Can't upgrade Azure deployment using Management REST API (SSL certificate issue) - api

Question

I'm currently working on an automated deployment process for a hosted service for Windows Azure. The creation of the .cspkg and .cscfg files works perfectly using a call to msbuild. Now I'm writing a small .NET console app that should deploy these files to Azure using the Management REST API.
There is no problem concerning the API itself. I can send a request to the API using one of my management certificates. I upload the .cspkg file to Azure BLOB Storage and then try to call Upgrade Deployment. But every time I try, I get a "400 Bad Request" response stating that the certificate with thumbprint xy was not found. This certificate is the SSL certificate (not a management certificate) I'm using for HTTPS for my custom domain (DNS CNAME).
And now, the whole thing gets interesting:
When I deploy the files using the "Publish" command in my Visual Studio, there is no problem. (I compared the .cscfg/.cspkg files from VS and from my msbuild output: apart from a few GUIDs, they're identical). And furthermore, using the Silverlight Management thingy in my browser, I can even upload my generated files that could not be uploaded using the API.
When I retrieve a list of all certificates using the List Certificates call, the certificate which is said to be missing is apparently there. I can also retrieve its data using the Get Certificate call.
So why does Azure keep telling me that the certificate was not found when using the Upgrade Deployment call? Did anyone experience something similar? Has anyone the hint for me? Thanks in advance.
P.S.: This is what Azure says when I use the API:
<Error xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Code>BadRequest</Code>
<Message>The certitficate with thumbprint 7b232c4a2d6e3deadbeef120d5dbc1fe8049fbea was not found.</Message>
</Error>
P.P.S.: Yes, the word in the response is certitficate, not certificate.

Answer 1

OK, after using the List Subscription Operations API call to find out what Visual Studio calls to deploy apps, I found the solution.
Turns out that the URL I used for the API request was wrong, but: with all due respect, I blame Microsoft for lousily documenting its Azure Management API.
In their documentation, they write the URL to use is:
https://management.core.windows.net/<subscription-id>/services/hostedservices/<service-name>/deploymentslots/<deployment-slot>/?comp=upgrade
And the description is the following:
To generate the request URI, replace <subscription-id> with your subscription ID, <service-name> with the name of your service, <deployment-slot> with staging or production, and <deployment-name> with the unique name of your deployment.
What they forgot to mention is, that you have to use the DNS Name of your service, and not the Name! They could at least return an appropriate error message telling you that the service name is invalid, non-existent or doesn't belong to your subscription ID, instead of complaining about some certificate issue.
Thank you Microsoft, that cost me more than two days.

Answer 2

The error indicates that you have not uploaded that certificate into the hosted service's secret store. Visual Studio might be doing that automagically for you, but if you want to replicate it programmatically, then use the Add Certificate API call and upload the PFX into the deployment.

Answer 3

You can see '400 BadRequest - The certificate with thumbprint XYZ was not found.' appear in the CreateDeployment or UpgradeDeployment scenario for the following reason (which I just debugged):
You use the same certificate for subscription management as you do for e.g. SSL or Remote Desktop password encryption in your hosted service. You therefore will use the certificate with thumbprint XYZ to authenticate your service management REST call that creates the deployment.
When specifying your deployment parameters you pass in your CSCFG which references that same cert by its thumbprint, because it needs to configure Remote Desktop/SSL etc.
That cert is not yet added to your hosted service certs.
In this case the 400 Bad Request error really is telling you that you have a bad request, because the certificate in your CSCFG is not yet attached to your hosted service. The confusion arises (for me) because, since its a multi purpose cert, you misinterpret the error message as referring to the authentication of the request, even though you are not getting 401.