Packaging Applications for Azure Batch

Question

I am having trouble packaging applications to get them to run in Azure Batch compute nodes. I am using user subscription with VM configuration, so I can't use application packages. I have been uploading my executable files and dlls as resource files. Currently, I have a task that requires a lot of dlls, but it seems that I can't upload more than 10 resource files through Azure portal.

1. What is the best way to package an application and all its required dlls to have it run on a batch compute node without using the built-in application package? Is there a way other than going through all its dlls and adding them individually manually as resource files?

2. How to go about the limitation of 10 resource files per task application?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Application package functionality for Virtual Machine configuration should be available now (documentation may be out of date). With that being said, answers to your questions:

1. Without using application packages, you can do one of the following: (1) create a SFX-archive (self-extracting archive) with your archiver of choice. Ensure that it can be silently installed without a GUI pop-up (e.g., 7-zip can do this) and run the SFX-archive command as part of your start task. (2) Zip up your files. Add the zip file and unzip.exe as your two resource files. Run the unzip command as part of your start task.
2. The service limit is not 10 (although that may be the limit in portal). You can add as many resource files up to the service limit which varies depending upon the length of your URLs. For large number of dependencies, please follow the recommendation from #1 or use Application Packages (if possible).