Azure Storage Emulator error and does not start

Question

This error is really driving me crazy. (Terminal running in administrator mode)

Initialization of azure storage emulator in sql server 2014:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Azure\Storage Emulator>.\wastorage
emulator init -server MY-PC
Windows Azure Storage Emulator 3.0.0.0 command line tool
The storage emulator was successfully initialized and is ready to use.

Error when starting server:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Azure\Storage Emulator>.\wastorage
emulator start
Windows Azure Storage Emulator 3.0.0.0 command line tool

Unhandled Exception: System.TimeoutException: Unable to open wait handle.
   at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.Controller.EmulatorProcessControll
er.InternalWaitForStorageEmulator(Int32 timeoutInMilliseconds)
   at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.Controller.EmulatorProcessControll
er.EnsureRunning(Int32 timeoutInMilliseconds)
   at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.StartCommand.RunCommand()
   at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Emulator.Program.Main(String[] args)

Answer 1

Check if you are running BitTorrent/uTorrent or similar software using port 10000.

Check Steve Marx' blog post about the issue. http://blog.smarx.com/posts/windows-azure-storage-emulator-the-process-cannot-access-the-file-because-it-is-being-used-by-another-process

In case that post disappears, the command to check if any other software is using that port is:

C:\Users\smarx>netstat -p tcp -ano | findstr :10000
  TCP    127.0.0.1:10000        0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       3672

Answer 2

Summarizing and adding additional points to other answers to this question.

Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe file in a notepad or a notepad++ editor. Look at the services section.

<services>
  <service name="Blob" url="http://127.0.0.1:10000/"/>
  <service name="Queue" url="http://127.0.0.1:10001/"/>
  <service name="Table" url="http://127.0.0.1:10002/"/>
</services>

Try to open URL for "Blob" in a web browser. In my case it is

http://127.0.0.1:10000/

If you are unable to open the URL or if there is a error, this is the reason why you are not unable to start Azure Storage Emulator.

Try below steps to resolve the issue.

1) Check if the port 10000 is busy or used by any other process.

To know this you can type the below command in the command prompt

netstat -na | find "10000"

Kill the process.

Now start the Azure Storage Emulator in -inprocess mode

In the Azure Storage Emulator's command prompt type

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start -inprocess

Ctrl+c and then

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

If this did not resolve the issue try second step.

2) Run this

netsh http add iplisten 127.0.0.1

and then in the Azure Storage Emulator's command prompt type

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start -inprocess

Ctrl+c and then

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

Answer 3

I have same issue after Azure tools update (2.3 version). After hours of research I found strange solution - set 'Start Windows Azure storage emulator' to 'False' (in properties of Azure project).

Answer 4

Run Microsoft Azure Command Prompt as administrator and try to first initialize using AzureStorageEmulator.exe init and then start using AzureStorageEmulator.exe start commands. It worked for my case.

Answer 5

Make sure the user that initialized the emulator is the same as the user that is starting the emulator. Note that if you elevate as a different user to run initialization, then the initialization only applies to that user.

If that doesn't help, you can try to launch the emulator with the -inprocess flag to get a more detailed error message:

WAStorageEmulator start -inprocess

Answer 6

I had same issue since I had to rejoin my machine to the domain and the user profile got recreated. I noticed that it was starting with option -inprocess from elevated cmd. Then I realized that it has to do with urlac and I solved deleting old ones with following commands:

(from elevated cmd)
netsh http delete urlacl url=http://127.0.0.1:10000/
netsh http delete urlacl url=http://127.0.0.1:10001/
netsh http delete urlacl url=http://127.0.0.1:10002/

After that simply start as usual, the tool will recreate what necessary. Now I can use it without elevation.

Answer 7

In the file C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe.config you need to change port numbers:

Answer 8

It is also worth to try to run the command prompt with: "Run As Administrator" and then run the command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator>AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

That did the trick for me!

Answer 9

Another option is to change the ip binding that the emulator uses in the config file located in the storage emulator directory.

Find wastorageemulator.exe.config and change

<services>
      <service name="Blob" url="http://127.0.0.1:10000/"/>
      <service name="Queue" url="http://127.0.0.1:10001/"/>
      <service name="Table" url="http://127.0.0.1:10002/"/>
   </services>

This would be usefull if another application is already using that port and you cannot uninstall.

Answer 10

if you are trying to start "Azure storage emulator" through Visual Studio=>Server explorer, make sure that you are starting visual studio as an administrator. I was able to get this issue fixed by running the "Azure storage emulator" on the command prompt, by running the command prompt as an administrator.

