Visual Studio Service Bus Explorer versus Standalone Service Bus Explorer

Visual Studio Service Bus Explorer versus Standalone Service Bus Explorer

In a previous post I explored a new feature of the Windows Azure SDK 1.7. in Visual Studio, the Service Bus Explorer. I demonstrated the capabilities of this feature in Visual Studio, creating new queues, topics, subscriptions and rules. The same capabilities are present in the Service Bus Standalone tool (Windows Forms Application) built by Paolo Salvatori.

INTRODUCTION

The stand alone tool can be download from MSDN Code Gallery. You can then open the compressed file. Subsequently open the solution in Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 RC. Build and run it. To use the tool you need to connect to the Service Bus. In menu bar you select Menu -> Connect. In dialog that pops up you fill in the details.

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You click Ok an connection with the Service Bus will be made.

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You can now start creating and using queues, topics and subscriptions similar as with explorer in Visual Studio. However, the user experience is different as the Standalone version offers more functions when you right click the queues, topics, and subscriptions.

TESTING QUEUES CAPABILITY

To test one of the capabilities I started with creating a Queue. Select Queues and then right click. Select Create Queue.

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Fill in the details (in this case only name) and click Create. As soon as you click Create you see in the Log what happens on Service Bus.

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If you look at log closely you see that I made an error the first time calling the Queue MySecond Queue (with space) in the name. All the actions are logged. Next I select my created Queue and right clicked. Select Send Messages. A dialog pops up and I can fill in details, create a custom message, load message, and so.

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When I click Start a message will be send.Again you will see this in the log.

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When I refresh MySecondQueue I can see the message count is 3, and spot other property values.

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If I right click this Queue and select Receive All Messages than all messages from the queue will be received and that is visible in the log.

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If you refresh the Queue again you will see that the message count has dropped and some other values have changed too.

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CONCLUSION

In my short survey/exploration I can conclude that the standalone Service Bus Explorer offers more capabilities than the one built in Visual Studio. Second the stand alone offers better User Experience in opinion. Last but not least the stand alone brings more flexibility and control. I have not finished yet with my exploration and testing the stand alone version of the Service Bus Explorer. However, I can recommend you using this tool over the built in Visual Studio one. In case you want to control the Service Bus from Visual Studio only than you have to live with limitations it has compared to the Stand alone version. I must say I am impressed and I wondered why I did not look at this tool before.

Cheers,

– Steef-Jan

SQL Server VC++ Installation voes

I’ve installed SQL Server any number of times over any number of versions, but I have never had this problem before, and I am not sure why I got it now. However, since searching the web gave me very little in the way of a direct, working, solution I thought I’d write mine down. I was using Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter edition, SP1, patched to May 2012 standard, aka The Windows Server 2008 R2 image available in the Windows Azure Virtual Machine preview and installing SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer edition onto it. Now, I don’t think they are related, but I am not ruling it out that there is an issue in some way with that image. Since I am not doing anything but starting the image and running the installation which I have previous downloaded and un-packed from its ISO on a separately attached data drive.

The error I am getting is this:

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1).

I tried several times, and often this error would occur during install, but on the fifth (or so) attempt the install was successful and all looked to have installed fine, until I tried opening SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). And got the exception there instead.

Now following the instructions in the exception text I did two thing, first – check the event log, where I found this:

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax.

Now looking through the event log I could see that I got this error for a number of other applications and services as well, and that ssms wasn’t alone in this.

Next, I ran sxstrace, ie (from an elevated command prompt):

sxstrace trace -logfile:trace.log

The I tried to start ssms to produce the error, which it did. So then I ran:

sxstrace parse -logfile:trace.log -outfile:trace.txt

(More on the sxstrace tool here).

The trace file, among other things, gave me this (similar) information:

INFO: Parsing Manifest File C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest.
    INFO: Manifest Definition Identity is (null).
    ERROR: Line 0: XML Syntax error.
ERROR: Activation Context generation failed.

This file is from the Visual Studio C++ 2005 Service Pack (SP) 1 Redistributable Package. So I proceeded to download and install both the original 2005 Redistributable (x86, x64) and SP1 (x86, x64), hoping that would fix the problem and correct the manifest file. Not so for me.

