Windows Azure target machine actively refused connection when using emulator - windows

Question

So just recently my main computer has started having an issue with the Window Azure emulator. When I try and debug my solution using the emulator it just ends up looping through trying to connect.
This is what I get in the output window:
> iisexpress.exe Warning: 0 : WARNING: <SimpleSendReceiveModule> d8c9fa85-ded3-48ad-94a3-ec31e2123bb3:Request - 1, result - Status=ChannelOpenFailed[System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (0x80004005): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.255.0.0:20004
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.AsyncResultNoResult.EndInvoke()
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.AsyncResult`1.EndInvoke()
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.TcpClientChannelFactory.EndConnect(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at
Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.TcpClientChannel.ConnectionCallback(IAsyncResult result)] for end point [net.tcp://127.255.0.0:20004]
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 500 : Role instance status check starting
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 502 : Role instance status check succeeded: Ready
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 500 : Role instance status check starting
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 502 : Role instance status check succeeded: Ready
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 500 : Role instance status check starting
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 502 : Role instance status check succeeded: Ready
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 500 : Role instance status check starting
Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime Verbose: 502 : Role instance status check succeeded: Ready
iisexpress.exe Warning: 0 : WARNING: <DistributedCache.SocketClientChannel.1> Request 1 to host net.tcp://127.255.0.0:20004/ failed Status=ChannelOpenFailed[System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (0x80004005): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.255.0.0:20004
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.AsyncResultNoResult.EndInvoke()
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.AsyncResult`1.EndInvoke()
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.TcpClientChannelFactory.EndConnect(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.TcpClientChannel.ConnectionCallback(IAsyncResult result)]
iisexpress.exe Warning: 0 : WARNING: <SimpleSendReceiveModule> d8c9fa85-ded3-48ad-94a3-ec31e2123bb3:Request - 1, result - Status=ChannelOpenFailed[System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (0x80004005): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.255.0.0:20004
Through research I've found that the 127.255.X.X ip is the ip that the emulator makes from it's internal load balancer. What I don't understand is why my machine just decided it doesn't want to accept this connection. I've turned off all my firewalls, reinstalled visual studio, completely reinstalled windows azure and still no luck. It's definitely not code based because my colleagues and my secondary machine have no issues. However, working with my seconday machine is not preferable so I'd like to get this one working and I'd like to find a solution that doesnt involve completely formatting my machine which is about where my knowledge is at at this point.
Currently running the October 2012 release of azure, visual studio 2012 and .net 4.5.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem with Azure SDK 2.0 under Windows 8, while I had no problem with Azure SDK 1.8 under Windows 7. Like you I've initially thought of a network related problem. I then tried to disable caching and noticed that other roles in my cloud projects correctly noticed that the caching service was unavailable with another error message.
In my experience, it is likely that the issue is related to your regional settings, in particular to the way Long Time format is specified. I discovered from this SO question that the cache emulator uses logman.exe for logging purposes and it passes a duration to the cnf parameter using the Long Time format from regional settings (for example HH.mm.ss in my Windows 8 machine with Italian settings) -- but in fact cnf requires the duration to be exactly in the format HH:mm:ss (with the colons instead of the dots). After I've changed the Long Time format, caching started working correctly in Computer Emulator.
You may also consider these solutions:
reboot your computer, as suggested in this thread on MSDN forums;
use two instances for the cache, as suggested in this SO thread.