Azure DevOps Hosted Build Controller - Is the Azure Storage Emulator supported? - azure

Question

I'd like to run unit / integration tests that utilise the Azure Storage Emulator rather than real storage from a Azure DevOps build.
The emulator is installed on the Hosted Build Controller as part of the Azure SDK in its usual place (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe).
However the emulator is in the uninitialised state on the Build Controller. When trying to run the command Init from the command line, I get the following error:
This operation requires an interactive window station
Is there an known workaround for this or plans to support the emulator in Azure DevOps builds?

Answer 1

Despite all the answers here to the contrary, I've been running the Azure Storage Emulator on a VS2017 hosted build agent for over a year.
The trick is to initialise SQL LocalDB first (the emulator uses it), and then start the emulator. You can do this with a command line task that runs:
sqllocaldb create MSSQLLocalDB
sqllocaldb start MSSQLLocalDB
sqllocaldb info MSSQLLocalDB
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe" start

Answer 2

As already stated you can't run the Azure Storage Emulator. What you can run though is Azurite an open source alternative.
Please note: Azurite can emulate blobs, tables and queues. However I have only used the blob storage emulation in this way.
At the start of your build configuration add a nuget step that runs a custom nuget command install Azurite -version 2.2.2. Then add a command line step that runs start /b $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\Azurite.2.2.2\tools\blob.exe.
It runs on the same port as the Azure Storage Emulator so you can use the standard connection strings.

Answer 3

No, the Hosted Build Controller does not run in Interactive Mode, so the emulator won't work under the environment. See Q&A in Hosted build controller for XAML builds for details.
Q: Do you need to run your build service in interactive mode?
A: No. Then you can use the hosted build controller.
I recommend you setup on-premises build controller and run the build server in Interactive Mode. Refer to Setup Build Server and Setup Build Controller for details.

Answer 4

Seems like the answer is maybe from the Visual Studio Online side. There's a User Voice entry if anyone has similar issues.
Not really sure why the emulator doesn't have a non-interactive mode, personally I don't use it's UI 99% of the time. There's a general User Voice entry for making Azure Storage more unit testable.

Answer 5

If you want to do start the Azure Storage Emulator right in your integration test code in C#, you can put this into your test initialization (startup) code (the example is for xUnit):
[Collection("Database collection")]
public sealed class IntegrationTests
{
public IntegrationTests(DatabaseFixture fixture)
{
this.fixture = fixture;
}
[Fact]
public async Task TestMethod1()
{
// use fixture.Table to run tests on the Azure Storage
}
private readonly DatabaseFixture fixture;
}
public class DatabaseFixture : IDisposable
{
public DatabaseFixture()
{
StartProcess("SqlLocalDB.exe", "create MSSQLLocalDB");
StartProcess("SqlLocalDB.exe", "start MSSQLLocalDB");
StartProcess("SqlLocalDB.exe", "info MSSQLLocalDB");
StartProcess(EXE_PATH, "start");
var client = CloudStorageAccount.DevelopmentStorageAccount.CreateCloudTableClient();
Table = client.GetTableReference("tablename");
InitAsync().Wait();
}
public void Dispose()
{
Table.DeleteIfExistsAsync().Wait();
StartProcess(EXE_PATH, "stop");
}
private async Task InitAsync()
{
await Table.DeleteIfExistsAsync();
await Table.CreateAsync();
}
static void StartProcess(string path, string arguments, int waitTime = WAIT_FOR_EXIT) =>
Process.Start(path, arguments).WaitForExit(waitTime);
public CloudTable Table { get; }
private const string EXE_PATH =
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Azure\\Storage Emulator\\AzureStorageEmulator.exe";
private const int WAIT_FOR_EXIT = 60_000;
}
[CollectionDefinition("Database collection")]
public class DatabaseCollection : ICollectionFixture<DatabaseFixture>
{
// This class has no code, and is never created. Its purpose is simply
// to be the place to apply [CollectionDefinition] and all the
// ICollectionFixture<> interfaces.
}