Failed to upload application image

Question

I try uploading a 65Mb image file but i always get the error:

Failed to upload application image

I also tried another 5Mb zip file and after the upload I get the error:

Something unexpected happened.

Answer 1

Can you give us more context?

When you say upload a file: what tool are you using to upload, from where to where, and what returns the error (exception, command line, etc)?

We will need to know what Azure Batch API or object you are using.

d

Answer 2

I am speaking of the management portal where I can add the application image as a zip file.

Answer 3

Hello Doctor,

Thanks for the error information.  We have identified an issue with uploading large application image zips and are working on a fix which we hope to have released within 48 hours.

In the meantime, you can work around the upload limitation as follows:

* Identify the storage account associated with your Batch account.  This account will appear in the Azure management portal under the same subscription as the Batch account; it has a randomly generated name.

* Open that storage account and locate or create a container named "clouddrives" (lower case, no space).

* Upload the application image into that container as <your_app_name>.zip, where <your_app_name> is the application name from the cloud assembly (as seen in the Batch Apps management portal).  For example, if the application name is litware, then the blob name should be litware.zip.  NOTE: This only works for the default application image -- if you need versioned images before the fix is released, let me know.

Ivan

Answer 4

So you mean that 65Mb is a large application image?

I mainly want to use azure batch for fast provisioning. Spinning up time for VMs is a critical parameter for many use cases.

Provisioning and starting Azure VMs from an OS image on my own via azure API takes >2min. But then I have a whole Disk image.

I think there should be huge performance improvements concerning startup time when using the batch service? Also when I have application images with 1Gb?

Answer 5

Yes, the term "large" in this context is perhaps a little misplaced. The implication is that uploading files any larger than a few MB through a web client isn't really ideal. We do have applications with images around 1Gb however these would be transferred directly to blob storage. Keeping the image size as small as possible is beneficial as this needs to be bought down to the VMs when they are provisioned.

We will be providing the ability in the portal to supply a link to a blob file that we can copy from (so you can use your favorite cloud storage tool to upload the file efficiently).

With respect to the VM startup time; Batch is provisioning VMs on-demand when you request them so there will still be a wait involved. We will be providing the ability to pre-provision VM pools and then run multiple jobs against them. This can mitigate the startup time for a lot of scenarios - would this help in your case?

Would be great to understand more about your use case and requirements.

Best regards
Dave

Answer 6

A fix for this issue has now been released.  Please let us know if you still have problems uploading your application image file.

Answer 7

I am developing a SaaS for engineering simulation.

I thought Batch already has preprovisioned VMs so that only the Application Image has to be transfered.

As you mentioned this is not yet the case. So I will wait for that feature because otherwise Batch has no really benefit for me. Can you give any time frame when that will come?

AWS does provisioning VMs a lot faster than Azure btw.

Answer 8

problem is fixed