I still wanted to see if the error could be fixed by “normal” procedures so I ran System File Checker (SFC). It produced the following result:

sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of th
em.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

The log file contain this (snipped somewhat for readability):

Manifest hash for component [ml:280{140},l:152{76}]"x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1" does not match expected value.
Expected:{l:32 b:43e8b1d9f404eb67105ab15282fd01f5bf4cd30f7f0c5d1250d11e9384ae9cc5}
Found:{l:32 b:d47fec989a9ad0351d4effd5984343181925f15919245da2a0609e1c5d68f280}.
Unable to load manifest for component [ml:280{140},l:152{76}]"x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1"
[SR] Cannot verify component files for Microsoft.VC80.ATL, Version = 8.0.50727.4053, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL (0), Culture neutral, VersionScope neutral, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b}, Type = [l:10{5}]"win32", TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral, manifest is damaged (TRUE)

At this point I gave up on any form of allowing installers or the system to fix the problem for me and went at the file myself. Now the file is readable (although empty), but I cannot edit it (even if I am an administrator). Only SYSTEM has access to the file. So to be able to edit it I must first take ownership of it and grant ACLs:

>takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.1833_none_d1c5318643596706.manifest

SUCCESS: The file (or folder): "C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.1833_none_d1c5318643596706.manifest" now owned by user "JEHBTS5\Administrator".

>icacls C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.1833_none_d1c5318643596706.manifest /grant administrators:F
processed file: C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.1833_none_d1c5318643596706.manifest
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

>takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest

SUCCESS: The file (or folder): "C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest" now owned by user "JEHBTS5\Administrator".

>icacls C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest /grant administrators:F
processed file: C:\Windows\winsxs\Manifests\x86_microsoft.vc80.atl_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4053_none_d1c738ec43578ea1.manifest
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

Now I can edit the file. As for the content I simply took it of another machine in which it existed and did not seem to have any issues. The content is this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!-- Copyright %u00a9 1981-2001 Microsoft Corporation -->
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <noInheritable/>
    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC80.ATL" version="8.0.50727.4053" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"/>
    <file name="ATL80.dll" hash="6d7ce37b5753aa3f8b6c2c8170011b000bbed2e9" hashalg="SHA1"/>
</assembly>

After saving the file I am (at least seemingly to this point) rid of the problems.
Blog Post by: Johan Hedberg

Microsoft Cloud Day – the ups and downs

The term ’cloud’ can sometimes obscure the obvious. Today’s Microsoft Cloud Day conference in
London provided a good example. Scott
Guthrie was halfway through what was an excellent keynote when he lost network connectivity. This proved very disruptive to his
presentation which centred on a series of demonstrations of the Azure platform
in action. Great efforts were made to find
a solution, but no quick fix presented itself.
The venue’s IT facilities were dreadful – no WiFi, poor 3G reception
(forget 4Gthis is the UK) and, unbelievably, no-one on hand from the venue staff
to help with infrastructure issues.
Eventually, after an unscheduled break, a solution was found and Scott
managed to complete his demonstrations.
Further connectivity issues occurred during the day.

I can say that the cause was prosaic. A member of the venue staff had interfered
with a patch board and inadvertently disconnected Scott Guthrie’s machine from
the network by pulling out a cable.

I need to state the obvious here. If your PC is disconnected from the network it
can’t communicate with other systems. This
could include a machine under someone’s desk, a mail server located down the
hall, a server in the local data centre, an Internet search engine or even,
heaven forbid, a role running on Azure.

Inadvertently disconnecting a PC from the network does not
imply a fundamental problem with the cloud or any specific cloud platform. Some of the tweeted comments I’ve seen today
are analogous to suggesting that, if you accidently unplug your microwave from
the mains, this suggests some fundamental flaw with the electricity supply to
your house. This is poor reasoning, to
say the least.

As far as the conference was concerned, the connectivity
issue in the keynote, coupled with some later problems in a couple of presentations,
served to exaggerate the perception of poor organisation. Software problems encountered before the
conference prevented the correct set-up of a smartphone app intended to convey
agenda information to attendees.
Although some information was available via this app, the organisers
decided to print out an agenda at the last moment. Unfortunately, the agenda sheet did not
convey enough information, and attendees were forced to approach conference
staff through the day to clarify locations of the various presentations.

Despite these problems, the overwhelming feedback from conference
attendees was very positive. There was a
real sense of excitement in the morning keynote. For many, this was their first sight of new
Azure features delivered in the ’spring’ release. The most common reaction I heard was
amazement and appreciation that Azure’s new IaaS features deliver built-in
template support for several flavours of Linux from day one. This coupled with open source SDKs and several
presentations on Azure’s support for Java, node.js, PHP, MongoDB and Hadoop
served to communicate that the Azure platform is maturing quickly. The new virtual network capabilities also
surprised many attendees, and the much improved portal experience went down
very well.

So, despite some very irritating and disruptive
problems, the event served its purpose well, communicating the breadth and
depth of the newly upgraded Azure platform.
I enjoyed the day very much.

