azure_data_tables 0.21: all table operations fail with 'header not found server' when storage account omits Server header

[Alan-Jowett]

Summary

All Azure Table Storage operations via azure_data_tables 0.21.0 fail with header not found server when the storage account response does not include a Server HTTP header.

Versions

• azure_data_tables 0.21.0
• azure_storage 0.21.0
• azure_core 0.21.0

Observed behavior

Every table operation (point reads via EntityClient::get(), queries via TableClient::query(), inserts) fails with:

header not found server

The error originates from CommonStorageResponseHeaders in azure_storage::headers which unconditionally requires the server header:

// azure_storage-0.21.0/src/headers/mod.rs
impl TryFrom<&Headers> for CommonStorageResponseHeaders {
    fn try_from(headers: &Headers) -> azure_core::Result<Self> {
        Ok(Self {
            request_id: request_id_from_headers(headers)?,
            client_request_id: client_request_id_from_headers_optional(headers),
            version: version_from_headers(headers)?,
            date: date_from_headers(headers)?,
            server: server_from_headers(headers)?,  // fails here
        })
    }
}

server_from_headers calls headers.get_as(&SERVER) which returns an error when the header is absent.

How to reproduce

We have two Azure Storage accounts (both StorageV2, Standard_LRS, eastus). One returns the Server header, the other does not:

Storage account A (works):

Server: Windows-Azure-Table/1.0, Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
Cache-Control: no-cache
x-ms-request-id: ...
x-ms-version: 2019-02-02
Date: ...
Content-Type: application/json; odata=fullmetadata; ...

Storage account B (fails):

Cache-Control: no-cache
x-ms-request-id: ...
x-ms-version: 2019-02-02
Date: ...
Content-Type: application/json; odata=fullmetadata; ...

(No Server header)

Both accounts are queried with the same API version (x-ms-version: 2019-02-02) and the same azure_data_tables 0.21.0 code.

Response headers were verified via direct HTTP calls:

# Point read
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://<account>.table.core.windows.net/actualstate(PartitionKey='...',RowKey='state')" `
  -Headers @{Authorization="Bearer $token"; Accept="application/json;odata=fullmetadata"; "x-ms-version"="2019-02-02"}

# Query
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://<account>.table.core.windows.net/actualstate()?`$filter=..." `
  -Headers @{Authorization="Bearer $token"; Accept="application/json;odata=fullmetadata"; "x-ms-version"="2019-02-02"}

Both point reads and queries against storage account B return successful 200 responses with valid JSON bodies, but no Server header. The SDK fails parsing the response headers before the application code ever sees the data.

Impact

This is a production blocker. Our Azure Function handler processes messages from a Storage Queue and writes/reads Azure Table Storage. All table operations against the affected storage account fail, causing messages to be moved to the poison queue after 5 retries.

Application Insights log

handler invocation failed error="load gateway actual-state row failed: header not found server"

Expected behavior

The server field on CommonStorageResponseHeaders should be Option<String> since Azure does not guarantee the Server header is present in all responses.

[github-actions]

Thank you for your feedback. Tagging and routing to the team member best able to assist.

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[github-actions]

🎯 Agentic Issue Triage

Summary: All azure_data_tables 0.21.0 operations fail with header not found server when the Azure Storage account response omits the Server HTTP header, because CommonStorageResponseHeaders unconditionally requires that header.

📋 Issue Details

• Crate / module: azure_data_tables / azure_storage (sdk/storage/)
• Affected API: CommonStorageResponseHeaders::try_from(&Headers) → server_from_headers
• Scenario: User performs Table Storage operations (get, query, insert) against a storage account that does not return the Server response header
• Root ask: Make the server field on CommonStorageResponseHeaders an Option so that absent Server headers do not cause hard failures

🔎 Debugging / Reproduction Notes

The error header not found server is returned by headers.get_as(&SERVER) in server_from_headers when the header is absent. This is a straightforward bug: the Server header is not guaranteed by the Azure Storage REST API spec.

Suggested investigation steps:

1. In azure_storage/src/headers/mod.rs, change the server field type from HeaderValue (or equivalent) to Option<HeaderValue> and update server_from_headers to use headers.get_optional_as(&SERVER) or equivalent.
2. Update any callers that read CommonStorageResponseHeaders.server to handle the Option.
3. Add a unit test that constructs a Headers map without the Server header and verifies TryFrom succeeds.

🏷️ Label Confidence

• Category: Client — azure_data_tables is a client library crate under sdk/storage/, not a resource manager crate
• Service: Storage — issue directly involves azure_storage and azure_data_tables under sdk/storage/
• Confidence: High — crate names and SDK path are explicitly stated in the issue

👥 Owner Routing

• Matched CODEOWNERS entry: # ServiceLabel: %Storage — matched because predicted service label is Storage
• AzureSDKOwners: vincenttran-msft, jalauzon-msft, jaschrep-msft
• ServiceOwners: none listed
• Routing action: Assigned to vincenttran-msft (randomly selected from AzureSDKOwners); added needs-team-attention because issue is customer-reported

Generated by Agentic Triage for issue #4489 · ● 2.4M · ◷

To install this agentic workflow, run

gh aw add githubnext/agentics/workflows/issue-triage.md@8e6d7c86bba37371d2d0eee1a23563db3e561eb5