Converting service principal certificate contents to base-64 encoded string format in HDInsight

This article describes troubleshooting steps and possible resolutions for issues when interacting with Azure HDInsight clusters.

Issue

You receive an error message stating the input isn't a valid Base-64 string as it contains a nonbase 64 character, more than two padding characters, or a nonwhite space character among the padding characters.

Cause

When using PowerShell or Azure template deployment to create clusters with Data Lake as either primary or more storage, the service principal certificate contents provided to access the Data Lake storage account is in the base-64 format. Improper conversion of pfx certificate contents to base-64 encoded string can lead to this error.

Resolution

Once you have the service principal certificate in pfx format (see here for sample service principal creation steps), use the following PowerShell command or C# snippet to convert the certificate contents to base-64 format.

$servicePrincipalCertificateBase64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes(path-to-servicePrincipalCertificatePfxFile))

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var certContents = File.ReadAllBytes(@"<path to pfx file>");
            string certificateData = Convert.ToBase64String(certContents);
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(certificateData);
        }
    }
}

Next steps

If you didn't see your problem or are unable to solve your issue, visit one of the following channels for more support:

• Get answers from Azure experts through Azure Community Support.

• Connect with @AzureSupport - the official Microsoft Azure account for improving customer experience. Connecting the Azure community to the right resources: answers, support, and experts.

• If you need more help, you can submit a support request from the Azure portal. Select Support from the menu bar or open the Help + support hub. For more detailed information, review How to create an Azure support request. Access to Subscription Management and billing support is included with your Microsoft Azure subscription, and Technical Support is provided through one of the Azure Support Plans.