How to start Azure Storage Emulator from within a

Question

I have some unit tests that use Azure Storage. When running these locally, I want them to use the Azure Storage emulator which is part of the Azure SDK v1.5. If the emulator isn't running, I want it to be started.

To start the emulator from the command line, I can use this:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Azure SDK\v1.5\bin\csrun" /devstore

This works fine.

When I try to start it using this C# code, it crashes:

using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;
...
ProcessStartInfo processToStart = new ProcessStartInfo() 
{   
    FileName = Path.Combine(SDKDirectory, "csrun"),
    Arguments = "/devstore"
};
Process.Start(processToStart);

I've tried fiddling with a number of ProcessStartInfo settings, but nothing seems to work. Is anybody else having this problem?

I've checked the Application Event Log and found the following two entries:

Event ID: 1023 .NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.5446 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (000007FEF46B40D2) (80131506)

Event ID: 1000 Faulting application name: DSService.exe, version: 6.0.6002.18312, time stamp: 0x4e5d8cf3 Faulting module name: mscorwks.dll, version: 2.0.50727.5446, time stamp: 0x4d8cdb54 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x00000000001de8d4 Faulting process id: 0x%9 Faulting application start time: 0x%10 Faulting application path: %11 Faulting module path: %12 Report Id: %13

Answer 1

I uninstalled all of the Windows Azure bits:

• WA SDK v1.5.20830.1814
• WA Tools for Visual Studio: v1.5.40909.1602
• WA AppFabric: v1.5.37
• WA AppFabric: v2.0.224

Then, I downloaded and installed everything using the unified installer. Everything came back except the AppFabric v2. All the version numbers are the same. Reran my tests and still having a problem.

And then...(this is weird)...it would work every now and then. Rebooted the machine and now it works. Have shutdown and rebooted a number of times now...and it just works. (sigh)

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback and/or ideas!

The final code is:

    static void StartAzureStorageEmulator()
    {
        ProcessStartInfo processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo()
        {
            FileName = Path.Combine(SDKDirectory, "csrun.exe"),
            Arguments = "/devstore",
        };
        using (Process process = Process.Start(processStartInfo))
        {
            process.WaitForExit();
        }
    }

Answer 2

Here we go: Pass the string "start" to the method ExecuteWAStorageEmulator(). The NUnit.Framework is used for the Assert only.

using System.Diagnostics;
using NUnit.Framework;

private static void ExecuteWAStorageEmulator(string argument)
{
    var start = new ProcessStartInfo
    {
        Arguments = argument,
        FileName = @"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Azure\Storage Emulator\WAStorageEmulator.exe"
    };
    var exitCode = ExecuteProcess(start);
    Assert.AreEqual(exitCode, 0, "Error {0} executing {1} {2}", exitCode, start.FileName, start.Arguments);
}

private static int ExecuteProcess(ProcessStartInfo start)
{
    int exitCode;
    using (var proc = new Process { StartInfo = start })
    {
        proc.Start();
        proc.WaitForExit();
        exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
    }
    return exitCode;
}

See also my new self-answered question

Answer 3

For Windows Azure Storage Emulator v5.2, the following helper class can be used to start the emulator:

using System.Diagnostics;

public static class StorageEmulatorHelper {
    /* Usage:
     * ======
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe init            : Initialize the emulator database and configuration.
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe start           : Start the emulator.
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe stop            : Stop the emulator.
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe status          : Get current emulator status.
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe clear           : Delete all data in the emulator.
       AzureStorageEmulator.exe help [command]  : Show general or command-specific help.
     */
    public enum StorageEmulatorCommand {
        Init,
        Start,
        Stop,
        Status,
        Clear
    }

    public static int StartStorageEmulator() {
        return ExecuteStorageEmulatorCommand(StorageEmulatorCommand.Start);
    }

    public static int StopStorageEmulator() {
        return ExecuteStorageEmulatorCommand(StorageEmulatorCommand.Stop);
    }

    public static int ExecuteStorageEmulatorCommand(StorageEmulatorCommand command) {
        var start = new ProcessStartInfo {
            Arguments = command.ToString(),
            FileName = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe"
        };
        var exitCode = executeProcess(start);
        return exitCode;
    }

    private static int executeProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo) {
        int exitCode = -1;
        try {
            using (var proc = new Process {StartInfo = startInfo}) {
                proc.Start();
                proc.WaitForExit();
                exitCode = proc.ExitCode;
            }
        }
        catch {
            //
        }
        return exitCode;
    }
}

[Thanks to huha for the boilerplate code to execute a shell command.]

Answer 4

We are running into the same issue. We have the concept of a "smoke test" which runs between groups of tests, and which ensure the environment is in a good state before the next group starts. We have a .cmd file that kicks off the smoke tests, and it works just fine starting the devfabric emulator, but the devstore emulator only runs as long as the .cmd process runs.

Apparently the implementation of the DSServiceSQL.exe is different than DFService.exe. DFService seems to run like a windows service - kick it off, and it keeps running. DSServiceSQL dies as soon as the process that started it dies.