NServiceBus 4 with Azure Storage getting NullReferenceException in TimeoutPersister

Question

I am trying to use NServiceBus (version 4.6.0.0) with an ASP.NET MVC application hosted in a Windows Azure Website and Azure Storage for persistence but am having problems with the TimeoutManager.

Before trying to use Azure I got my app working with NServiceBus using the default MSMQ and RavenDB settings and then changed over to using Azure Storage. With that setup however I am getting multiple NullReferenceException errors right after startup in NServiceBus.Azure.TimoutManagerPersister.TryGetLastSuccessfulRead().

I have tried running this local using the Storage Emulator and with everything deployed to Azure and have the same error on both.

Here is how I have NServiceBus setup in my app:

Global.asax.cs

public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    public static IBus Bus { get; private set; }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        ...

        Configure.ScaleOut(s => s.UseSingleBrokerQueue());
        Feature.Enable<Sagas>();

        IStartableBus startableBus = Configure.With()
            .DefaultBuilder()
            .DefineEndpointName("MyApp.Web")
            .AzureConfigurationSource()
            .UseTransport<AzureStorageQueue>()
            .AzureMessageQueue()
            .AzureSubscriptionStorage()
            .UseAzureTimeoutPersister()
            .AzureSagaPersister()
            .PurgeOnStartup(false)
            .UnicastBus()
            .LoadMessageHandlers()
            .RunHandlersUnderIncomingPrincipal(false)
            .Log4Net(new DebugAppender { Threshold = Level.Warn })
            .RijndaelEncryptionService()
            .CreateBus();

        Configure.Instance.ForInstallationOn<Windows>().Install();
        Bus = startableBus.Start();
    }
}

Web.config

<configSections>
    <section name="MessageForwardingInCaseOfFaultConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.MessageForwardingInCaseOfFaultConfig, NServiceBus.Core" />
    <section name="UnicastBusConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.UnicastBusConfig, NServiceBus.Core" />
    <section name="AuditConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.AuditConfig, NServiceBus.Core" />
    <section name="AzureProfileConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.AzureProfileConfig, NServiceBus.Hosting.Azure" />
    <section name="AzureSubscriptionStorageConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.AzureSubscriptionStorageConfig, NServiceBus.Azure" />
    <section name="AzureSagaPersisterConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.AzureSagaPersisterConfig, NserviceBus.Azure" />
    <section name="AzureTimeoutPersisterConfig" type="NServiceBus.Config.AzureTimeoutPersisterConfig, NserviceBus.Azure" />
  </configSections>

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="NServiceBus/Transport" connectionString="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey" />
  </connectionStrings>

<AzureSagaPersisterConfig ConnectionString="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey" CreateSchema="true" />
  <AzureTimeoutPersisterConfig ConnectionString="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey" TimeoutManagerDataTableName="TimeoutManagerData" TimeoutDataTableName="TimeoutData" />
  <AzureSubscriptionStorageConfig ConnectionString="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=mykey" />

And here is the exception I am getting:

System.NullReferenceException was unhandled by user code
  HResult=-2147467261
  Message=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  Source=Microsoft.Data.Services.Client
  StackTrace:
       at System.Data.Services.Client.UriWriter.VisitResourceSetExpression(ResourceSetExpression rse)
       at System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceALinqExpressionVisitor.Visit(Expression exp)
       at System.Data.Services.Client.UriWriter.Translate(DataServiceContext context, Boolean addTrailingParens, Expression e, Uri& uri, Version& version)
       at System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceQueryProvider.Translate(Expression e)
       at System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceQuery`1.Translate()
       at System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceQuery`1.Execute()
       at System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceQuery`1.GetEnumerator()
       at System.Linq.Enumerable.FirstOrDefault[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source)
       at NServiceBus.Azure.SafeLinqExtensions.SafeFirstOrDefault[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source) in y:\BuildAgent\work\ba77a0c29cee2af1\src\NServiceBus.Azure\SafeLinqExtensions.cs:line 13
       at NServiceBus.Azure.TimeoutPersister.TryGetLastSuccessfulRead(ServiceContext context, TimeoutManagerDataEntity& lastSuccessfulReadEntity) in
       y:\BuildAgent\work\ba77a0c29cee2af1\src\NServiceBus.Azure\Timeout\TimeoutLogic\TimeoutPersister.cs:line 338
       at NServiceBus.Azure.TimeoutPersister.GetNextChunk(DateTime startSlice, DateTime& nextTimeToRunQuery) in y:\BuildAgent\work\ba77a0c29cee2af1\src\NServiceBus.Azure\Timeout\TimeoutLogic\TimeoutPersister.cs:line 27
       at NServiceBus.Timeout.Hosting.Windows.TimeoutPersisterReceiver.Poll(Object obj) in y:\BuildAgent\work\31f8c64a6e8a2d7c\src\NServiceBus.Core\Timeout\Hosting\Windows\TimeoutPersisterReceiver.cs:line 80
       at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
       at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()

Even with the error messages are getting added to the Azure queue and are being processed but only for a couple of minutes than the TimeoutManager stops processing and messages are not dequeued.

Answer 1

Sounds like something is wrong in the storage sdk that you are using, which version are you on?