MsBuild fails on VSTS build agent due to COMException

[itzamna314]

I'm attempting to build some NuProj projects as part of a VSTS build pipeline. I'm invoking MsBuild with the following parameters:

/p:Version="$(version)" /p:OutputPath="$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\nuget\ci" /p:GenerateSymbolPackage=false

Those parameters work fine on my local machine, but when I run the build on the VSTS build agent, I get the following exception:

2018-03-20T19:22:13.2706739Z ##[error]packages\NuProj.0.11.30\tools\NuProj.targets(867,5): Error MSB4018: The "ReadPdbSourceFiles" task failed unexpectedly.
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154): Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3BFCEA48-620F-4B6B-81F7-B9AF75454C7D} failed due to the following error: 80040154 Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)).
   at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
   at NuProj.Tasks.PdbReader.ReadSourceFiles(String pdbPath) in C:\projects\nuproj\src\NuProj.Tasks\ReadPdbSourceFiles.cs:line 36
   at NuProj.Tasks.ReadPdbSourceFiles.Execute() in C:\projects\nuproj\src\NuProj.Tasks\ReadPdbSourceFiles.cs:line 25
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.<ExecuteInstantiatedTask>d__26.MoveNext()

I was hoping that setting GenerateSymbolPackage=false would skip the ReadPdbSourceFiles task entirely, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've also tried using both the x86 and x64 versions of MsBuild, but I get the same error with both versions.

When I check the registry on my local machine, I can see that {3BFCEA48-620F-4B6B-81F7-B9AF75454C7D} is registered to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\x64\msdia120.dll. My guess is that msdia120.dll either doesn't exist or isn't registered on the build agent. Is there any way to work around that dependency? Or any way to install it on the build agent during an earlier build step?

[itzamna314]

I was able to find a workaround - I included the following flags to skip all .pdb creation:
/p:DebugSymbols=false /p:DebugType=None

I would like to be able to include .pdbs eventually, though, so any help on this issue would still be appreciated.

[AArnott]

This doesn't block inclusion of PDBs -- this blocks including source files themselves into the package based on what is found in the PDB.

[itzamna314]

Ah, gotcha. In any case, it would be nice to be able to include all available debugging information in the packages that are built on the build server.