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

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.
}