Answer 11

There is some info here that might help:

AzureStorageEmulator.exe init –server MyMachine –sqlinstance **.** –forcecreate –inprocess

See this link.

Answer 12

For me there was nothing running on the needed ports, the issue was that Visual Studio was not started in Administrator mode so the process couldn't be started.

When I went to the Azure Storage Emulator CLI from "Start" that launches a command shell that is also not in Administrator mode which obviously produces the same result.

Opening a command shell in Admin mode did the job.

Answer 13

First you should initialize the emulator database and configuration be starting AzureStorageEmulator.exe as administrator with a key init: AzureStorageEmulator.exe init

Then, if you still receive an error:

Service Status: Blob http://127.0.0.1:10000/ False The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process Error: Unable to start the storage emulator.

try to change 127.0.0.1 to localhost for all services in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe.config

Answer 14

It worked for me:

1. Press the Windows key and search "Azure Storage Emulator"
2. It shows me an error message "..Cannot create the database "AzureStorageEmulatorDb510"
3. I opened the SSMS and looked for that database but I found "AzureStorageEmulatorDb59"
4. I renamed the database to "AzureStorageEmulatorDb510"
5. Try again run "Azure Storage Emulator"

Answer 15

I have had this happen recently, and it was because I'd recently installed the HDInsight emulator. It appears this was auto-starting the storage emulator causing an error when VS attempted to start it resulting in an error.

Setting the "Start Microsoft Azure storage emulator" value to False worked in this case also.

Answer 16

I encountered the same problem. I found out that, the port 10000 is being used by another process. In my case, utorrent was using it. It could be Bittorrent if that's what you are using. After uninstalling it, it started smoothly with altering my data.

If your torrent downloader means so much to you, you can consider solving your issue from that angle. I hope this works.

Answer 17

For users of the newly released documentdb emulator...Microsoft thought it is a good idea that the documentdb emulator uses the same port as the Storage emulator ;) The only way you can access your storage is by shutting down documentdb emulator and restart Visual Studio and voila you can use it again :facepalm:

Answer 18

I just hit this, and it turns out that Microsoft Teams was using port 10000. Forcing teams to quit resolved the issue. 🤷

Answer 19

I got similar issue with visual studio while trying to run Azure Functions. AzureStorageEmulator.exe init worked for me

Answer 20

Windows Backup Agent was running on my VM box on port 10000 - moving to 10003 (via the .exe.config file worked)

Answer 21

The reason for me was Hyper-V. It reserves a lot of ports. You can check reserved ports netsh int ip show excludedportrange protocol=tcp. Easiest solution - change ports in config file.

Answer 22

The issue maybe port 10000 is being occupied. Storage emulator runs on port 10000. So you need to kill that process. On windows, open cmd as admin and run following commands.

First find the process occupying port 10000

netstat -ano | findstr :10000

kill the process

taskkill /PID <process id> /F

Now try starting emulator again.

Answer 23

1. open command prompt as administrator
2. run command: cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator
3. run command: AzureStorageEmulator start

Answer 24

I had the same problem, I tried many ways, nothing was blocking port 10000. I tried updating the emulator config to Localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 here

<services>
  <service name="Blob" url="http://127.0.0.1:10000/"/>
  <service name="Queue" url="http://127.0.0.1:10001/"/>
  <service name="Table" url="http://127.0.0.1:10002/"/>
</services>

but I had the timeout issue again.

Finally, I had to uninstall my IIS. and problem solved. there should be a way to make them work together.

Answer 25

I experienced a power outage and after rebooting received the Unhandled Exception: System.TimeoutException message attempting to launch and debug an Azure Functions project from Visual Studio 2019. I tried many (if not all) of the other suggested answers on this thread to no avail. Including but not necessarily limited to ...

1. Checking for processes using ports 10000-10002, (none were)
2. Running Visual Studio and/or AzureStorageEmulator as administrator
3. Deleting / recreating the storage database
4. Attempted netsh http add iplisten 127.0.0.1 etc. from @Ram Pratap's answer
5. Changed hostname and port number bindings
6. Tried AzureStorageEmulator init and AzureStoreEmulator start -inprocess

What finally worked for me was ...

1. Installing the Storage Emulator using the standalone installer
2. This then allowed me to fully uninstall just the Storage Emulator using Add & Remove Programs, followed by a restart.
3. Next I reinstalled the Storage Emulator using the standalone installer, followed by a restart.
4. Finally I ran AzureStorageEmulator start it worked!