[OUTDATED] AzureCP Subscription Edition

[Yvand]

Edit

This announcement is outdated and no longer valid. Read this one for up to date information.
I keep this post for reference and to provide a procedure to properly uninstall AzureCP SE.

Say hi to AzureCP SE!

The next version of AzureCP contains big, breaking changes, and is not compatible with any previous version.
And it has a new name.

Most significant consequences

• 0 compatibility with previous versions
• A new solution name: AzureCPSE.wsp
• A new claims provider name: AzureCPSE (or "AzureCP SE" or "AzureCP Subscription Edition")
• A new installation procedure, much more simple
• The minimum SharePoint version required is 2016 (despite the new name)
• The minimum .NET Framework required is 4.8
• It no longer works on SharePoint 2013

Why those changes

In short: The weight of legacy.
In more details:
There were too many wrong things inherited from the original design of AzureCP, and impossible to fix without breaking the compatibility, or risking disasters during updates.

Another bad mistake was the deployment mode of the solution ("WebFrontEnd"), which I figured out too late means that the solution's assemblies are not deployed on non-WFE servers (except for the central administration server, which is why I missed that).
I never dared to change it for fear of messing up the upgrade in a production environment.
AzureCPSE uses the deployment mode "ApplicationServer", which as its name does not indicate, deploys the assemblies on all servers.

AzureCP v21 used NuGet package Microsoft.Graph 3.35.0, released in June 2021 and completely outdated. I never updated because it was the last version that does not require specific assembly bindings to be loaded in SharePoint processes.
AzureCPSE uses the latest version of Microsoft.Graph and I will document a simple procedure to set the required assembly bindings in the machine.config.
It also comes with a troubleshooting page that administrators can use to test the assembly bindings and the connectivity to Azure.

Why name it AzureCP Subscription Edition, since it works also on SharePoint 2019 and 2016?

I needed a new name for the solution and the claims provider, to clearly indicate it is incompatible with previous versions.
AzureCPSE is primarily designed for SharePoint SE, uses its assembly as reference and shares the .NET Framework requirement. I am happy it also works in SharePoint 2019 and 2016 but it is partly luck (especially for SharePoint 2016).
Besides, in a few years, only SharePoint SE will still stand, and the name will fit naturally.

How to test AzureCP SE

The install procedure is different compared to all previous versions of AzureCP.
No update from a previous version is possible, but AzureCPSE can be installed side by side with AzureCP.
First step is to download assembly-bindings.config and AzureCPSE.wsp from https://github.com/Yvand/AzureCP/releases/tag/nightly

To do on all SharePoint servers

• Double check that server has at least .NET Framework 4.8
• Open the machine.config file (%systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\Machine.config), and replace its tag <runtime /> with the content of the file assembly-bindings.config you downloaded.

Then, only on the server which runs the central administration:

• Add the solution to the farm: Add-SPSolution "C:\YvanData\dev\AzureCPSE.wsp"
• Deploy the solution: Install-SPSolution -Identity "AzureCPSE.wsp" -GACDeployment
• Install the features: Install-SPFeature -SolutionId "dd03bdd7-0645-475e-a852-f180b8bc8191" -AllExistingFeatures

Done.

Uninstall AzureCP SE

Don't just retract the solution! Please follow the steps below to correctly uninstall AzureCP SE:

• Run this script to remove its features:

# Deletes the persisted object used by AzureCPSE to store its configuration
Add-Type -AssemblyName "Yvand.AzureCP, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=65dc6b5903b51636"
[Yvand.AzureCP]::DeleteConfiguration()

# Disables the features present in AzureCPSE.wsp solution
Disable-SPFeature -Identity "AzureCPSE" # This will remove the claims provider from the farm
Disable-SPFeature -Identity "AzureCPSE.Administration" -Url $([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local.Url)

# Uninstalls the features present in AzureCPSE.wsp solution
Uninstall-SPFeature -Identity "AzureCPSE"
Uninstall-SPFeature -Identity "AzureCPSE.Administration"

# Sanity check
if ($null -eq (Get-SPFeature | ?{$_.DisplayName -like "AzureCPSE*"}) -and
    $null -eq (Get-SPClaimProvider -Identity "AzureCPSE" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
    Write-Host "You can now safely retract AzureCPSE.wsp"
} else {
    Write-Warning "You should not retract AzureCPSE.wsp until all its features and its claims provider are properly removed. You won't be able to do it after you retracted the solution, unless you redeploy the solution"
}

• Then go to the central administration > System Settings > Manage farm solutions > AzureCPSE.wsp > Retract Solution
• Once the solution is retracted, click again on AzureCPSE.wsp > Remove Solution

Known issue

AzureCP SE causes the SharePoint configuration wizard to fail, when it is executed after installing a SharePoint update.
No panic, the solution is simple: Simply delete the persisted object which stores the AzureCPSE configuration using this script:

Add-Type -AssemblyName "Yvand.AzureCP, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=65dc6b5903b51636"
[Yvand.AzureCP]::DeleteConfiguration()

Then you can run the SharePoint configuration wizard successfully.

Next steps

The main work is completed, what remains to do is:

• Document how to deploy the nightly release (set the assembly bindings, enable the features)
• Some work remaining on administration pages, troubleshooting page, document the code itself
• Test it on more SharePoint configurations
• Update https://azurecp.yvand.net/, which won't be simple because I need to manage the documentation for both AzureCP "classic" and AzureCP SE