Azure Cloud Service Worker Role not running after reboot or publish

Question

I have azure cloud service worker role running, only 1 role instance

The worker role acts as a TCP server listening on port a port which is configured in the service definition file.

So after the role instance is running, my tcp client program is able to connect to the work role.

But, every time when I reboot the role instance, or publish a new version within the visual studio, i wait the reboot or publish finish, the azure portal says it's status is running, the tcp client program is still not able to connect the server, BUT, without doing nothing, about 10 mins later, it fixed itself, the tcp client is able to connect again.

Where does this 10 min delay come from?

I thought as soon as the role instance's status becomes Running, it should work again.

First, I thought it is because of the Load balancer. But, I remote in the that role instance, and use command line netstat -A , the port is not even listening. So, seems my code for the worker role is not running?

When 10 min later, it is good for connect, I went to remote desktop, and use netstat -A again, now that port is listening.

So, after the reboot/publish, I have to wait for 10 mins to have my worker role code running?

Or I am missing something here?

Answer 1

Hard to say, but the following references should help:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kwill/archive/2011/05/05/windows-azure-role-architecture.aspx. This gives you the architecture of the processes running inside your service. When you RDP and netstat shows the port is not listening, what do you see as far as processes? Is WaWorkerHost.exe running?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kwill/archive/2013/08/09/windows-azure-paas-compute-diagnostics-data.aspx. This walks through all of the diagnostic data typically used to troubleshoot an issue in an Azure PaaS VM. If you check those logs and event logs do you see anything that stands out between the time when you can't connect and the time that you can?

You can check the Windows Azure event log to see when your OnStart() and Run() methods are started and stopped. If you see that Run() has started but netstat still shows the port as not listening then you know the problem is in your code and you may need to step through with a debugger (you can setup remote debugger so you can use Visual Studio on your desktop to debug the Azure VM - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cie/archive/2014/01/24/windows-azure-remote-debugging.aspx).