Develop Reference

CredentialManagement returning empty strings in production but not development

I'm having an issue using the Windows credential manager in a project. I am using it to replace the username and password on the connectionString in my appsettings, and in the development and QA environments everything works fine, but in the production environment (which I don't have complete access to) it does not. The issue is its returning empty string when I load the credentials from the target.
Here is where I am loading it:
public static CredentialModel GetCredential(string target)
{
CredentialModel credentialDto = new CredentialModel();
using var credential = new Credential
{
Target = target
};
credential.Load();
credentialDto.UserName = credential.Username;
credentialDto.Password = credential.Password;
return credentialDto;
}
And this is the CredentialModel
public class CredentialModel
{
public string UserName { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
}
And where I replace the credentials in the connectionString:
StringBuilder connectionString = new(host.Configuration.GetConnectionString("RemessasConnectionString"));
var credential = CredentialService.GetCredential("Pegasus");
connectionString.Replace("$userId", credential.UserName);
connectionString.Replace("$password", credential.Password);
ConnectionString = connectionString.ToString();
For debugging's sake I added a line to the log in order to see what was being added to the connectionString, and it is replacing it with an empty string in production, but the actual values in development.
I have one idea about the reason for this, the application is running with a windows user and that user does not have access to the windows credential manager in the production server (but I think this would return an error not just empty strings).
If anyone can point me in the right direction, or has any suggestions for me to try I am all ears.

As #richard-deeming pointed out, the its because the user running the application does not have access to the credentials stored since they were stored under a different account than the one running the service. Look at his comment for more detail.

Tuespechkin takes a long time to respond, and returns null

I'm currently using in my project TuesPechkin version 2.1.1, and also TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.AnyCPU v0.12.4.1
This is some of my code:
byte[] result = null;
try
{
var globalSettings = CreateGlobalSettings(portraitMode);
var objectSettings = CreateObjectSettings(websiteUrl, urlParameters);
var document = new HtmlToPdfDocument
{
GlobalSettings = globalSettings
};
document.Objects.Add(objectSettings);
CreateEventLog.CreateInformationLog("Ready to convert PDF");
result = Converter.Convert(document);
CreateEventLog.CreateInformationLog(result == null
? "Conversion failed using the Pechkin library"
: "PDF conversion finished");
I run this code in 3 different environments:
On my local machine it runs fine and it generates the file in 3 seconds.
On one of my servers (let's call it Server A) it runs fine and it generates the file in 3 seconds.
On the other of my servers (let's call it Server B) it holds for 1min (for some reason I don't understand) during the Converter.Convert part, and after that minute it returns null.
Server A and Server B have the same setup (CPU, RAM, etc)
There's no peak increase on Server B during conversion.
Any suggestions/ideas?

I found what the issue is.
The URL I'm trying to convert is in a Presentation Layer, which is deployed in a separate server. Pechkin converter is in a Business Layer.
In Server A, I can access the URL from the Business Server.
In Server B, I cannot access the URL from the Business Server.
This is probably some firewall exception that needs to be created.
It would be nice though to have TuesPechkin, returning an error saying it cannot access the URL.

It is important to check how you get the convert, dispose issue may cause problem
Just check code form here
public static IConverter GetConverter()
{
lock (Locker)
{
if (converter != null)
{
return converter;
}
var tempFolderDeployment = new TempFolderDeployment();
var winAnyCpuEmbeddedDeployment = new WinAnyCPUEmbeddedDeployment(tempFolderDeployment);
IToolset toolSet;
if (HostingEnvironment.IsHosted)
{
toolSet = new RemotingToolset<PdfToolset>(winAnyCpuEmbeddedDeployment);
}
else
{
toolSet = new PdfToolset(winAnyCpuEmbeddedDeployment);
}
converter = new ThreadSafeConverter(toolSet);
}
return converter;
}

Read values from local.setting.json while debugging test

i don't seem to be able to read anything from this file in an azure functions when running or debugging a test, however it works fine when debugging the whole application locally.. can anyone explain why at all ?
{
"IsEncrypted": false,
"Values": {
"xyz": 123
}
}
var res = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("xyz");
ty..
my suspicion is that it is due to the 'debug' being initiated from another project (Test project), and the local.settings.json does not get bundled up with the project being tested ?

I added the settings programatically to minify the chances that sensitive data reach version control.
class LocalSettings
{
public bool IsEncrypted { get; set; }
public Dictionary<string, string> Values { get; set; }
}
public static void SetupEnvironment()
{
string basePath = Path.GetFullPath(#"..\..\..\MyAzureFunc");
var settings = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<LocalSettings>(
File.ReadAllText(basePath + "\\local.settings.json"));
foreach (var setting in settings.Values)
{
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(setting.Key, setting.Value);
}
}

Your suspicion is spot on. Only the Azure Functions Runtime Host actually knows to read settings from that file and merge them into the overall AppSettings. When you run in a test project, the Azure Functions Runtime Host is not involved and therefore you don't get access to them.
The simplest way to solve this would be to reflect all the same setting keys/values into your test project's app.config file under the standard <appSettings> section.

