Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I am using a free tier subscription and my Workbench deployments fail due to insufficient VM cores quota, is there anything I can do to work around this?

A: Delete your failed deployment. Change the VM SKU in step 8 of the "Deploy Blockchain Workbench" section of the deployment guide to a "Standard DS1 v2" and ensure you do not have any other virtual machines deployed on your subscription before deploying Workbench again.

Q: Which active directory should I use for Workbench (asked in Workbench setup PowerShell script)?

A: You can use any Azure Active Directory tenant as long as you have permission to create Application Registration and allowed to assign Read All User's basic Information delegated privilege to that application.

We understand that many organizations do not allow their users to create AAD application registrations, that is why we recommend creating a new Azure Active Directory (it's free) and use that directory for Workbench.

Q: How do I upgrade my old AAD application to be compatible with Workbench 1.5.0 and later

The AAD application manifest has slightly changed for Workbench 1.5.0 and later, we've provided upgrade instructions and script to help you upgrade your old AAD application.

Q: I'm trying to access Workbench's API programmatically (using a service principal) but I get errors when calling the API.

If you are getting 204 (NO CONTENT), 401 (UNAUTHORIZED), 403 (FORBIDDEN), or 404 (NOT FOUND) when you access Workbench's API using a service principal it may be due to service principal not having admin privileges or not being assigned to the correct application role to take that action. Please take a look at Workbench service principal for creating and giving a service principal admin privileges. There is also this great article that discusses programmatic access of Workbench and application role assignment.

Q: Workbench performance is very slow for me. How can I scale up/out to improve performance?

A: When there are many users interacting with Workbench, pages load/refresh slowly. Refer to our scale up/out guidance.

Q: I'm getting error messages when taking actions such as creating a contract or taking action on a contract. How can I troubleshoot the problem?

A: We leverage Application Insights to give you detailed troubleshooting information. Refer to our troubleshooting guide for instructions and more information.

Q: I'm having trouble setting up AAD integration with Workbench. What steps do I need to take to do this post-deployment?

A: You can refer to our AAD setup instructions for instructions and more information.

Q: I'm having trouble with my Workbench deployment failing due to a password validation failure. What are the password requirements?

A: Your password must meet the following criteria. Please retry your deployment with these in mind.

• The password must be at least 12 and no more than 72 characters in length.
• Your password cannot contain all or part of the sql login name. Part of a login name is defined as 3 or more consecutive alphanumeric characters.
• The password contains characters from three of the following four categories:
  • Latin uppercase letters (A through Z)
  • Latin lowercase letters (a through z)
  • Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
  • Non-alphanumeric characters such as: exclamation point !, dollar sign $, and sign &, at sign @, caret ^, etc.
  • The following characters are not allowed: Any non-ASCII character plus #, \, /, *, ', -, %, ,, space, ;