SignService server: error while signing "The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect"

While trying to update our SignService instance to the most recent master branch code per https://github.com/dotnet/SignService/issues/60#issuecomment-489245289, ran into the following error running the latest code:

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detailSystem.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (14001): The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detailat SignService.Utils.Kernel32.ActivationContext…ctor(String assemblyName) in d:\a\1\s\src\SignService\Utils\Kernel32.cs:line 77at SignService.AzureSignToolSignService.RunSignTool(AuthenticodeKeyVaultSigner signer, String file, String description, String descriptionUrl) in d:\a\1\s\src\SignService\SigningTools\AzureSignToolSignService.cs:line 105

I deployed to our Azure Website that we’ve been using to host the SignService instance using an artifact deployment via the https://github.com/dotnet/SignService/blob/master/azure-pipelines.server.yml file in this repository.

Is this a configuration issue with my specific deployment? Or an issue with the latest code?

[Aaronontheweb]

Got everything working on my end finally - I think the issue was how we’re doing the Azure App Service deployment from Azure Pipelines. I’d recommend we take your advice from the Twitter thread we had earlier and add that to the development documentation:

https://twitter.com/onovotny/status/1125771206529961985

On the deployment, I always configure a slot and ensure the right settings are pinned to the prod slot. In the tasks, I stop the deployment slot, deploy, start, then do a slot swap. Makes sure nothing is in use.

I’m certain my issue was caused by a dirty deployment. But it’s happily code-signing away now.

[andrewmolyneux]

Apologies for playing necromancer here, but I’ve just deployed SignService to an App Service (on a B1 instance) and I’m seeing exactly the same problem. I saw the advice about using a deployment slot but it seems B1 instances don’t support deployment slots, so I scaled up to S1 and did the following:

• Created a slot named “staging” (copying the settings from production)
• Stopped the “staging” slot
• Deployed (using Azure Pipelines)
• Started the “staging” slot
• Swapped “staging” with “production”

I still can’t get it to sign anything at all - it’s consistently failing with the same “Sxs config is incorrect” error - and I’m beginning to lose the will to live 😆 Help me @clairernovotny, you’re my only hope!