Transition to List Flows as Admin V2 action from deprecated List Flows as Admin action on the Power Automate Management connector, along with associated APIs

[ChrisGarty]

Hi community! 

What's changing?

The List flows as Admin action on the Power Automate Management connector has been deprecated in favor of the List Flows as Admin (V2) action. The List Flows as Admin (V2) action can list all flows in an environment. The V2 action and its backing API has higher performance, since it returns only the identifying information about the flow. To accomplish this performance increase, the flow definition and some other metadata isn't returned. If the flow definition or additional metadata is needed, then a subsequent call can be made to the Get Flow as Admin action.

The Get-AdminFlow PowerShell cmdlet is also being updated to call the V2 List Flows API instead of the V1 List Flows API. This change will remove support for the CreatedBy filter.

The underlying V1 List Flows API is also being deprecated. The Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit was updated to call the V2 List Flows API instead of the V1 List Flows API and that change was in the May 2023 release.

Why is this change happening?

The V2 API has higher performance, since it returns only the identifying information about the flow. The transition away from the V1 API is being made to minimize future disruptions to customer services.

How do I adjust to the change?

If you don't use the Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit, the List flows as Admin action on the Power Automate Management connector, or the Get-AdminFlow PowerShell cmdlet, then you won't need to make any changes.

Connector actions: To take advantage of the increased performance of the V2 action and move off the V1 action, simply transition to using the List Flows as Admin (V2) action instead.

PowerShell: The Get-AdminFlow PowerShell cmdlet has been updated in version 2.0.165. You can update your copy of the Power Platform PowerShell cmdlets using Update-Module -Name "Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell". You can check your version using Get-Module -Name "Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell".

CoE Starter Kit: Update to the latest release of the CoE Starter Kit.

How do I find connector actions?

If you aren’t sure which flows might be calling the List flows as Admin action, then you can create a flow to list those flows. The List flows as Admin action has an operation ID of “ListFlowsInEnvironment”, so call the List Flows as Admin (V2) action, iterate over those flows calling the Get Flows as Admin action for each, parse JSON on the “actions” result, and then look for a “swaggerOperationId” of “ListFlowsInEnvironment”.

What's the timeline?

Connector design-time: Enforcement of the connector action deprecation at design-time is currently happening, so new flows will need to use the List Flows as Admin (V2) action. The design-time change finished rolling out to production environments 6/15.

Runtime: In August, we'll evaluate migration progress and start enforcing the deprecation at runtime, so that calls to the backing API may begin to fail at runtime. In time this will affect the old PowerShell cmdlet versions, old CoE Starter Kit versions, and calls to the deprecated List flows as Admin action.

What if I miss something?

We'll be watching usage levels of the deprecated List flows as Admin action, and its backing API, and we will reach out to customers that continue to have significant usage by the end of July.

Where can I read more?

You can read the latest guidance in the Administer environments and Power Automate resources documentation.

Who can I contact for more information?

Please ask any questions that you may have here and we'll get you answers. Thanks!

*** Update October 19, 2023 *** 

Thanks to community feedback, List Flows as Admin V2 + Get Flow as Admin APIs should now be functionally equivalent to List Flows as Admin V1 API.

List Flows as Admin V2 API is now:

- Working correctly in GCC

- Returning createdBy, createdTime, and lastModifiedTime

Get Flow as Admin API is now:

- Returning flow definition

Module Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell updated

We are going to start failing a small number of calls to the V1 List Flows as Admin API to encourage migration to the V2 API, the V2 action, and the latest PowerShell cmdlets module. For now, the failures will randomly occur on less than 1% of calls to the V1 API. 

This is the error that would be returned to calls to the API directly or via the connector:
The List Flows as Admin API is no longer supported. Please use the List Flows as Admin (V2) action
And this is the error message that will be returned from the PowerShell cmdlet:
The List Flows as Admin API used by this PowerShell cmdlet version is no longer supported. Please update to the latest PowerShell cmdlet using Update-Module

This change will roll out as RP/2310.3: Preview ~Oct 17, Canada ~Oct 24, Early regions ~Oct 25, Asia ~Oct 27, Europe ~Oct 31, North America ~Nov 2, GCC ~Nov 6.

