Last updated on March 17, 2023.
Many of us started using DevOps Center during Beta, and Salesforce used that time to create solutions for DevOps Center issues reported by users. But you might still run into challenges now and then. In this blog, we’ll list the top four solutions to DevOps Center errors.
DevOps Center Errors and Their Solutions
The following issues were reported by Salesforce users in the DevOps Center user group and addressed by Salesforce.
DevOps Center Doesn’t Detect Changes in a Work Item Branch
Some users are experiencing the issue that after making changes and commits to a work item branch, those changes take hours to be reflected in DevOps Center. Occasionally, they don’t appear at all.
Possible solution:
Wait a while. When you make changes directly to branches in the GitHub repository instead of from DevOps Center, Github has to issue those events before DevOps Center can pick them up. It takes GitHub a while to do this.
Note: Salesforce is interacting with GitHub to optimize the update times in the future.
How Do I Delete Components From a Work Item?
Let’s say you’ve created a work item and added components to deploy. But then you decide there are some components you don’t want to deploy anymore. DevOps Center doesn’t provide the option to remove them from the work item.
Solution 1:
If you haven’t yet committed the component, you don’t need to remove anything. This list of changes in a work item represents the available changes. You have to explicitly select the ones you want to commit from that list.
Solution 2:
If you have already committed the change but haven’t promoted it in the pipeline, you can change the status of the work item to never. This returns the already committed changes to the available changes list. Then you can create a new work item and commit only the files you really want to commit.
Error Message When You Try to Pick Up a Work Item
After setting up DevOps Center and creating a new work item, you might encounter the following error message when you try to pick it up:
“Please reload the page or contact your system administrator if the problem persists.”
Solution:
You’re probably getting this error message because you only have two environments in your pipeline—a dev environment and production—but you’ve designated the development environment the bundling stage. Simply uncheck “This is a bundling stage,” and you’ll be able to select an environment for your work items.
Environment Out of Sync
When moving work items to the bundling stage in DevOps Center, you might encounter the following warning:
“Environment out of sync.”
Solution:
DevOps Center failed to add the deployment ID to the deployment result record. Go into the bundling stage and locate the deployment ID. Then add the deployment ID onto the deployment result record.
DevOps Center Limits You to 100 Projects per Org
When you reach 100 projects in an org, you might run into the following DevOps Center issue: You can’t create any more. This can be limiting if you have a large team and/or if your team is still learning the ropes in DevOps Center. Instead of going in and endlessly deleting projects to make room for more, try the solution below.
Solution:
Check the “Hidden” checkbox on the Project custom object. When this box is checked, the project will no longer show up in the project list view, and it won’t count against the 100 project limit.
The GitHub Repository Isn’t Visible in DevOps Center
When you’re setting up a project, your GitHub repository might not be visible in DevOps Center. This is because the repository is owned by your organization and an organization account owner needs to give you access.
Solution:
- Authenticate to GitHub through DevOps Center.
- In GitHub, provide access to both Salesforce Integration Applications. One provides integration across your GitHub repository, DevOps Center, and development environments. The other provides integration across your GitHub repository, DevOps Center, and production orgs. Here’s how to do this:
- In your personal GitHub account, go to Settings.
- Click Applications, then select Authorized OAuth Apps.
- Click Salesforce Integration Application.
- Find the organization that owns your repository, then click Request.
- Repeat these steps for the other Salesforce Integration Application.
- Once the GitHub repository owner has approved your request for access, open the DevOps Center org. Then:
- If you’re in DevOps Center, click the Home icon to get to the org’s home page.
- Click your profile icon, then select Settings.
- Click Authentication Settings for External Systems.
- Delete DevOps Center GitHub.
- With these steps completed, you can create a project.
Unable to Delete an Environment in DevOps Center
Even if you’ve deleted an environment from your Salesforce production instance, you might not be able to delete it from DevOps Center. This is the case if the environment has an activity history associated with it.
