TFS vNext builds issues after Update 3

0
votes

After the TFS 2015 Upgrade 3 some of our build started to log strange log lines. As you can see below all the ‘a’ characters are replaced with 8 asterisk characters.

2016-08-08T07:58:01.0425923Z Checking if ********rtif********cts directory exists: d:\b2\10******** 2016-08-08T07:58:01.0425923Z Deleting ********rtif********cts directory. 2016-08-08T07:58:01.0582131Z Cre********ting ********rtif********cts directory. 2016-08-08T07:58:01.0582131Z Checking if test results directory exists: d:\b2\10\TestResults 2016-08-08T07:58:01.0738385Z Deleting test results directory. 2016-08-08T07:58:01.0738385Z Cre********ting test results directory. 2016-08-08T07:58:01.1675919Z St********rting: Get sources 2016-08-08T07:58:01.1832163Z Entering TfvcSourceProvider.Prep********reRepositoryAsync 2016-08-08T07:58:01.1832163Z loc********lP********th=d:\b2\10\s 2016-08-08T07:58:01.1832163Z cle********n=True 2016-08-08T07:58:01.1832163Z sourceVersion=15137

The log files in the ‘_diag’ folder of the agent also contain these lines with asterisks. We tried to analyze the differences between the normally logging builds and these strange ones but we did not found any notable differences. We tried to clone these builds but the cloned builds also log this way. If we created a new build it also logs with these asterisks.

Does anybody experienced the same behaviour?

2
.nettfsbuildtfs-2015
Did you update the agent? If not try that? – DaveShaw
I did not do it manually but the Update3 installer did it automatically, i think. There is an "agent.old" folder which is the old version i think. The new VsoAgent.exe has the version number 14.102.25423.0 I also tried to clean all the build folders, log folders, restart the agent service. – Kemy

2 Answers

1
votes

This happens if you create (either intentional or unintended by cloning) a secured variable which contains a single letter (in your case 'a'). The build will replace that letter in the log by '**********' because it thinks its a secure variable which shouldn't be written to the log.

0
votes

At last I found the error. This is something new in the Update 3. We have a private nuget server which was added as a Generic Service Endpoint to the TFS. In the old TFS you have to provide a username and a password for each service, you cannot leave the pasword blank. So we put an 'a' in it. It wasn't a problem before the Update 3. But the Update 3 create a secured variable from that password and that's why the log is messed up.