If you encounter these error messages, then please take the remediation actions described.

*** Update February 1, 2024 *** 

The transition to the V2 API is progressing well and we continue to advance the process of randomly failing calls to the V1 List Flows as Admin API as a reminder to move to the V2 API. 

An update to fail 20% of calls is releasing now as RP/2401.4: Preview ~Jan 23, Canada ~Jan 30, Early regions ~Jan 31, Asia ~Feb 2, Europe ~Feb 6, North America ~Feb 8, GCC ~Feb 12.

An update to fail 40% of calls will release out as RP/2402.1: Preview ~Feb 6, Canada ~Feb 13, Early regions ~Feb 14, Asia ~Feb 16, Europe ~Feb 20, North America ~Feb 22, GCC ~Feb 26.

Updates to move the failure rates up are planned for the near future:

- 60%: Canada ~Feb 27, North America ~March 7

- 80%: Canada ~March 12, North America ~March 21

- 100%: Canada ~March 26, North America ~April 4

These dates are subject to change, but can be used as a guide. If you encounter the error messages detailed above, then please take the remediation actions described.

*** Update April 22, 2024 ***

Calls to the List flows as Admin API are now fully deprecated via the Power Automate Management connector or PowerShell. There is some direct use of the API from other clients, so we will begin failing those calls as well to complete full deprecation of the API by July 15th.

[max81]

Hi @ChrisGarty , hi all,

My results so far:

I've compared the results of the old action and the new action.

Important info that is missing for our processes: the "creator" information and the description.
If this information is added, we can live with that change.
It would be great if userType information is also added.

Last not least, the "flowFailureAlertSubscribed" information seems to be wrong. (V2 shows always "none") - What is the purpose of the "Expand Suspension Info" setting for this action? I cannot see any different output.

Please find here a screen comparison of the result for one flow.

Finally, if the description and creator info is not added, we need to call also the "get flow as admin" action for every flow, so the runtime gets really bad. I checked it for some of our environments.

From old action to new V2 action:

• 76 flows: from 2 seconds to 1 minute
• 222 flows: from 6 seconds to 5 minutes
• 3743 flows: from 2 minutes to 1 hour

[Nazul]

Thanks for the analysis.

Did you open a support case for this too?

[max81]

@Nazul : no, I didn't open a support case for that.

I rely here on the statement of @ChrisGarty :

---

@ChrisGarty wrote:

[...] 

What if I miss something?

We'll be watching usage levels of the deprecated List flows as Admin action, and its backing API, and we will reach out to customers that continue to have significant usage by the end of July.

[...]

Who can I contact for more information?

Please ask any questions that you may have here and we'll get you answers. Thanks!

---

[LoryanStrant]

Sorry but this timeframe for such a feature deprecation is WAY too short.

I have a solution deployed in a number of sizeable customers (universities, utilities, mining, etc.) totalling easily over 1mil users where this action is called on a weekly basis. We're not scheduled to update the installations until October as we've only just deployed our July update.

Unfortunately it's not practical to simply update the solution, because the new action doesn't return a key piece of metadata required: maker ID.

And given the size of some of these orgs and the amount of workflows in there, having a workflow that now has query every single workflow just to get the maker ID would make the whole process run drastically slower than any time savings gleaned from reduced metadata in the V2.

And the solutions above don't include the condsiderable number of CoE deployments we'll also have to update - which we do on a quarterly basis.

Please consider delaying this as the communication and notice period is insufficient for such a critical action.

[Nazul]

@ChrisGarty any updates?

[ChrisGarty]

Hi @LoryanStrant, by "maker ID" do you mean the CreatedBy value? We are working on bringing that back. 

