Why are some Azure-specific assemblies not present on Azure instances?
An Azure role will likely need a set of Azure-specific .NET assemblies like `Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime` and `Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient`. Turns out the latter is [not in the GAC on Azure instances][1] and so I have to set "Copy Local" to "True" in the Visual Studio project so that it gets into the service package and deployed to Azure. If I don't do that the assembly is not there and the missing dependency will prevent my role from starting.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Either it's just a bug or I don't get the big picture.

Is there a good reason why the key assemblies would not be present in Azure instances GAC and I have to carry them with my service package?


  [1]: http://blog.arunstephens.com/2011/01/16/microsoft-windowsazure-storageclient-is-not-actually-on-azure/
Why are some Azure-specific assemblies not present on Azure instances?
===

An Azure role will likely need a set of Azure-specific .NET assemblies like `Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime` and `Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient`. Turns out the latter is [not in the GAC on Azure instances][1] and so I have to set "Copy Local" to "True" in the Visual Studio project so that it gets into the service package and deployed to Azure. If I don't do that the assembly is not there and the missing dependency will prevent my role from starting.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Either it's just a bug or I don't get the big picture.

Is there a good reason why the key assemblies would not be present in Azure instances GAC and I have to carry them with my service package?


  [1]: http://blog.arunstephens.com/2011/01/16/microsoft-windowsazure-storageclient-is-not-actually-on-azure/