Deploying the Need Facebook canvas app. to Windows Azure Web Sites |Déploiement de l’appli. canvas Facebook dans les Web Sites Windows Azure

With the new release of Windows Azure Web Sites in June 2012, it is now possible to have free ASP.NET hosting for simple usage. Avec la sortie des sites Web Windows Azure en Juin 2012, il est maintenant possible d’avoir de l’h%u00e9bergement gratuit d’ASP.NET pour une utilisation simple.
This blog post explains how to deploy Need application to Windows Azure Web Sites instead of Cloud Services. Ce billet explique comment d%u00e9ployer l’application Need vers les sites Web Windows Azure plut%u00f4t que dans les “Cloud Services”.
You may find information about that new June 2012 Windows Azure release in Episode 83 of the Cloud Cover Show, or in French in Episode 8 of “Le bulletin Azure”. Vous trouverez des informations sur cette nouvelle version Windows Azure de juin 2012 dans l’Le Bulletin Azure, %u00e9pisode 8, ou en anglais dans l’%u00e9pisode 83 de “The Cloud Cover Show”.

 

In a previous post, I explained what the sample app Need is, and how to deploy it to Windows Azure Cloud Services. Prior to June 7th 2012, Cloud Services were named “hosted services” and it was the unique way to deploy to Windows Azure. Dans un billet pr%u00e9c%u00e9dent, j’ai expliqu%u00e9 ce qu’%u00e9tait l’application Need, et comment la d%u00e9ployer dans les “Cloud Services” Windows Azure. Avant le 7 juin 2012, les “Cloud Services” Windows Azure s’appelaient “hosted services” et %u00e9tait l’unique mode de d%u00e9ploiement Windows Azure.
As Need app. may be deployed many times for small communities inside Facebook, it makes sense to use Windows Azure Web Sites for the following reasons:
– It is free for low usage
– It can scale when usage grows
Comme l’appli. Need peut %u00eatre d%u00e9ploy%u00e9 un certain nombre de fois pour des petites communaut%u00e9s au sein de Facebook, cela peut avoir du sens d’utiliser des sites Web Windows Azure pour les raisons suivantes:
– c’est gratuit pour un usage faible
– cela peut monter en charge en fonction des besoins
Another interesting thing about Windows Azure Web Sites and Facebook canvas applications is that an SSL certificate is provided. Un autre aspect int%u00e9ressant des sites Web Windows Azure dans le cadre d’applications canvas Facebook est qu’un certificat SSL est fourni.
Currently, Windows Azure Web Sites don’t provide the ability to use your own SSL certificate on your own domain name (you can provide your own domain name in reserved mode). With Facebook canvas applications, this is not an issue as end users won’t use directly the web site’s URL; they will see apps.facebook.com/<app namespace>.
In the following screen shot, user sees https://apps.facebook.com/need-sample/ while the canvas app is at https://need.azurewebsites.net.
Actuellement, les sites Web Windows Azure ne proposent pas la possibilit%u00e9 d’utiliser son propre certificat SSL sur son propre domaine (on peut tout de m%u00eame utiliser son propre nom de domaine en mode r%u00e9serv%u00e9). Avec les applications canvas Facebook, cela n’est pas un probl%u00e8me du tout puis que les utilisateurs finaux ne vont pas utiliser l’URL du site Web directement; ils vont voir apps.facebook.com/<espace de noms de l’appli>. Dans la copie d’%u00e9cran suivante, l’utilisateur voit https://apps.facebook.com/need-sample/ et l’appli canvas est %u00e0 https://need.azurewebsites.net

 

So, le’t’s publish the App to Windows Azure Web Sites. Publions donc l’appli vers les sites Web Windows Azure.

 

First step is to create a new Web Site with a Windows Azure SQL Database (was SQL Azure). La premi%u00e8re %u00e9tape est de cr%u00e9er un site Web avec une base de donn%u00e9es SQL Windows Azure (pr%u00e9c%u00e9demment SQL Azure).

Then you can go to the newly created web site administration in the portal to download a publish settings file: Puis on peut aller vers l’administration du nouveau site Web ainsi cr%u00e9%u00e9 pour t%u00e9l%u00e9charger le fichier des param%u00e8tres de publication:

store the file on your local disk enregistrer le fichier sur le disque local
From Visual Studio, right click on the Web Site project (the Azure Cloud Service deployment project is useless for Azure Web Sites) and choose Publish. Depuis Visual Studio, cliquer droit sur le projet Web (le projet de d%u00e9ploiement Windows Azure vers les “cloud services” est inutile pour le d%u00e9ploiement vers les sites Web Windows Azure) et choisir “Publish”.

