Azure DevOps Hosted Build Controller - Is the Azure Storage Emulator supported?

As already stated you can't run the Azure Storage Emulator. What you can run though is Azurite an open source alternative.

Please note: Azurite can emulate blobs, tables and queues. However I have only used the blob storage emulation in this way.

At the start of your build configuration add a nuget step that runs a custom nuget command install Azurite -version 2.2.2. Then add a command line step that runs start /b $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\Azurite.2.2.2\tools\blob.exe.

It runs on the same port as the Azure Storage Emulator so you can use the standard connection strings.

Despite all the answers here to the contrary, I've been running the Azure Storage Emulator on a VS2017 hosted build agent for over a year.

The trick is to initialise SQL LocalDB first (the emulator uses it), and then start the emulator. You can do this with a command line task that runs:

sqllocaldb create MSSQLLocalDB
sqllocaldb start MSSQLLocalDB
sqllocaldb info MSSQLLocalDB

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe" start

No, the Hosted Build Controller does not run in Interactive Mode, so the emulator won't work under the environment. See Q&A in Hosted build controller for XAML builds for details.

Q: Do you need to run your build service in interactive mode?

A: No. Then you can use the hosted build controller.

I recommend you setup on-premises build controller and run the build server in Interactive Mode. Refer to Setup Build Server and Setup Build Controller for details.