Publish-AzureServiceProject Node.js to Windows Server 2012

Question

I'm trying to publish a Node.js package to Azure using the Powershell "Publish-AzureServiceProject" cmdlet.

With the default osFamily="2" (Windows Server 2008 R2) it works as expected but when I publish using osFamily="3" (Windows Server 2012) I get the following error:

The feature named NetFx35 that is required by the uploaded package is not available in the OS * chosen for the deployment.

Obviously I'm not using .Net but 3.5 is the default that prevents me to upload the package.

To specify .Net 4.5 I read that I need to create a roleproperties.txt file containing:

TargetFrameWorkVersion=v4.5

and pass it via a /rolePropertiesFile to cspack.

However since I'm not calling cspack myself, how can I pass that option through Publish-AzureServiceProject to cspack? Or is there another workaround?

---

Currently my ServiceDefinition looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ServiceDefinition xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" name="Foo" upgradeDomainCount="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition">
  <WorkerRole name="Bar">
    <Imports>
      <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" />
      <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" />
    </Imports>
    <Startup>
      <Task commandLine="setup_worker.cmd &gt; log.txt" executionContext="elevated">
        <Environment>
          <Variable name="EMULATED">
            <RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/Deployment/@emulated" />
          </Variable>
          <Variable name="RUNTIMEID" value="node" />
          <Variable name="RUNTIMEURL" value="http://nodertncu.blob.core.windows.net/node/0.6.20.exe" />
        </Environment>
      </Task>
    </Startup>
    <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="HttpIn" protocol="tcp" port="80" />
    </Endpoints>
    <Runtime>
      <Environment>
        <Variable name="PORT">
          <RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/CurrentInstance/Endpoints/Endpoint[@name='HttpIn']/@port" />
        </Variable>
        <Variable name="EMULATED">
          <RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/Deployment/@emulated" />
        </Variable>
      </Environment>
      <EntryPoint>
        <ProgramEntryPoint commandLine="runnode.cmd" setReadyOnProcessStart="true" />
      </EntryPoint>
    </Runtime>
  </WorkerRole>
</ServiceDefinition>

Answer 1

So currently, there's a bit of work you need to do to get OSFamily=3 working with non-.Net roles. Essentially, you need to run cspack yourself to create a package and specify a roleProperties file that allows you to target .Net 4.5 (yes, even though you're not using .Net at all, you need to convince the cspack tool that you're using .Net 4.5).

Here are the steps:

1. Go create a new node project with a web role.
2. Modify the cscfg to set OS Family = 3.
3. Drop the below roleproperties.txt into the root of the service.
4. Launch the "Windows Azure Command Prompt" and then go the service root folder.
5. Run this command: cspack ServiceDefinition.csdef /role:WebRole1;WebRole1 /sites:WebRole1;Web;WebRole1 /rolePropertiesFile:WebRole1;RoleProperties.txt /out:package.cspkg
6. Log in to the portal and create a service / upload the cspkg manually

The contents of roleproperties.txt:

TargetFrameworkVersion=v4.5

Answer 2

As Node SDK builds the package without using cspack.exe (to keep platform independent architecture) you can not use "/rolePropertiesFile" option.

As workaround, you can setup the targetFrameworkVersion setting using Runtime -> EntryPoint -> NetFxEntryPoint -> targetFrameworkVersion="v4.5" in your ServiceDefinition as below example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ServiceDefinition xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" name="NodeAvkash" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition">
  <WebRole name="WebRole1" vmsize="ExtraSmall">
    <Imports />
    <Startup>
      <Task commandLine="setup_web.cmd &gt; log.txt" executionContext="elevated">
        <Environment>
          <Variable name="EMULATED">
            <RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/Deployment/@emulated" />
          </Variable>
          <Variable name="RUNTIMEID" value="node;iisnode" />
          <Variable name="RUNTIMEURL" value="http://nodertncu.blob.core.windows.net/node/0.6.20.exe;http://nodertncu.blob.core.windows.net/iisnode/0.1.21.exe" />
        </Environment>
      </Task>
    </Startup>
    <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="Endpoint1" protocol="http" port="80" />
    </Endpoints>
    <Sites>
      <Site name="Web">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="Endpoint1" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>
    <Runtime executionContext="elevated">
      <EntryPoint>
        <NetFxEntryPoint assemblyName="WebRole1.dll" targetFrameworkVersion="v4.5" />
      </EntryPoint>
    </Runtime>
  </WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>