Azure Logic App, Cant get data from CreateFile Function - azure

Question

So I've noticed a strange behavior which I would like to share and see if anyone has had the similar problem.
We are using on Prem solution where we pickup a file or a http event request, map it to an outgoing xml xsd/schema and then create the file later on prem.
The problem was that the system where we save the file does not cooperate so good with the logic app, the logic app failes sometime because the system takes the file before the logic app can finish writing the full content.
The system receiving the files only read .xml files, so we though we should first rename the files to tmp, let logic app create the files and then rename them.
This solution sounded quite simple before we started actually applying it to the logic app.
If we take FileSystem function which has Rename File function and use the parameters “Name” from the create file on prem
{
"statusCode": 404,
"message": "Resource not found"
}
We get the message 404 that the resource is not found, now this complicates a lot of things, I’ve checked the privileges on the account that should not be an issue.
What we also have tried is listing all files in the folder, creating a foreach and then adding a rule and the Rename File function. This makes it work but the logic app does not cope well with receiving a lof of files at ones with that solution.
But the Rename Files works when it’s in a foreach loop and we extract the file names in a list from root folder or normal folder.
But why does it not work with just using the Rename Function? Is this perhaps an azure function bug in the Logic app Rename File Function?

Answer 1

So after discussing with Microsoft support on Azure they have actually confirmed that there is a bug with the “Create File” function.
It looks like all the data and information is actually lost during that functions, the support technicians do not know why that is happening but they have had similar cases which people have reported.
I have not stumbled across any of those posts, but I will post how we solved the problem with a work around.
FYI, The support team has taken the case further so that the developers at azure should look into it, because it’s not just “name” tag which is lost from Create a File, ( it’s all valuable options are actually lost ).
So first we initialize a variable and then actually set the variable name with two steps before we create the file:
The name is set with a temp name and a GUID.
Next step is creating the file with the temp-name used in function “Set Variable Temp FileName”
And on the Rename File function we use the Path from where we store the temp file and add \”FILENAME”
And add the “New Name” which we want to use.
This proved to work but is a workaround, support confirmed that you should be able to just use the “RenameFile” after creating the file with a temp name and changing it to the desired name.
But since Create a File does not send or pass any information at all from this list we have to initialize Variables to make it work.
If anyone has stumbled on the same problem where the Backend system reads the files before they are managed to be created by the logic app and you need some workaround this worked good for me.
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

We recently had the same issue; and the workaround of renaming the file also failed.
The cause seems to be that the Azure On Prem Gateway creates a file (or renames a file), then releases its lock, before checking that the file exists. In the gap between releasing the lock and checking that the file exists, the file may be picked up (deleted) thus causing LogicApps to think the step failed (reporting a 404 error), and thus confusion.
Our workaround was to create a Windows service which we hosted on the file servers (so they'd be able to respond to file changes before anything else on the network). This service has a configuration file which accepts a list of paths and file filters, and it uses the FileSystemWatcher to monitor for new files, or renamed files. When it detects a match it takes out a read lock on the file. This ensure it's not blocked by anything writing to the file (i.e. so it doesn't have to wait for the On Prem Gateway's write aciton to complete before obtaining its own lock), but whilst our service holds its lock the file can't be deleted (so the consumer can't remove the file / buying time for the On Prem Gateway to perform it's post-write read and report success). Our service releases its own lock after a defined period (we've gone with 30 seconds, though you could likely get away with much less). At that point, the consumer can successfully consume the file.
Basic code for the file watch & locking logic below:
sing System;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace AzureFileGatewayHelper
{
public class Interceptor: IDisposable
{
object lockable = new object();
bool disposed = false;
readonly FileSystemWatcher watcher;
readonly int lockTimeInMS;
public Interceptor(string path, string filter, int lockTimeInSeconds)
{
lockTimeInMS = lockTimeInSeconds * 1000;
watcher = new FileSystemWatcher();
watcher.Path = path;
watcher.Filter = filter;
watcher.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.LastAccess
| NotifyFilters.LastWrite
| NotifyFilters.FileName
| NotifyFilters.DirectoryName;
watcher.Created += OnIncercept;
watcher.Renamed += OnIncercept;
}
public Interceptor(InterceptorConfigElement config) : this(config.Path, config.Filter, config.TimeToLockInSeconds) { Debug.WriteLine($"Loaded config ${config.Key}: Path: '${config.Path}'; Filter: '${config.Filter}'; LockTime: : '${config.TimeToLockInSeconds}'."); }
public void Start()
{
watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
}
public void Stop()
{
if (watcher != null)
watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = false;
}
private async void OnIncercept(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
using (var fs = new FileStream(e.FullPath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
Debug.WriteLine($"Locked: {e.FullPath} {e.ChangeType}");
await Task.Delay(lockTimeInMS);
}
Debug.WriteLine($"Unlocked {e.FullPath} {e.ChangeType}");
}
public void Dispose()
{
if (disposed) return;
lock (lockable)
{
if (disposed) return;
Stop();
watcher?.Dispose();
disposed = true;
}
}
}
}