[ChrisGarty]

Hi @max81 ,

Thanks for the great analysis.

1. After popular demand here, we are working on bringing back the CreatedBy value 🙂

2. Description isn't a top-level field that we have returned in the past. DisplayName is returned. What is the scenario you have for Description?

[ChrisGarty]

@Nazul , older PowerShell cmdlet libraries will still work for now. We are working on bringing the CreatedBy value back. 

Description hasn't been returned as a top-level value in the past. What is your scenario that requires a Description?

[LoryanStrant]

That's exactly what I'm after.

What's your timeframe for bringing it back?

That's the critical piece for my requirement in our customer deployments. 

[Nazul]

Yes, you are right. My bad. Description was never included and actually we do not need it.

I was able to somehow mitigate the memory issue and during the weekend our processes were stable. However, the impact regarding the time it takes because of the CreatedBy attribute being missing is still there.

[21321]

Hi @ChrisGarty, what we do if we need the Definition of the flows? Get Flow as Admin doesn't return Definition (only Definition Summary) and Get Flow can't loop through all flow in the tenant.

[ChrisGarty]

CreatedBy will be available by mid August. Changes are rolling out now. PowerShell support for CreatedBy is already available. I'll come back with a more specific date when I have one.

[Nazul]

@ChrisGarty I think I don't get it right. CreatedBy will be available by mid August in the Power Automate Management connector, but via Get-AdminFlow (PowerShell module) should be already available?

Because I just tried to get it and it's not there yet.

[Nazul]

@ChrisGarty I see there's a new version of the PowerShell module (2.0.170) which adds back the -CreatedBy parameter to Get-AdminFlow... however, the issue is not with that parameter but the output.

This new version is still returning null in CreatedBy property when requesting all flows in a environment.

In Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell.psm1 code, we can see it is using a different endpoint when using Get-AdminFlow for an specific flow than when requesting all flows in an environment.

/providers/Microsoft.ProcessSimple/scopes/admin/environments/{environment}/flows/{flowName}

vs

/providers/Microsoft.ProcessSimple/scopes/admin/environments/{environment}/v2/flows

[aafr]

Hello,

@ChrisGarty I have the results after running the PS:
Target connector was shared_flowmanagement and target action was ListFlowsInEnvironment
Target flows actions count: 0
Total flows actions count: 971
Total cloud flows count: 248
Script execution time: 00:43:43.9001275

Do I need to do any action? Please let me know
Thank you

[aafr]

Your instruction is vague. Can you clarify the following:

How do I find connector actions?

If you aren’t sure which flows might be calling the List flows as Admin action, then you can create a flow to list those flows. The List flows as Admin action has an operation ID of “ListFlowsInEnvironment”, so call the List Flows as Admin (V2) action, iterate over those flows calling the Get Flows as Admin action for each, parse JSON on the “actions” result, and then look for a “swaggerOperationId” of “ListFlowsInEnvironment”.

And how can I get it?
Also I am getting the below results after the PS:

Target connector was shared_flowmanagement and target action was ListFlowsInEnvironment
Target flows actions count: 0
Total flows actions count: 971
Total cloud flows count: 248
What kind of action I need to take?  Please me know as soon as you can.

Thank you

[max81]

Hi @ChrisGarty,

the description is only listed with "List Flows as Admin" if a description is maintained. Please check my attached screenshot in my last post.
Our compliance process for all Flows is based on these flows. And we more or less force our users to maintain a description.

[ChrisGarty]

@aafr , "Target flows actions count: 0" should mean no work is needed 🙂  

[ChrisGarty]

@aafr , PowerShell is the easiest mechanism for inspecting all your flows. We created it so customers like yourself could simply copy, paste, and run the script. "Target flows actions count: 0" should mean no work is needed.

[ChrisGarty]

@Nazul, the change to show CreatedBy requires a backfill change that is rolling out. If you aren't seeing it by 8/15, then we should investigate...