Fixing the msshrtmi.dll issue on Windows Server 2012 in Azure
As part of a startup task, I sometimes have to install programs that are not part of the Azure role. For instance, I have a monitoring system that logs ETW and perf counter events. My intention is to keep this as a separate Windows service so that it's not in the same process as my worker role. This has worked just fine up until moving to Windows Server 2012. Now I get this error:
Unhandled Exception: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.RoleEnvironment' threw an exception. ---> System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'msshrtmi.dll' or one of its dependencies. A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007045A)
at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.RoleEnvironment.InitializeEnvironment()
at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.RoleEnvironment..cctor()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.RoleEnvironment.get_IsAvailable()
If you get into a situation similar to mine, the fix is simple. Add the following to the exe.config file:
<configuration>
<startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />
</startup>
<runtime>
<NetFx40_LegacySecurityPolicy enabled="false" />
</runtime>
</configuration>