System.Windows.ThickFog.TryDispel

Looking at my web role service with the Azure MMC snap-in November 16, 2010

As usual, I don’t FULLY understand what I am doing. I have been using the Azure MMC snap-in successfully for some time to upload tables and blogs, but now I have a web role running, I wanted to use the MMC to control it, because it’s a more familiar UI than windows.azure.net.

OK. I am trying to connect. I know my deployment ID. It says I have no certificates. Mr. Google leads me to an excellent blog by David Aiken (the only thing he doesn’t mention is that you must Run As Administrator, or you won’t see “Server Certificates” in step 3). I create and upload a .cer file, whatever that is. Step 16: Done! Well, no! MMC still doesn’t see a certificate. I sign out and sign back on to windows.azure.net. Now it wants a .pfx file, whatever that is. Mr. Google finds me another excellent blog on pentaware. I upload a .pfx file. MMC still doesn’t see a certificate. Stumbling around, I notice that when I look at the certificate details in Certificate Manager, I see a colored message about a private key. The same dialog box in the MMC does not have that message. More stumbling around. What works is to copy the certificate from “Trusted Root Certificates” to “Personal” in Certificate Manager. MMC is happy! I am happy!

Of course, I still can’t do what I really want to do, which is to connect my Silverlight program to the web role. But I’m close — more later.