OakLeaf Systems: Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (December 2009) StartHere.cmd Utility Throws Exceptions

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (December 2009) StartHere.cmd Utility Throws Exceptions

Update 1/19/2009: Yi-Lun Luo of the SQL Azure support team has reproduced the problem and provides a temporary workaround in my Windows Azure Platform Training Kit Configuration Wizard Requires Downloading BIDS and SSIS 2008 if 2008 R2 Versions Are Installed thread of the Windows Azure forum. See details below or in the thread.

In earlier versions of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit, navigating to the \WindowsAzurePlatformKit\Demos\MovingDataUsingSSIS folder and double-clicking the StartHere.cmd icon opened the Configuration Wizard to test for the existence of the demo’s prerequisites.

In the December 2009 version, \WindowsAzurePlatformKit\Demos\SQLAzureMovingDataUsingSSIS\StartHere.cmd throws a Windows cannot find '..\..\..\Packages\WAZplatTrainingKit\Assets\DependencyChecker\ConfigurationWizard.exe' exception, which is not surprising because ConfigurationWizard.exe is in the \WindowsAzurePlatformKit\Demos\Assets\DependencyChecker folder:

When run from that location, ConfigurationWizard.exe opens a Select the Dependencies Configuration File dialog with a Dependency Configuration File (*.xml) filespec. There are no *.xml files in the folder, but there is a ConfigurationWizard.exe.config file. Making a copy and renaming it DependencyCheckerConfiguration.xml results in an Invalid configuration file exception, as expected.

A search of \WindowsAzurePlatformKit shows a Dependencies.xml file, together with another copy of ConfigurationWizard.exe in the \WindowsAzurePlatformKit\Demos\SQLAzureMovingDataUsingSSIS\scripts folder. Executing StartHere.cmd in this location works as expected:

See my December 2009 Windows Azure Platform Training Kit's StartHere.cmd and ConfigurationWizard.exe Throw Exceptions thread of 1/11/2010 in the Windows Azure forum.

Downloading SQL Server 2008 R2 Express with tools would eliminate the need for a separate installation of SSMS 2008 R2.

In addition to installing Power Shell Execution Policy, ConfigWiz wants SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Studio (SSBIDS) as well as SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS), even if you have the SQL Server 2008 R2 versions installed:

The download links require you to register for a 1-GB download of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Evaluation Edition, which has a lifespan of six months. I’m in the process of testing the demo with the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of BIDS and SSIS. I’ll update the post when my test is complete.

See my Windows Azure Platform Training Kit Configuration Wizard Requires Downloading BIDS and SSIS 2008 if 2008 R2 Versions Are Installed thread of 1/11/2010 in the Windows Azure forum.

Conclusion:

Providing an incomplete version of the ConfigurationChecker in the higher-level \WindowsAzurePlatformKit\Demos\SQLAzureMovingDataUsingSSIS\ folder is an EPIC FAIL that cost me two hours of needless searching this morning.

Requiring users of SQL Server 2008 R2 CTPs to download and install separate versions of BIDS and SSIS is also a bummer.

I'm surprised that Google or Bing searches don't return hits for this problem. Is no one using the December 2009 release?

Workaround 1/19/2009: From Microsoft’s Yi-Lun Luo:

Hello, I've verified the PowerShell scripts are checking for the orig[i]nal version of SQL Server 2008, not R2. It is searching HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for the display name "SQL Server 2008 Integration Services", but R2's display name is "SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services". That's why it fails. The simplest workaround is to bypass SQL Server checking (if you're sure you've installed the necessary components). To do so, find the Dependencies.xml file for the particular lab, find the dependency checking, and set either enabled to false, or optional to true.

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