Workaround:
Currently, your only options to remove an environment with an activity history from your DevOps Center pipeline are to disconnect it or swap it.
The Beta Version of DevOps Center Fails to Upgrade Automatically After GA
Due to a bug in the DevOps Center package push upgrader, many orgs with the beta version are failing to upgrade automatically.
Solution:
Go to Setup > Installed Packages to see the version you currently have installed. The latest version is 5.3.0. If you don’t yet have this version of DevOps Center, you can install it via the DevOps Center page.
Unable to Delete a Project in DevOps Center
Currently, after you’ve associated pipeline stages to a project, you can’t delete it.
Workaround:
Rename the project with a “z” at the beginning so it goes to the bottom of the list. For example, “MyProject” becomes “”zMyProject.”
Salesforce is working on a way to remove projects from the list.
“Run a Validate-Only Deployment” Isn’t Visible
You can create a validation-only deployment for versioned stages. However, when you try to do this, the option “Run a Validate-Only Deployment” might not be visible.
Solution:
Make sure your bundling stage is two environments before production. For example, you can have your bundling stage in your test environment before promoting the changes to UAT and on to prod. The option “Run a Validate-Only Deployment” will be visible.
Unable to Create a New Project in DevOps Center
When trying to create a new Project in DevOps Center, you might receive the following message:
“There was an error. Please reload the page or contact your system administrator if the problem persists.”
Possible solution 1:
You could be getting this error message because your connection to GitHub is invalid. Check the Connected App and Named Credential records related to the DevOps Center and Github integration.
Possible solution 2:
Check to see if you added a custom required field to the project setup. If you did, chances are it’s making the transaction fail. Change the custom field to non required, and try again.
Error When Connecting Environments to Project in DevOps Center
Let’s say you’re looking at early testing of DevOps Center, and you want to explore DevOps functionality without affecting your normal work environments. If, after creating a Project, you can’t connect the production and sandbox environments, you’ll keep getting the following message:
“There was an error. Please reload the page or contact your system administrator if the problem persists.”
Solution:
Make sure your Developer Edition environment isn’t too old to use with DevOps Center. Be aware that if you have an old Developer Edition, updating it might break critical functionality you rely on. Instead of updating it, create a new Developer Edition environment to run DevOps Center.
Note: This is a workaround more than a solution. Salesforce has logged the ticket W-11976449 for analysis of this issue.
Unable to Log Into Development Environment
When trying to log into a development environment, you might get the following error message:
“Did you log into the correct environment?
We had a problem connecting to the environment, [environment name].
Unknown Authentication Error
Try again to connect to [environment name].”
Solution:
You received this message because your environment doesn’t have source tracking enabled. You now have two options:
- Select another environment that has source tracking enabled by clicking Change… in the work item.
- Enable source tracking and refresh the sandbox. Here’s how:
- Remove the non-sourced-tracked sandbox from the Settings > Environments page.
- In the org where the sandbox was created, enable Source Tracking for Sandboxes.
- Refresh the sandbox.
- Add the newly-refreshed and source-tracked sandbox to DevOps Center.
- In the work item, click Change… to select this environment.
A Work Item’s Contents Disappear After Setting Status to Never
If, for some reason, you no longer want to promote a work item, you might set its status to Never. If you do this, all its content disappears—so you no longer know which items you’ve already updated and which ones you still need to work on.
Solution:
Create a new work item and click Pull Changes. You’ll see all the changes you already made, and you can select the ones you want to commit as part of the new work item.
FAQ
What are some of the top DevOps Center mistakes to avoid?
Some of the top mistakes to avoid when implementing DevOps Center include trying to install the tool in a sandbox, omitting to define your pipeline before you start, and more.
What is a work item in DevOps Center?
A work item is a description of a task or project. You use this description to monitor the progress of the changes you’re making or the app you’re building.
