Could not load file or assembly Microsoft.Data.OData Version=5.2.0.0 error in Azure Cloud Worker Role using Table Storage

Question

I have a very peculiar issue using Azure Table Storage. I have a .NET 4.5 project in Visual Studio 2012 where I deal with all my Azure Table Storage functions. This project/dll is referenced by two other projects, my MVC website, and my Azure Worker Role. (I am running under the Azure Emulators on my machine, but it also happens when I deploy it to the cloud)

I have the following function that is called when I save or retrieve a record:

internal static CloudTable GetTable(CloudStorageAccount storageAccount, string tableReference)
{
    CloudTableClient tableClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudTableClient();

    CloudTable table = tableClient.GetTableReference(tableReference);
    table.CreateIfNotExists();

    return tableClient.GetTableReference(table.Name);
}

In my MVC website I have a function that will save a record to a Azure Storage table, and then in my Azure Worker Role there is a service that will read the record.

So both uses the same dll for storage and retrieval, however my MVC project has no issues saving the record, but in my Azure Worker role service when it tries to retrieve the record throws the exception when it attempts to execute "table.CreateIfNotExists();".

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Data.OData, Version=5.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

I have done the following already:

1. Updated all the NuGet packages from the solution level to the latest versions
2. I went through every project reference to make sure that there are no old dll's or previous versions hanging around, in particular the System.Spatial, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Configuration, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime and Microsoft.ServiceBus, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage, Microsoft.Data.Edm & Microsoft.Data.OData
3. I have even created a new Cloud Service and WorkerRole project from scratch to make sure it is not something in the current WorkerRole project that is broken.

I have not rolled the dll's back to 5.2 as I had too many issues in other projects where I use features that are specific from 5.3 onwards.

I am currently running all the dll's on 5.5.

When I run the AsmSpy.exe utility found here, I get the following output that I am not 100% sure how to interpret.

> Reference: Microsoft.Data.Edm
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.Data.OData
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.Data.Services.Client
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ActiveDirectory.GraphHelper.2013_04_05
> Reference: System.Spatial
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.Data.OData
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.Data.Services.Client Reference: Microsoft.Data.OData
>         5.5.0.0 by Microsoft.Data.Services.Client
>         5.2.0.0 by Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage   <-- THIS SEEMS TO BE THE ONE THAT IS CAUSING ISSUES

How I interpret it, is that the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage dll is referencing V 5.2.0.0 of the Microsoft.Data.OData dll, but how do I fix this, if this is the issue? According to the documentation I have seen on the Storage dll is that it is supposed to reference 5.4 and up, not 5.2...?

Answer 1

Opening issue for such an easy to solve issue will not help you.

Put the following addition configuration in your respective config files (web.config for the MVC and app.config for the worker role):

 <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.OData" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.5.0.0" newVersion="5.5.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Data.Edm" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.5.0.0" newVersion="5.5.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>

Note that runtime section is direct descendant of the configuration root element! I'm pretty sure you already have this section in your web.config, because MVC4 uses it to rebind all references to System.Web.MVC to the latest version.

I personally do not expect the SDK to be updated with every new version of every referenced library! This would be madness...

Answer 2

I had a very similar problem but in this case it exception message was;

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Data.OData, Version=5.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

note it was trying to load v5.5.0.0 of the OData assembly.

After some digging around with ILSpy (http://www.ilspy.net) I discovered that Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage 2.0.0.0 was explictly referencing Microsoft.Data.OData 5.2.0.0 - which I didn't have as my version was 5.5.0.0.

So the solution was to use the NuGet package manager to uninstall Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage, this inturn uninstalled Microsoft.Data.OData 5.5. Then again using the NuGet package manager, reinstall Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage which identified that it needed Microsoft.Data.OData 5.2 and installed that too.

and back to a working solution.

Answer 3

You can solve this issue in general whenever you update packages or add new packages via NuGet and end up with "Could Not Load file or Assembly..." issues.

Open the Package Manager Console (VS 2012 Tools/Library Package Manager/ Package Manager Console). Once the shell opens for the Package Manager Console run the command:

Add-BindingRedirect

Note: Be careful as the NugGet example added an 's' to the end in their example and Add-BindingRedirect is not a valid command.

This does the following:

Examines all assemblies in the output path for a project and adds binding redirects to the application configuration (app.config) file or to the web configuration (web.config) file where required.

You can see complete documentation for the Package Manager Console at: http://nuget.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Package%20Manager%20Console%20Command%20Reference%20(v1.3)

In addition to the two entries you see in astaykov's answer the following was also added for my Project.

  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Spatial" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.5.0.0" newVersion="5.5.0.0" />
  </dependentAssembly>

Answer 4

I had similar problem today. The only difference I spotted is my cloud app was looking (and failing to find) for Microsoft.Data.OData in Version=5.2.0.0

Using Visual Studio Object Browser i found out that my solution used library from that location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft WCF Data Services\5.0\bin\.NETFramework

Microsoft.Data.OData library residing there was in ver. 5.0.0.0 so overwriting it with 5.2.0.0 resolved the problem.

P.S. I installed WCF Data Services Tools for Windows Store Apps earlier in hope of resolving this issue so it may happen that your application gets it from another source. If that is the case you have two options:

1. Install WCF Data Services Tools for Windows Store Apps from here and use solution above.

2. Use Visual Studio Object Browser to find what versions of OData library are currently visible for your project and where they are stored. Next you need to overwrite improper versions of them.