Troubleshooting "TF50608: Unable to retrieve information for security object"
Since I haven't posted in a while, I decided to post a triple header. One of my clients encountered the following error while trying to implement Continuous Integration (CI). Even when he tried to manually launch a build using the same Team Project, the problem persisted:
I've been watching a lot of CSI recently - so I've decided to pull a Gil Grissom and "find the evidence".
The problem is that the project tries to access a resource that is no longer accessible. Team Foundation Server uses the Classification Service to track items such as work items.
The first thing I verified was that the build functionality worked on other Team Projects. The answer was yes - and eliminated the possibility that the root of the problem was the service itself. I then knew that the problem was localized at the Team Project level.
The next question I asked was "What would make a resource and security object disappear?". Deleting it of course - however, the project was there in plain sight on the server and from experience, I knew that you couldn't have two Team Projects with the same name on the same server.
On a hunch, I asked the client if they had deleted the Team Project. To my surprise, they answered yes. Case solved.
They deleted the Team Project and somehow recreated it with the same name. The problem is, once you delete a Team Project, it isn't really deleted. There are portions of the project (including version control code and work items) that are perpetually stored in the Team Foundation Data Warehouse (for auditing purposes and as a design feature). When the client managed to recreate the project, they still had links to "phantom" objects.
Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes, the client's Team Project is corrupted. The client created a new Team Project and everything worked out fine.