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Troubleshooting#

Let's list some common problems and their solutions:

Unit tests seem to fail for some odd reason#

If you run unit tests - you might encounter weird problems, like:

In many cases, the issues are caused because of not enough memory for the docker container that is used to run the tests. Just assign more memory when you start the Docker container, like in this example: 

- task: ALOpsDockerStart@1
  inputs:
    docker_image: $(dockerimage)
    docker_pull: true
    memory_gb: 8

Failed publishing test results to DevOps#

Publishing the test results is a default DevOps step, but for publishing AL Test Results (XUnit), it is important to use at least version 2 of the step (indicated in yml with "@2" at the name of the step). Like: 

- task: PublishTestResults@2
  displayName: 'Publish Test Results **/TestResults.xml'
  inputs:
    testResultsFormat: XUnit
    testResultsFiles: '**/TestResults.xml'
    testRunTitle: 'BC Test Results: $(Build.BuildId)'

I have unclear problems with compiling my app or imorting a fob#

There are a lot of problems caused by a Windows update (Feb 2020) that makes Docker fail to run 32-bit application like finsql.exe or alc.exe. Familiar errors are: - AL Compiler Exit Code: -1073741502 - Exception calling "GetResponse" with "0" argument(s) - ##[error]!

Most of these problems are solved by setting up the containers with Hyper-V isolation: 

- task: ALOpsDockerStart@1
  inputs:
    docker_image: 'mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral/onprem:de'
    docker_pull: true
    memory_gb: '8'
    docker_parameters: '--isolation=hyperv'
It's important to understand that this problem is caused by the combination of the Docker image and the state of Windows Server of your build agent.

ALOps Extension API uses wrong bcartifactsCacheFolder setting#

ALOps is dependent from BCCH (BCContainerHelper) for only some of its CMDLets. But none of its (global) variables. The bcartifactsCacheFolder is a value ALOps is not aware of. But the issue can be solved with a simple server setting (creating a symbolic link). This makes you can still work with moving your cache folder to another drive, but still use the default values in ALOps.

You can create a symbolic link with the following PowerShell command: 

New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "c:\bc.artifactscache" -Target "e:\BcContainerHelper\bcartifacts.cache"

or in a command prompt: 

mklink /d "c:\bc.artifactscache" "e:\BcContainerHelper\bcartifacts.cache"

More info: - Microsoft Learn: Symbolic Links - https://github.com/HodorNV/ALOps/issues/779

I can't deploy my app: Deployment Scopes#

Apps can be deployed in different scopes:

  • Dev: used for development purposes. Whatever you deploy from VSCode, will be deployed in this scope.
  • Global: used for deploying apps that are used by all tenants.

Usually, when you deploy from the pipeline, you will deploy in Global Scope. However, there is one reason to deploy in Dev Scope: when you want to deploy an app that is not yet published to the AppSource. In that case, you can deploy in Dev Scope, so you can test the app in a sandbox.

ALOps supports to either deploy in Dev Scope or in Global Scope (default).

Now - you cannot mix scops. If you deploy an app in Dev Scope, you cannot deploy the same app in Global Scope.

It is highly discouraged to use dev scope unless there is no other way.