Connecting to Azure storage account thru proxy server

Question

My 'LocalClient' app is in a corporate LAN behind an HTTP proxy server (ISA). The first Azure API call i make - CloudQueue.CreateIfNotExist() - causes an exception: (407) Proxy Authentication Required. I tried following things:

• Added the <System.Net> defaultProxy element to app.config, but it doesn't seem to be working (Reference: http://geekswithblogs.net/mnf/archive/2006/03/08/71663.aspx).
• I configured 'Microsoft Firewall Client for ISA Server', but that did not help either.
• Used a custom proxy handler as suggested here: http://dunnry.com/blog/2010/01/25/SupportingBasicAuthProxies.aspx. I am not able to get this working - getting a Configuration initialization exception.

As per MSDN, an HTTP proxy server can be specified in the connection string only in case of Development Storage (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee758697.aspx):
UseDevelopmentStorage=true;DevelopmentStorageProxyUri=http://myProxyUri

Is there any way to connect to the Azure Storage thru a proxy server?

Tarango

Answer 1

The custom proxy solution (the third thing i tried as mentioned in my original question) worked perfectly. The mistake i was doing earlier was not putting the <configSections> element at the beginning of <configuration> in app.config as required. On doing that, the custom proxy solution given here solved my problem.

Tarango

Answer 2

I actually found that the custom proxy solution was not required.

Adding the following to app.config (just before the </configuration>) did the trick for me:

<system.net>
<defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true">
<proxy usesystemdefault="true" />
</defaultProxy>
</system.net>

Adytum

Yes, that should work for most cases, I suppose. I had tried that too. But in my case, the proxy server (Squid) expected the username without domain. While the logged in username being sent to it (as per useDefaultCredentials setting) was in <domain>\<username> format. So it would not authenticate. – Tarango

This worked for me too (my application was hanging when I attempted to do any operations on a table). – Cleodel

Answer 3

To by pass the proxy then please use like below, it works as expected and same has been tested.

public class AzureUpload {

    // Define the connection-string with your values
    /*public static final String storageConnectionString =
        "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;" +
        "AccountName=your_storage_account;" +
        "AccountKey=your_storage_account_key";*/
    public static final String storageConnectionString =
            "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;" +
            "AccountName=test2rdrhgf62;" +
            "AccountKey=1gy3lpE7Du1j5ljKiupjhgjghjcbfgTGhbntjnRfr9Yi6GUQqVMQqGxd7/YThisv/OVVLfIOv9kQ==";

    // Define the path to a local file.
    static final String filePath = "D:\\Project\\Supporting Files\\Jar's\\Azure\\azure-storage-1.2.0.jar";
    static final String file_Path = "D:\\Project\\Healthcare\\Azcopy_To_Azure\\data";

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try
        {
            // Retrieve storage account from connection-string.
            //String storageConnectionString = RoleEnvironment.getConfigurationSettings().get("StorageConnectionString");
            //Proxy httpProxy = new Proxy(Proxy.Type.HTTP,new InetSocketAddress("132.186.192.234",8080));
            System.setProperty("http.proxyHost", "102.122.15.234");
            System.setProperty("http.proxyPort", "80");
            System.setProperty("https.proxyUser", "ad001\\empid001");
            System.setProperty("https.proxyPassword", "pass!1");
            // Retrieve storage account from connection-string.
            CloudStorageAccount storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.parse(storageConnectionString);

            // Create the blob client.
            CloudBlobClient blobClient = storageAccount.createCloudBlobClient();


            // Get a reference to a container.
            // The container name must be lower case
            CloudBlobContainer container = blobClient.getContainerReference("rpmsdatafromhospital");

            // Create the container if it does not exist.
            container.createIfNotExists();

            // Create a permissions object.
            BlobContainerPermissions containerPermissions = new BlobContainerPermissions();

            // Include public access in the permissions object.
            containerPermissions.setPublicAccess(BlobContainerPublicAccessType.CONTAINER);

            // Set the permissions on the container.
            container.uploadPermissions(containerPermissions);

            // Create or overwrite the new file to blob with contents from a local file.
            /*CloudBlockBlob blob = container.getBlockBlobReference("azure-storage-1.2.0.jar");
            File source = new File(filePath);
            blob.upload(new FileInputStream(source), source.length());*/

            String envFilePath = System.getenv("AZURE_FILE_PATH");

            //upload list of files/directory to blob storage
            File folder = new File(envFilePath);
            File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();

            for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++) {
              if (listOfFiles[i].isFile()) {
                System.out.println("File " + listOfFiles[i].getName());

                CloudBlockBlob blob = container.getBlockBlobReference(listOfFiles[i].getName());
                File source = new File(envFilePath+"\\"+listOfFiles[i].getName());
                blob.upload(new FileInputStream(source), source.length());
                System.out.println("File " + listOfFiles[i].getName()+ " upload successful");

              }
              //directory upload
              /*else if (listOfFiles[i].isDirectory()) {
                System.out.println("Directory " + listOfFiles[i].getName());

                CloudBlockBlob blob = container.getBlockBlobReference(listOfFiles[i].getName());
                File source = new File(file_Path+"\\"+listOfFiles[i].getName());
                blob.upload(new FileInputStream(source), source.length());
              }*/
            }

        }catch (Exception e)
        {
            // Output the stack trace.
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

.Net or C# then please add below code to "App.config"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <startup> 
        <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2" />
    </startup>

    <system.net> 
     <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true"> 
       <proxy usesystemdefault="true" /> 
     </defaultProxy>
    </system.net>

</configuration>

Microgamete