Problem with issuing command via CustomScriptExtension

Question

I am trying to issue a CustomScriptExtension command to an Azure virtual machine from within my C# application. The CustomScriptExtension is installed in the VM and working. I verified this by issuing a test command via PowerShell. Essentially I am trying
to execute what would be the equivalent to the PowerShell command Set-AzureVMCustomScriptExtension, but in code.
Below is the code segment that I am having problems with:
ComputeManagementClient client = new ComputeManagementClient(AzureSessionInfo.CloudCredentials);
IList<ResourceExtensionReference> extReferences = new List<ResourceExtensionReference>();
IList<ResourceExtensionParameterValue> extParamValues = new List<ResourceExtensionParameterValue>();
string account = "{\"storageAccountName\":\"" + AzureSessionInfo.StorageAccount + "\",\"storageAccountKey\": \"" + AzureSessionInfo.StorageAccountKey + "\"}";
string scriptfile = "{\"fileUris\": [\"" + "https://teststorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/testcontainer" + "\"], \"commandToExecute\":\"powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -file " + "ScriptName.ps1" + "\"}";
byte[] bytes1 = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(account);
bytes1 = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(account);
string ScriptPrivateConfig = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes1);
byte[] bytes2 = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(scriptfile);
bytes2 = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(scriptfile);
string ScriptPublicConfig = Convert.ToBase64String(bytes2);
ResourceExtensionParameterValue extRef_Parameter1 = new ResourceExtensionParameterValue()
Key = "CustomScriptExtensionPrivateConfigParameter",
Value = ScriptPrivateConfig,
Type = "Private"
ResourceExtensionParameterValue extRef_Parameter2 = new ResourceExtensionParameterValue()
Key = "CustomScriptExtensionPublicConfigParameter",
Value = ScriptPublicConfig,
Type = "Public"
extParamValues.Add(extRef_Parameter1);
extParamValues.Add(extRef_Parameter2);
ResourceExtensionReference extRef_CustomScript = new ResourceExtensionReference
Name = "CustomScriptExtension",
Publisher = "Microsoft.Compute",
Version = "*",
ReferenceName = "CustomScriptExtension",
ResourceExtensionParameterValues = extParamValues
extReferences.Add(extRef_CustomScript);
AzureSessionInfo.CloudServiceName = "CS1000001";
AzureSessionInfo.VMName = "CS1000001";
AzureSessionInfo.ImageFamilyName = "Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter";
client.VirtualMachines.Update(AzureSessionInfo.CloudServiceName,
AzureSessionInfo.VMName,
AzureSessionInfo.VMName,
new VirtualMachineUpdateParameters
RoleName = AzureSessionInfo.VMName,
ResourceExtensionReferences = extReferences
I receive the following error message back from the call:
BadRequest: Invalid extension reference parameter value in JSON configuration data for the Role: CS1000001, Reference name: CustomScriptExtension.
I could only find very little documentation on this. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Thanks Mekh... after many hours of researching and trial/error, I figured it out.
The MSDN article I used previously led me down the wrong path. (see article here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn781373.aspx). This may work for RESTful calls but not for .NET API calls.
The part of the code that was hurting me was where the command strings (account and
scriptfile) were being converted to Base64 encoding. This is NOT correct for .NET calls. Once I removed that, everything worked fine.
I came across this after researching the same commands used by Linux scripts. They don't convert to Base64 either so I wonder why this is included in the documentation at all.
In either case, I figured it out, but the documentation is very poor in this area (or all together non-existent). I don't even see where it is documented as to which JSON parameters names are supposed to be used, or even that JSON is required.
Also, related to the Update command, if you are truly "updating" the config, you must include everything about the original config (whether it changed or not) along with the changes you want to make. If not then you will undo ALL but the changes
you issued via the command.