Sitecore 10.2 - Type initializer exception when executing script via WebAPI

[larionovadaria]

Expected Behavior

restfulv2 service works as expected right after deployment.

Actual Behavior

Similar to: #982

• Couldn't reproduce locally, only on Azure.
• Fix described here Sitecore 9 - Type initializer exception when executing script via WebAPI  #982 (comment) didn't help, but the issue completely disappears if you manually restart WebApp once again after deployment, which makes me think something happens during initialization.
• Issue began to happen only after remoting restfulv2 service was enabled. Sitecore Powershell itself worked without any issues on current version and previous ones.

Setup

Sitecore PowerShell Extensions 6.3.0.17327
Sitecore 10.2
Azure WebApp hosting

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

Steps to reproduce are similar to: #982

[michaellwest]

Is there something you're using with that endpoint that could be shifted over to the SPE Remoting endpoint?

[larionovadaria]

I think technically we could use SPE Remoting, but chose WebAPI instead to restrict running any script, and run only ones that we have predefined.
Are you saying that we need to try to move to SPE Remoting and see if issue persists?

[michaellwest]

I'm curious if running the scripts through SPE Remoting encounters the same initialization error.

Can you try something like this with SPE Remoting (and restfulv2 disabled)?

Import-Module -Name SPE
$session = New-ScriptSession -Username admin -Password b -ConnectionUri https://remotesitecore
Invoke-RemoteScript -Session $session -ScriptBlock {
        # Your script
        # or Get-Item -Path "your-script" | Invoke-Script
}
Stop-ScriptSession -Session $session

[larionovadaria]

The issue I described happens from time to time after deployment, locally it was never a problem.
I'll try to do what you proposed, will monitor WebApp for a while and return back. Thank you.

[larionovadaria]

@michaellwest we disabled restful2 and used remoting script like you shared above. Unfortunately that didn't help, we still experiencing the problem.

Few things I've noticed. The restful2 and remoting was enabled on several Azure environments. Enabling of the services doesn't cause the issue itself. Only one environment has the issue above. That's the environment where we run package installation from Powershell regularly. So it seems like the package installation does something that causes the issue, but that's a guess.

So the sequence to reproduce is the following:

1. Run package installation via Powershell on the environment. Wait till it successfully finishes the installation.
2. Restart the app (manually restart web app or deploy new code which will restart the pool)
3. Click on Desktop - Installation Wizard. It will show modal window with "The type initializer for 'Sitecore.Install.Serialization.IOUtils' threw an exception". Same error you'll get if you try to run package installation through Powershell.
4. Restart web app in Azure
5. Click on Desktop - Installation Wizard. If it doesn't return the issue anymore then the Powershell installation script will work as expected.