DevOps Release pipeline error - Cannot find a variable with the name 'AmsiContext'

Question

We're using DevOps release pipeline to deploy BizTalk 2020 applications using the standard "Deploy BizTalk Server Application" agent task.

This has been working without any issues until around Feb this year and now after the deployment we get the following error reported:

(N.B. The actual BizTalk application deployment works however the error is stopping any further tasks from running.)

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2022-03-09T12:30:25.1141516Z ##[error]Exit code 1 returned from process: file name 'C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe', arguments '-NoLogo -Sta -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command ". ([scriptblock]::Create('if ([Console]::InputEncoding -is [Text.UTF8Encoding] -and [Console]::InputEncoding.GetPreamble().Length -ne 0) { [Console]::InputEncoding = New-Object Text.UTF8Encoding $false } if (!$PSHOME) { $null = Get-Item -LiteralPath ''variable:PSHOME'' } else { Import-Module -Name ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($PSHOME, ''Modules\Microsoft.PowerShell.Management\Microsoft.PowerShell.Management.psd1'')) ; Import-Module -Name ([System.IO.Path]::Combine($PSHOME, ''Modules\Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility\Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility.psd1'')) }')) 2>&1 | ForEach-Object { Write-Verbose $_.Exception.Message -Verbose } ; Import-Module -Name 'D:\agentDevOps_work_tasks\BizTalkApplicationDeploy_4c06323d-3802-4194-ae7b-1c249e76dd8f\2.0.0\ps_modules\VstsTaskSdk\VstsTaskSdk.psd1' -ArgumentList @{ NonInteractive = $true } -ErrorAction Stop ; $VerbosePreference = 'SilentlyContinue' ; $DebugPreference = 'SilentlyContinue' ; Invoke-VstsTaskScript -ScriptBlock ([scriptblock]::Create('. ''D:\agentDevOps_work_tasks\BizTalkApplicationDeploy_4c06323d-3802-4194-ae7b-1c249e76dd8f\2.0.0\Start-Deployment.ps1'''))"'.

Have found a similar issue - https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Release-Pipeline-suddenly-failing-with:-/1596275#T-N1597077

The solution talks about disabling PowerShell protection in the Sentinel One windows agent, however my security team are concerned this might open up a vulnerability on the server.

Does anyone know an alternative solution to resolving this issue?

Answer 1

The product group for Azure DevOps / TFS actively monitors questions over at
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/report?space=21&entry=problem
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/report?space=22&entry=problem

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