Import the file you just downloaded  
set the connection string for NeedContext from the drop down box: choisir la cha%u00eene de connexion pour NeedContext depuis le liste combin%u00e9e d%u00e9roulante:
Then publish on next page. Start Preview button will optionally show the files that needs to be updated when publishing for the n-th time. Puis publier sur la page d’apr%u00e8s. Le bouton “Start Preview” montre optionellement les fichiers qui ont besoin d’%u00eatre remplac%u00e9s %u00e0 destination quand on publie pour la n-i%u00e8me fois.
This will show the Web Site in the browser. An error like this shows up in Windows Azure Web Sites: Cela va montrer le site Web dans le navigateur. Une erreur telle que celle-ci appara%u00eet avec les Sites Web Windows Azure:

Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime, Version=1.7.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

This is because the Need application uses Windows Azure API that are not deployed by default in Azure Web Sites. They are deployed by default in Windows Azure Cloud Services so Visual Studio adds the reference with the copy local option set to false. Cela vient du fait que l’appli Need utilise les API Windows Azure qui ne sont pas d%u00e9ploy%u00e9es par d%u00e9faut dans les sites Web Windows Azure. Elles sont d%u00e9ploy%u00e9s par d%u00e9faut dans les “Cloud Services” Windows Azure et Visual Studio ajoute donc la r%u00e9f%u00e9rence avec l’option “copy local” %u00e0 “false”.
The copy local option, when set to true, includes the DLL to the deployment destination . So let’s set it to true for the two assemblies we need. L’option “copy local”, quand mise %u00e0 “true”, inclut les DLL dans la destination du d%u00e9ploiement.Positionnons donc cette valeur %u00e0 “true” pour les deux assemblys dont nous avons besoin.
Then you just have to deploy again to Windows Azure Web Sites and you’ll have the site running. Puis il suffit de red%u00e9ployer vers les sites Web Windows Azure et le site fonctionnera.
Another important step is to change the parameters of the App in Facebook so that the canvas is at <yourapp>.azurewebsites.net: Une %u00e9tape importante est de changer les param%u00e8tres de l’appli Facebook de fa%u00e7on %u00e0 ce que l’appli Canvas soit %u00e0 <votreappli>.azurewebsites.net

 

An instance of the app is deployed on a Windows Azure Web Site and you can try it. Just connect with you Facebook account and go to the following URL: Une instance de l’appli est d%u00e9ploy%u00e9e sur un site Web Windows Azure et vous pouvez l’essayer. Connectez-vous simplement %u00e0 Facebook avec votre compte et allez %u00e0 l’URL suivante:

https://apps.facebook.com/need-sample/

Once you’ve accepted the App, the App must accept you. As it is deployed in demo mode, you just have to enter the demo invitation code which is the following: Une fois que vous avez accept%u00e9 l’appli, l’appli doit vous accepter. Comme elle est d%u00e9ploy%u00e9e en mode d%u00e9mo, vous avez juste %u00e0 entrer le code d’invitation qui est le suivant:

data-may-be-deleted

 

Benjamin

Blog Post by: Benjamin GUINEBERTIERE

FAST Search 2010: Multi-Valued Crawled Property Only Returns Single Values In Search Results

Overview
In a recent client solution we were utilizing a multi-valued Managed Metadata field to classify documents in a organizational taxonomy.  Our search and navigation relied on being able to retrieve documents by supplying any one of the possibly multiple values stored in the Managed Metadata field. 
We determined however, that even though many documents had […]
Blog Post by: Michael Gerety

Solution: FAST Search Crawls Stop Working Unexpectedly

Problem Description
Crawls in our Fast Search content all of the sudden started “hanging”, and reporting reporting 0 successful crawls, with some errors. 

We were seeing no errors to speak of in the event logs or in the ULS logs on either SharePoint server, and the FAST Server was reporting no errors.
Expired Self Signed Certificate for […]
Blog Post by: Michael Gerety

New Extended Australian Visa needed for Americans

After spending almost 2 weeks in the US and watching a bit of American TV, I have decided that Australia should extend and new longer term visitor visa to Americans between now and the 6th of November. The grounds for the new visa should be cruel and unusual punishment, based on the fact that they will have do endure a proliferation of SPA (senseless political advertising) between now and the presidential election on the 6th of November.

So all Australian show compassion for your American friends and relatives that have to endure SPA in the coming months.

Note to current Australian Liberal and National Party politician, quit acting like the election was called when labour won the election, note they were able to form government, you weren’t.

More …