iis Creating new application and enabling Windows Authentication Fails

I can successfully create an Application Pool and an Application plus link them together.
What I am failing to do however is set the applications Windows Authentication to true and Anonymous Authentication to false.
I patched a hodge podge of examples into one to make this work but I keep getting the following error.
This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens
when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either by
default (overrideModeDefault="Deny"), or set explicitly by a location
tag with overrideMode="Deny" or the legacy allowOverride="false".
Now barring the obvious that overrideMode needs to likely equal Allow. How do I accomplish this?
public static bool CreateApplication(String websiteName, String applicationName, String appDIR,String appPoolName)
{
try
{
ServerManager iisManager = new ServerManager();
if (!applicationName.Contains("/"))
applicationName = "/" + applicationName;
var app = iisManager.Sites[websiteName].Applications.Add(applicationName, appDIR);
app.ApplicationPoolName = appPoolName;
var config = app.GetWebConfiguration();
var anonsection = config.GetSection("system.webServer/security/authentication/anonymousAuthentication", iisManager.Sites[websiteName].Name + applicationName);
//This is where it fails
anonsection["enabled"] = false;
var winsection = config.GetSection("system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentication", iisManager.Sites[websiteName].Name + applicationName);
winsection["enabled"] = true;
iisManager.CommitChanges();
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}

Use the following commands from an admin command prompt
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd unlock config -section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentication
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd unlock config -section:system.webServer/security/authentication/anonymousAuthentication
This will unlock those config sections.

How to start an Amazon EC2 instance programmatically in .NET

I have been attempting to start an instance of EC2 in C# without luck.
When passing in an instance id to start the instance I get an error that the instance cannot be found despite that I am passing in an instance ID that I have obtained from the object property.

Amazon made huge efforts to integrate its AWS Cloud .Net SDK To VS2008 & VS 2010
1 - Download and Install the AWS SDK msi
2 - Create an AWS Console project, enter your credentials (available from your AWS Console under your login name menu on the top right corner)
3 - Add the following code (see below images).
4 - Your're done. It's very straightforward. You can check the programmatic start/stop success by refreshing your AWS Console Screen.
AmazonEC2 ec2 = AWSClientFactory.CreateAmazonEC2Client();
//Start Your Instance
ec2.StartInstances(new StartInstancesRequest().WithInstanceId("i-00000000"));
//Stop it
ec2.StopInstances(new StopInstancesRequest().WithInstanceId("i-00000000"));
You just need to replace "i-00000000" by your instance Id (available in your AWS Management Console)
Hope this helps those googling this and stumbling upon this question (as I did myself) start off quickly. Following these simple steps via these wizards will spare you considerable headaches.

Try something like this with the AWSSDK to start new instances of an "image id":
RunInstancesResponse response = Client.RunInstances(new RunInstancesRequest()
.WithImageId(ami_id)
.WithInstanceType(instance_type)
.WithKeyName(YOUR_KEYPAIR_NAME)
.WithMinCount(1)
.WithMaxCount(max_number_of_instances)
.WithUserData(Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(bootScript.Replace("\r", ""))))
);
(Note: The .WithUserData() is optional and is used above to pass a short shell script.)
If the call is successful the response should contain a list of instances. You can use something like this to create a list of "instance ids":
if (response.IsSetRunInstancesResult() && response.RunInstancesResult.IsSetReservation() && response.RunInstancesResult.Reservation.IsSetRunningInstance())
{
List<string> instance_ids = new List<string>();
foreach (RunningInstance ri in response.RunInstancesResult.Reservation.RunningInstance)
{
instance_ids.Add(ri.InstanceId);
}
// do something with instance_ids
...
}

Be mindful that Amazon AWS instances exist only in one region. If your instance id i-12345 is in the EU-West-1 region, and you just make a new EC2Client and tell the client to start i-12345 it may well complain that it cannot find that instance, because the client started up in the us-east-1 region, which does not have i-12345 instance.
Your call that creates the client should specify the region, if it is not the default region (I've no idea which AWS region is default, so I specify every time):
AmazonEC2 ec2 = AWSClientFactory.CreateAmazonEC2Client(
new Amazon.EC2.AmazonEC2Config().WithServiceURL("https://eu-west-1.ec2.amazonaws.com")
);

Ok, this is the FULL, end-to-end instructions.
1. Install AWSSDK.Core and AWSSDK.EC2 using Nuget Package Manager.
2. Then copy this whole class to your project. AccessKey and Secret are obtained in AWS IAM. You will need to ensure the user you create has "AmazonEC2FullAccess" (You can probably use a lower-level permission policy, I am just lazy here :D). region is your AW S EC2 instance region. and Instance ID can be found in the EC2 dashboard list. Simple, works perfectly... You can also write extra code to manage the response object.
3. Be mindful if you are behind a proxy, you will have to configure it (I havent included code here).
public class AWSClass : IDisposable
{
Amazon.EC2.AmazonEC2Client _client;
public AWSClass(string region, string AccessKey, string Secret)
{
RegionEndpoint EndPoint = RegionEndpoint.GetBySystemName(region);
Amazon.Runtime.BasicAWSCredentials Credentials = new Amazon.Runtime.BasicAWSCredentials(AccessKey, Secret);
_client = new AmazonEC2Client(Credentials, EndPoint);
}
public void Dispose()
{
_client = null;
}
public void StopInstance(string InstanceID)
{
StopInstancesResponse response = _client.StopInstances(new StopInstancesRequest
{
InstanceIds = new List<string> {InstanceID }
});
//Can also do something with the response object too
}
public void StartInstance(string InstanceID)
{
StartInstancesResponse response = _client.StartInstances(new StartInstancesRequest
{
InstanceIds = new List<string> { InstanceID }
});
}
}

try this.
var startRequest = new StartInstancesRequest
{
InstanceIds = new List<string>() { instanceId }
};
bool isError = true;
StartInstancesResponse startInstancesResponse = null;
while (isError)
{
try
{
startInstancesResponse=amazonEc2client.StartInstances(startRequest);
isError = false;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message + "\n" + ex.StackTrace);
isError = true;
}
}