I’ve been working on a Chef cookbook for our web servers recently and needed to include the installation and configuration of AppFabric for WCF service monitoring. AppFabric is fairly old at this point and although there is documentation its not always clear which AppFabric product/version it is for. “AppFabric” is one of those product names that Microsoft used for several different products. AppFabric for Windows Server had three main features: caching, hosting services and service monitoring. Azure AppFabric provides microservise features in Azure.
I specifically wanted to use the ApplicationServer PowerShell cmdlets which are installed with AppFabric to configure AppFabric. I found the following documentation which highlights the installation location of the cmdlets:
This DLL is included in the following folder: <drive>:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\ApplicationServer.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee677341(v=azure.10).aspx
Here is the documentation for performing an automated installation of AppFabric which has a flag for also installing the HostingServices which includes the PowerShell cmdlets.
The command
setup /i HostingServiceswill also install HostingServicesAdmin.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh351353(v=azure.10).aspx
The problem was after installation I wasn’t able to import the ApplicationServer cmdlets. It appears they weren’t being installed. So I futzed with the installation for several days trying to get it to work to no avail.
As a last resort I researched this problem one last time and found some newer documentation that indicated the installation path for AppFabric 1.1 had changed from previous versions and the PowerShell modules were no longer placed in the system modules path. BINGO!
Installation path change
Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server now installs to a default path of .\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server. You also have the option to customize the installation path.
AppFabric Windows PowerShell modules are no longer system modules
In the previous release, Windows PowerShell modules were system modules. One result was that they were loaded automatically when you ran Windows PowerShell Modules from Administrator Tools. This is no longer the case. You now must directly load the modules using the Import-Module command. The modules are located in the PowershellModules directory in the installation path. For AppFabric Caching, you have the alternative option to launch the Caching Administration Windows PowerShell link from the start menu.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh361710.aspx
So the default install location for the ApplicationServer cmdlets is now:
C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\PowershellModules\ApplicationServer\
Leave a comment below if you still use AppFabric and/or you found this post useful. Thanks!