Problem Promoting using Pipelines: This solution has a pending upgrade. Please complete the upgrade before proceeding

[phillippoole]

Tried to promote an Unmanaged solution from Dev to Prod using Pipelines and received this error message:

Tried to delete the solution on the Production and got continued issues.   

Cannot immediate resolve, need help with steps to get this 100%

Also tried to Export and Import with the same issue.   

Per this link:  https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Using-Flows/Solution-failed-to-import-Solution-Upgrade-action-fa...

It was recommended to:

After working with Microsoft Support, they had us delete the existing solution, go into the solution called "Default Solution" within that environment, delete all of the connection references and custom connector connections we had and then re-import. It worked for us after that. Not sure if this would help you.

Unfortunately, we have other apps and don't want to impact the production of the other apps.   Need a more tactical solution to help complete our needs. 

[phillippoole]

Further information:

Looks like the Upgrade from a previous Pipeline promotion didn't apply.   We have the App Managed Solution and the Upgrade Managed Solution in our Production Environment.  Which is the problem.  

When clicking on the "Apply Upgrade" from the App Solution, it gets the following error:

The PROBLEM resides in the UPGRADE not adhering to the App Solution.   We cannot delete either and we cannot modify either.   We are stuck.

[cchannon]

A solution conflict issue like this can be extremely complex, and it has nothing to do with pipelines: it is about the solution being unable to import or unable to install because of conflicts, and it would be exactly the same if you did it manually.

Solving this can be very difficult and will take a lot of close examination of your solution contents and source/target environments' solution layers. But I will try to start you off with a couple areas to investigate, based on those error messages.

1. "This solution has a pending upgrade..."
   • When a solution (specifically an Upgrade solution) is imported into a target environment, it feels like a single operation but it is actually an orchestration of several steps. There is a validation step, an import step, and installation step, an Upgrade step, and a Publish. If the import fails during the first few steps, then it just aborts and rolls back the changes. But if it gets past installation yet can't Upgrade, it will just stop there and leave the solution installed but not applied. This error message is telling you that if you look at your solutions in your target environment you will find {yoursolutionname}_upgrade sitting there, unable to finish. Sometimes (if it failed for no good reason) you can just select the root solution {yoursolutionname} and click Apply Upgrade and it will just work. If not, then it should give you a log for why it failed and that will tell you what you need to do to get it to correctly Upgrade.
2. "The imported solution and the existing solution must both be managed..."
   • There are a few reasons why this error comes up, some of them more obvious than others. Clearly, if {yoursolutionname} is already in the env as managed and you're now trying to import it as unmanaged (or vice-versa) then this will fail and cause this error. But it can also happen when they are both managed, but include components that mismatch in dependency hierarchy. For example, say you have Table X in the target env and in your new solution. But for whatever reason when you imported Table X to your env originally you did it using {someothermanagedsolution} and now you're trying to do it with {yoursolutionname}. This will also cause this error because Dataverse is trying to tell you that the table came from some other managed solution and in the Source env of {yoursolutionname} it was unmanaged. This is a red flag to Dataverse because it means you might be causing unexpected behavior in an existing solution. You will need to inspect what is in your solution (easiest by just looking at the solution.xml inside the zip) to see if there are unexpected solution dependencies in there, and then you also need to look at the Solution Layers in your Target env to see if there are unexpected layers and managed components in there.

I know these are a bit broad, but solution dependency problems are very complex and require a lot of knowledge about your environment and solution. It's going to be a long bughunt, I'm afraid, but hopefully these bits of advice are helpful!

[phillippoole]

Thanks for the thorough explanation:

Question (which I am struggling to find), you said:  "If not, then it should give you a log for why it failed and that will tell you what you need to do to get it to correctly Upgrade."

How do I get to the log files to view it?

---

[cchannon]

1. Try to apply the upgrade and wait for it to fail

2. Click See History for the solution:

3. find the row that failed, and Dataverse will give you an error report.

[cchannon · Accepted solution]

Oh, wow, somehow I didn't see your additional clarifying post at the bottom here when I wrote my first message 😂

Yeah, that error message right there is everything you need. It is a bit tough to read, but that's your answer.

Let's break it down piece-by-piece:
"Failed to upgrade solution. Solution dependencies exist, cannot uninstall."

• This is saying that your Upgrade solution is trying to delete something from the env that cannot be deleted because other components have dependencies on it

"Dependency count: 10"

• There are 10 things in the target env that would break if Dataverse let you import this solution

"RequiredComponentObject details; Type: Entity, ObjectName: Company, Id: b66b..."

• These are the details of the object your solution is trying to delete. We don't need to read them all, just this first bit is enough because it tells us the object is an Entity (Table) and it is called Company

"DependentComponentObject details: Type: EntityMap..."

• These are the details of what would break in this env if Dataverse let you import this solution. You probably don't actually need this detail in this case, but it is here for you if you want it.

So what appears to have happened is that someone removed Company from your managed solution, then somehow got it past the solution validation steps (maybe by manually editing the solution.xml?). But the Target env still needs Company, so you can't do that. This is why the import works as an Update and not Upgrade because Update does not try to delete components.