Cross posting from http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsazuretroubleshooting/thread/31b6aedc-c069-4e32-8e8f-2ff4b7c30793

I'm getting this error on changing configuration through the service management API: The request body XML was invalid or not correctly specified

The request body payload:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ChangeConfiguration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazu re"> <Configuration>PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIj8+CjxTZXJ2aWNlQ29uZmlndX JhdGlvbiB4bWxuczp4c2k9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDEvWE1MU2NoZW1hLWluc3RhbmNlIi B4bWxuczp4c2Q9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDEvWE1MU2NoZW1hIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3 NjaGVtYXMubWljcm9zb2Z0LmNvbS9TZXJ2aWNlSG9zdGluZy8yMDA4LzEwL1NlcnZpY2VDb25maWd1cm F0aW9uIiBzZXJ2aWNlTmFtZT0iIiBvc0ZhbWlseT0iMSIgb3NWZXJzaW9uPSIqIj4KICA8Um9sZSBuYW 1lPSJXZWJSb2xlMSI+CiAgICA8Q29uZmlndXJhdGlvblNldHRpbmdzPgogICAgICA8U2V0dGluZyBuYW 1lPSJNaWNyb3NvZnQuV2luZG93c0F6dXJlLlBsdWdpbnMuRGlhZ25vc3RpY3MuQ29ubmVjdGlvblN0cm luZyIgdmFsdWU9IlVzZURldmVsb3BtZW50U3RvcmFnZT10cnVlIi8+CiAgICA8L0NvbmZpZ3VyYXRpb2 5TZXR0aW5ncz4KICAgIDxJbnN0YW5jZXMgY291bnQ9IjIiLz4KICAgIDxDZXJ0aWZpY2F0ZXMvPgogID wvUm9sZT4KPC9TZXJ2aWNlQ29uZmlndXJhdGlvbj4K</Configuration> </ChangeConfiguration>

I'm passing it the following configuration:

$configuration = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" serviceName="" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WebRole1"> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true"/> </ConfigurationSettings> <Instances count="2"/> <Certificates/> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>';

Does anyone know why this error occurs? I suspect it has something to do with encoding but not sure.