Troubleshoot Tanzu Developer Tools for IntelliJ

This topic helps you troubleshoot issues with Tanzu Developer Tools for IntelliJ.

Tanzu Debug re-applies the workload when namespace field is empty

Symptoms

If the namespace field of the debug launch configuration is empty, the workload is re-applied even if it exists on the cluster.

Cause

Internally, workloads are gathered in the cluster in the current namespace and compared with the information that you specify. If the namespace field is empty, it is considered null and the internal checks fail.

Solution

Do not leave the namespace field blank.

Workload is wrongly re-applied because of debug configuration selected from the launch configuration drop-down menu

Symptoms

If your debug configuration is created from the launch configuration drop-down menu, it re-applies the workload even if the workload already exists on the cluster.

Cause

There is internal logic that is not run when debug configuration is created from the drop-down menu. However, the logic is run when debug configuration is selected from the right-click pop-up menu.

Solution

Select debug configuration from the right-click pop-up menu.

Unable to view workloads on the panel when connected to GKE cluster

Symptom

When connecting to Google’s GKE clusters, an error appears with the text WARNING: the gcp auth plugin is deprecated in v1.22+, unavailable in v1.25+; use gcloud instead.

Cause

GKE authentication was extracted into a separate plug-in and is no longer inside the Kubernetes client or libraries.

Solution

Download and configure the GKE authentication plug-in. For instructions, see the Google documentation.

Deactivated launch controls after running a launch configuration

Symptom

When you run or debug a launch configuration, IntelliJ deactivates the launch controls.

Cause

IntelliJ deactivates the launch controls to prevent other launch configurations from being launched at the same time. These controls are reactivated when the launch configuration is started. As such, starting multiple Tanzu debug and live update sessions is a synchronous activity.

Starting a Tanzu Debug session fails with Unable to open debugger port

Symptom

You try to start a Tanzu Debug session and it immediately fails with an error message similar to:

Error running 'Tanzu Debug - fortune-teller-fortune-service': Unable to open debugger port (localhost:5005): java.net.ConnectException "Connection refused"

Cause

Old Tanzu Debug launch configurations sometimes appear to be corrupted after installing a later version of the plug-in. You can see whether this is the problem you are experiencing by opening the launch configuration:

1. Right-click workload.yaml.
2. Click Modify Run Configuration… in the menu.
3. Scroll down and expand the Before Launch section of the dialog.
4. Verify that it contains the two Unknown Task entries com.vmware.tanzu.tanzuBeforeRunPortForward and com.vmware.tanzu.tanzuBeforeRunWorkloadApply.

Because these two tasks are unknown causes, these steps of the debug launch are not run. This in turn means that the target application is not deployed and accessible on the expected port, which causes an error when the debugger tries to connect to it.

It might be that although the launch configuration appears corrupt when seen in the launch config editor, in fact there is no corruption. It’s suspected that this problem only occurs when you install a new version of the plug-in and start using it before first restarting IntelliJ.

There is possibly an issue in the IntelliJ platform that prevents completely or correctly initializing the plug-in when the plug-in is hot-swapped into an active session instead of loaded on startup.

Solution

Closing and restarting IntelliJ typically fixes this problem. If that doesn’t work for you, delete the old corrupted launch configuration and recreate it.

Timeout error when Live Updating

Symptom

When you attempt to Live Update your workload, the following error message appears in the log:

ERROR: Build Failed: apply command timed out after 30s - see }}{{https://docs.tilt.dev/api.html#api.update_settings{{ for how to increase}}

Cause

Kubernetes times out on upserts over 30 seconds.

Solution

Add update_settings (k8s_upsert_timeout_secs = 300) to the Tiltfile. For more information, see the Tiltfile documentation.

Tanzu Panel empty when using a GKE cluster on macOS

Symptom

On macOS, the Tanzu Panel doesn’t display workloads or any other resources when using a GKE cluster. Other tools, such as the Tanzu CLI Apps plug-in, display resources correctly.

Cause

gke-cloud-auth-plugin is required to properly authenticate to a GKE cluster. However, when starting IntelliJ from Dock or Spotlight, environment variables set by using .profile, .bash_profile, or .zshrc are not available. For more information, see this YouTrack issue.

This might cause gke-cloud-auth-plugin to be missing from PATH when launching IntelliJ and prevent the Tanzu Panel from reaching the cluster.

Solution

Open IntelliJ from the CLI. Example command:

open /Applications/IntelliJ\ IDEA.app

The Describe action in the Activity panel fails when used on PodIntent resources

Symptom

The pop-up menu Describe action in the Activity panel fails when used on PodIntent resources. The error message is similar to the following:

Warning: conventions.apps.tanzu.vmware.com/v1alpha1 PodIntent is deprecated; \
use conventions.carto.run/v1alpha1 PodIntent instead
Error from server (NotFound): podintents.conventions.apps.tanzu.vmware.com "my-app" not found

Process finished with exit code 1

Cause

When there are multiple resource types with the same kind, attempting to describe a resource of that kind without fully qualifying the API version causes this error.

Solution

There is no workaround for this issue at present. A fix is planned for this issue in the next version.

Tanzu panel shows workloads but doesn’t show Kubernetes resources

Symptom

The Tanzu panel shows workloads but doesn’t show Kubernetes resources in the center panel of the activity pane.

Cause

When switching the Kubernetes context, the activity pane doesn’t automatically update the namespace, but the workload pane detects the new namespace. Therefore, the Tanzu panel shows workloads but doesn’t show Kubernetes resources in the center panel of the activity pane.

Solution

Restart IntelliJ to properly detect the context change.

Live Update does not work with the Jammy ClusterBuilder

Symptom

Live Update does not work when using the Jammy ClusterBuilder.

Solution

A fix is planned for Tanzu Application Platform v1.5.1.

Frequent application restarts

Symptom

When an application is applied from IntelliJ it restarts frequently.

Cause

An application or environment behavior is triggering the application to restart.

Observed trigger behaviors include:

• The application itself writing logs to the file system in the application directory that Live Update is watching
• Autosave being set to a very high frequency in the IDE configuration

Solution

Prevent the trigger behavior. Example solutions include:

• Prevent 12-factor applications from writing to the file system.
• Reduce the autosave frequency to once every few minutes.