Description of Update 2 for Windows Azure Pack

Issues that are fixed in this update

Issue 1

The following Windows PowerShell cmdlets cannot retrieve a Subscription, a Plan, or an AddOn through a specific Subscription ID, Plan ID, or AddOn ID: 

• Get-MgmtSvcSubscription
• Get-MgmtSvcPlan
• Get-MgmtSvcAddOn

Symptoms: When you use these Windows PowerShell cmdlets to retrieve the corresponding objects, the objects are retrieved by name instead of by ID.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the parameter with corresponding ID can be used to retrieve the corresponding object.


Issue 2

The Usage Collector Service loses its current web.config settings after you apply Windows Azure Pack Update 1 if you do no follow the instructions in KB 2924386 .

Symptoms: When you deploy Update 1 over an existing deployment with the Usage Collector Service configured and fully functional, you will notice that the Usage Collector Service stops working.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, his issue does not occur. The Usage Service configuration is preserved, and no manual steps are required. Notice that if you already applied Update 1 and did not resolve this issue by following the manual steps that are provided in the corresponding Microsoft Knowledge Base article, Update 2 will not resolve the issue automatically. You must still resolve the issue manually.


Issue 3

The Plan Creation Event provides NULL for the Plan Display Name to Services that is registered to receive this notification.

Symptoms: Any service that is receiving notifications or querying usage data will find the Plan Display Name to be NULL.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the Display Name value is passed instead of NULL. Notice that any already stored data before Update 2 will still show NULL for the Display Name.


Issue 4

The Web Application Gallery Service generates lots of temp files in its Temp folder.

Symptoms: Every time that the WebAppGallery service restarts, it creates a new temp folder. The temp folder stores the cached feeds that contain the metadata of the available gallery applications and their dependencies together with the actual application packages. The service is scheduled to restart every 1,740 minutes. This causes the growing number of temp files over time.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the old WebAppGallery temp files are removed.


Issue 5

Resizing dynamic memory virtual machines (VMs) through machine profiles results in an error when the new Startup Memory value wasn’t in the range between original Minimum memory and Maximum memory. Also, changing between static and dynamic or vice versa in the virtual machine profile results in an error.

Symptoms: When a tenant user sets the Startup value of the dynamic memory VM to a value larger than the original maximum value or less than the original minimum value, an error is generated, and the operation fails. Changing from Static to Dynamic does not change the kind of memory, and only the new memory value is set as the Startup value in the profile.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, no errors are generated.


Issue 6

Active Directory is not enabled for Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites Resource Provider.

Symptoms: Administrators cannot configure Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites Clouds to use Active Directory. Tenants cannot enable Active Directory Account Management and Authentication for their websites.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, administrators can configure Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites Clouds, and tenants can use Windows Azure Pack: Web Sites Clouds. Administrators have the option of always requiring Windows Authentication. In this case, tenants no longer have an option.


Issue 7

It is difficult to discover how to create Co-Administrators for an existing subscription.

Symptoms: Tenant users typically go to the My Account and Subscription drawer and pane but do not see an option there to create Co-Administrators.

Resolution: In Update 2,we added a link to the My Account drawer set of options. This link is enabled after the user has a valid subscription.


Issue 8

Error messages in Administration Site that refer to unconfigured services in a plan are not explicit as to what are the problems.

Symptoms: When you try to update a plan, an error is generated if any of the resource providers that it contains are not configured. For example, the error is generated when you make a plan public in these conditions. The error does not mention what the problem is or which resource providers are affected.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the messages are more informative, and the user can take corresponding actions.


Issue 9

An obscure error is returned when a tenant creates a database by using a security token whose corresponding password does not meet the Microsoft SQL Server domain policies.

Symptoms: The user receives an unrelated SQL error about a select statement that contains an invalid column. Or, the user receives an Internal Server Error message. The message that the user receives depends on whether the created database belong to an Always On availability group.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the tenant sees the correct error and can resolve it by changing the credential password.


Issue 10

Windows Azure Pack Management Databases are not created as partly contained when SQL Always-On is desired.

Symptoms: When you use SQL Always-On, the user is forced to manually replicate the associated database logins.

Resolution: After you install Update 2, the administrator does not have to manually replicate the database logins.

How to obtain and install Update 2 for Windows Azure Pack

Download information

This update can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Installation instructions

These installation instructions are for the following Windows Azure Pack components:

• Tenant site
• Tenant API
• Tenant Public API
• Administration site
• Administration API
• Authentication
• Windows Authentication
• Usage
• Monitoring
• Microsoft SQL
• MySQL
• Web Application Gallery
• Configuration site
• Best Practices Analyzer
• PowerShell API

To install the update .msi files for each Windows Azure Pack (WAP) component, follow these steps:

1. If the system is currently operational (that is, if it is handling customer traffic), schedule downtime for the WAP systems. WAP currently does not support rolling upgrades.
2. Stop customer traffic, or redirect customer traffic to sites that you consider sufficient.
3. Create backups of the computers.
   
   Notes
   
   • This update does not include database changes. Therefore, backing up and restoring databases is not necessary. We recommend that you keep current database backups.
   • If you are using Virtual Machines (VMs), take snapshots of their current state. Otherwise, go to the next step.
   • If you are not using VMs, take a backup of each MgmtSvc-* folder in the inetpub directory on each computer that has a WAP component installed.
   • Also, collect information and files that are related to your certificates, host headers, or any port changes.
4. Important Make sure that you create a backup of the Windows Azure Pack Usage Extension Site and Application Pool settings before you perform the update. To this, follow these steps:
   1. On the computer that contains the Usage Collector, create a backup of the Usage Collector Site and Application Pool settings by running the following two appcmd commands:
      
      
      %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set site MgmtSvc-UsageCollector /name:MgmtSvc-UsageCollector.backup
      
      %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config /section:applicationPools /[name='MgmtSvc-UsageCollector'].name:MgmtSvc-UsageCollector.backup
      
      
   2. The Update .msi process will use these backups to restore the settings for this site. This manual step is required because the corresponding site .msi for the release version and Update 1 releases did not include this step. After you install Update 2, the .msi file includes this step. Therefore, the next update will not require this manual step.
5. Perform the update by using Microsoft Update either directly on each node or through the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server.
6. For each node under Load Balancing, run the updates for components in the following order:
   1. Update Resource Provider (RP) services (SQL Server, My SQL, SPF/VMM, Web Sites) as needed. Make sure that the RP sites are running.
   2. Update the Tenant API site, Public Tenant API, and Admin API nodes.
   3. Update the Admin and Tenant sites.
7. If everything is updated and functioning as expected, you can open the traffic to your updated nodes. Otherwise, see the "Update rollback instructions" section.

Update rollback instructions

1. If an issue occurs and you decide that a rollback is necessary, follow these steps:
   1. If a snapshot is available from step 3a, apply snapshots. If there are no snapshots, go to the next step.
   2. Uninstall the update from Microsoft Update or Uninstall programs.
   3. Reinstall the release version bits from Web PI, and do not run the Config wizard. Reinstall the Update 1 bits from Windows Update if you have them to start with.
   4. Replace the following items from the backup folders to release version bits:
      
      
      • Content folder
      • Manifest folder
      • Web.Config file
   5. Apply any changes that are associated with your certificates, host headers, and port changes
2. Do not leave the system in a partly updated state. Perform rollback operations on all servers that have WAP installed, even if the update failed on one node.
3. Recommended Run the Windows Azure Pack Best Practice Analyzer on each WAP node to make sure that configuration items are correct.
4. You can now open the traffic to your updated nodes.