If it does not, click Add Roles to install Internet Information Services.
5. In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, click Web Server (IIS).
6. In the Add Role Services dialog, expand Web Server, then Application Development. Select Static CGI.
7. Click the Next button to install.
1. From the Start menu, choose Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. Under Internet Information Services, expand World Wide Web Services.
4. Under Application Development Features, select CGI.
5. Install the selected features.
To use FastCGI on IIS in the development environment, you must install the following QFE:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967131
If you wish to use the IIS URL Rewrite module, you must install it and configure your rewrite rules. See URL Rewrite Module for more information.
To run the development storage services, you must have an installation of either SQL Express 2005 or SQL Express 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server.
By default development storage runs against an instance of SQL Express. To configure development storage to run against a local instance of SQL Server instead, call the DSInit tool with the /sqlInstance parameter, passing in the name of the target SQL Server instance. Use the name of the SQL Server instance without the server qualifier (e.g., MSSQL instead of .\MSSQL) to refer to a named instance. Use "." to denote an unnamed or default instance of SQL Server.
You can call dsInit /sqlInstance at any time to configure development storage to point to a different instance of SQL Server.
To build and run the CloudDrive sample, you must have PowerShell installed. Follow the appropriate set of instructions below to install PowerShell for your operating system.
Download and install PowerShell for Windows Vista.
1. From the Start menu, choose Programs | Administrative Tools | Server Manager.
2. In Server Manager, under Features Summary, choose Add Features.
3. In the Add Features dialog, select Windows PowerShell. Click the Next button.
4. Click the Install button to start the installation.
The May 2009 CTP includes the following improvements:
1. The Windows Azure SDK supports now Windows 7 RC, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 SP2.
2. The Windows Azure SDK offers improved support for the integration of development storage and the development environment with Visual Studio.
1. If you are running Windows 7, the Static Content setting in IIS 7.0 may not be enabled by default. Follow the instructions listed above for ASP.Net and WCF HTTP Activation to enable Static Content.
2. If you are running Windows 7, the CloudDrive sample may not work as expected. Operations performed against the BlobDrive portion of the sample fail during path verification due to differences in PowerShell on Windows 7.
3. The Windows Azure storage services now supports several new features, including versioning, copying blobs, retrieving a blob’s list of uncommitted blocks, and entity group transactions. These features are not currently available in the Windows Azure SDK development environment. Development storage does not support the new storage service features, nor does the StorageClient sample library.
4. Calling native code in a partial trust environment causes one or more exceptions. To resolve this issue, ignore the system error dialog; do not attempt to dismiss it. Delete the service deployment using the developer fabric user interface. Add the enableNativeCodeExcution attribute to the service definition file and redeploy the service.
5. When running against development storage, setting a blob’s metadata value to an empty string causes an authentication failure.
6. If a service name is too long, an error may result. To resolve this error, you can try shortening your assembly name, your service name, and/or your role name, as those are all components of the service name.
7. It’s currently not possible to attach to a debugger from the development fabric user interface on a 64-bit machine. Instead, you should use Visual Studio to attach to a role running in the development fabric.
8. In the ASP.NET Personal Web Site Starter Kit, the Download Resume button does not work. This button is also non-functioning in the Personal Web Site sample that ships with the Windows Azure SDK.
9. When using the installer to repair the installation, if development storage or the development fabric is running, then a Files in Use dialog box may be displayed. If the Files in Use dialog is empty, proceed through the repair process. The installer will try to stop the running processes. After the repair is complete, check the Task Manager to see if the following processes are running, and stop them if they are:
· DFAgent.exe
· DFMonitor.exe
· DFService.exe
· DFLoadBalancer.exe
· DevelopmentStorage.exe
10. A service that calls into the storage services may throw one or more exceptions if it is run before the development storage services have been started. To resolve this issue, ignore the system error dialog; do not attempt to dismiss it. Then start development storage.
11. Attempting to uninstall the Windows Azure SDK while the development fabric is running may throw System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'microsoft.servicehosting.tools.developmentfabric'.
12. If you are running SQL Express 2008 as the basis for development storage, you must explicitly add the user to the sysadmin group even if the user belongs to a Windows Administrator group.
13. The development storage service for Table Storage currently treats table names as case-sensitive. The Windows Azure Table Storage service treats table names as case-insensitive.