Ninject crashes on application start on appharbor

Question

I am using Ninject on my MVC 3 project deployed on appharbor. I noticed that I get an exception when the application is started, and it looks like something inside Ninject is the cause, but I cannot find any answers out there - so please help me :)

Will try to add the complete exception here:

Server Error in '/' Application.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error: 

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace: 


[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   NewRelic.Agent.Core.AgentShim.GetTracer(String tracerFactoryName, UInt32 level, String metricName, String assemblyName, String className, String methodName, String argumentSignature, Object invocationTarget) +51
   System.AppDomain.CreateDomain(String friendlyName, Evidence securityInfo, AppDomainSetup info) +99
   Ninject.Modules.AssemblyNameRetriever.CreateTemporaryAppDomain() in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\Modules\AssemblyNameRetriever.cs:68
   Ninject.Modules.AssemblyNameRetriever.GetAssemblyNames(IEnumerable`1 filenames, Predicate`1 filter) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\Modules\AssemblyNameRetriever.cs:47
   Ninject.Modules.CompiledModuleLoaderPlugin.LoadModules(IEnumerable`1 filenames) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\Modules\CompiledModuleLoaderPlugin.cs:81
   Ninject.Modules.ModuleLoader.LoadModules(IEnumerable`1 patterns) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\Modules\ModuleLoader.cs:60
   Ninject.KernelBase.Load(IEnumerable`1 filePatterns) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\KernelBase.cs:236
   Ninject.KernelBase..ctor(IComponentContainer components, INinjectSettings settings, INinjectModule[] modules) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\KernelBase.cs:97
   Ninject.KernelBase..ctor(INinjectModule[] modules) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\KernelBase.cs:57
   Ninject.StandardKernel..ctor(INinjectModule[] modules) in c:\Projects\Ninject\ninject\src\Ninject\StandardKernel.cs:46
   Checkin.App_Start.NinjectWebCommon.CreateKernel() in d:\temp\44uvjuob.32m\input\Checkin\App_Start\NinjectWebCommon.cs:43
   Ninject.Web.Common.Bootstrapper.Initialize(Func`1 createKernelCallback) in c:\Projects\Ninject\Ninject.Web.Common\src\Ninject.Web.Common\Bootstrapper.cs:50
   Checkin.App_Start.NinjectWebCommon.Start() in d:\temp\44uvjuob.32m\input\Checkin\App_Start\NinjectWebCommon.cs:26

[TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.]
   System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(IRuntimeMethodInfo method, Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeType typeOwner) +0
   System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethodFast(IRuntimeMethodInfo method, Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeType typeOwner) +69
   System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) +242
   System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) +21
   System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke(Object obj, Object[] parameters) +19
   WebActivator.BaseActivationMethodAttribute.InvokeMethod() +223
   WebActivator.ActivationManager.RunActivationMethods() +493
   WebActivator.ActivationManager.RunPreStartMethods() +28
   WebActivator.ActivationManager.Run() +55

[InvalidOperationException: The pre-application start initialization method Run on type WebActivator.ActivationManager threw an exception with the following error message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation..]
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.InvokePreStartInitMethods(ICollection`1 methods) +377
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods() +267
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +690

[HttpException (0x80004005): The pre-application start initialization method Run on type WebActivator.ActivationManager threw an exception with the following error message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation..]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +532
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +90
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +172

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.272

If I reload the page - the exception disappears. This might have something to do with using ninject for a filter:

this.BindFilter<AdminAuthorizationAttribute>(FilterScope.Controller, -100)
    .When((context, ad) => context.RouteData.DataTokens["area"] != null &&
            ((string)context.RouteData.DataTokens["area"]).ToLower() == "admin" && 
            ((string)context.RouteData.Values["controller"]).ToLower() != "login");

Answer 1

The problem is not caused by Ninject. It is NewRelic.Agent.Core.AgentShim (used by AppHarbor) that is the culprit.

Although looking at the stacktrace, I think you can work around this problem by disabling Ninject's automatic extenison loading feature and load them manually.

var kernel = new StandardKernel(new NinjectSettings { LoadExtensions = false })
kernel.Load(new Ninject.Web.Mvc.MvcModule()); // same for all other extension modules

Answer 2

We've temporarily disabled the New Relic add-on and removed the New Relic agent from AppHarbor servers. We'll re-add New Relic once it's no longer causing problems for applications running on the platform.