CI pipelines are not started for merge requests

Summary

CI pipelines fail to run when pushing changes to merge requests. Manually starting a pipeline for the branch in the CI / CD > Pipelines view resolves the problem.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Set up a project with internal CI with a runner for the project (I used this Ansible role for setup of the runner).
  2. Branch off and create a merge request.
  3. Push new changes to the branch.

What is the current bug behavior?

  • The pipeline for the project is not run.
  • Instead, the pipeline status in the merge request reads:

Could not retrieve the pipeline status. For troubleshooting steps, read the documentation.

What is the expected correct behavior?

The pipeline should be started and the the status should be shown instead of the "Could not retrieve" error message.

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info 
System information
System:         Ubuntu 18.04
Proxy:          no
Current User:   git
Using RVM:      no
Ruby Version:   2.6.3p62
Gem Version:    2.7.9
Bundler Version:1.17.3
Rake Version:   12.3.2
Redis Version:  3.2.12
Git Version:    2.21.0
Sidekiq Version:5.2.7
Go Version:     unknown

GitLab information
Version:        12.0.2-ee
Revision:       ef76b54fc1e
Directory:      /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails
DB Adapter:     PostgreSQL
DB Version:     10.7
URL:            https://git.example.com:2433
HTTP Clone URL: https://git.example.com:2433/some-group/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL:  git@git.example.com:some-group/some-project.git
Elasticsearch:  no
Geo:            no
Using LDAP:     no
Using Omniauth: yes
Omniauth Providers:


GitLab Shell
Version:        9.3.0
Repository storage paths:
default:      /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories
GitLab Shell path:              /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell
Git:            /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/git

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check 
Checking GitLab subtasks ...

Checking GitLab Shell ...


GitLab Shell: ... GitLab Shell version >= 9.3.0 ? ... OK (9.3.0)
Running /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/bin/check
Check GitLab API access: OK
Redis available via internal API: OK


Access to /var/opt/gitlab/.ssh/authorized_keys: OK
gitlab-shell self-check successful


Checking GitLab Shell ... Finished


Checking Gitaly ...


Gitaly: ... default ... OK


Checking Gitaly ... Finished


Checking Sidekiq ...


Sidekiq: ... Running? ... yes
Number of Sidekiq processes ... 1


Checking Sidekiq ... Finished


Checking Incoming Email ...


Incoming Email: ... Reply by email is disabled in config/gitlab.yml


Checking Incoming Email ... Finished


Checking LDAP ...


LDAP: ... LDAP is disabled in config/gitlab.yml


Checking LDAP ... Finished


Checking GitLab App ...


Git configured correctly? ... yes
Database config exists? ... yes
All migrations up? ... yes
Database contains orphaned GroupMembers? ... no
GitLab config exists? ... yes
GitLab config up to date? ... yes
Log directory writable? ... yes
Tmp directory writable? ... yes
Uploads directory exists? ... yes
Uploads directory has correct permissions? ... yes
Uploads directory tmp has correct permissions? ... yes
Init script exists? ... skipped (omnibus-gitlab has no init script)
Init script up-to-date? ... skipped (omnibus-gitlab has no init script)
Projects have namespace: ...
2/1 ... yes
3/3 ... yes
3/5 ... yes
3/6 ... yes
5/7 ... yes
5/8 ... yes
5/9 ... yes
2/10 ... yes
8/12 ... yes
8/13 ... yes
8/14 ... yes
6/15 ... yes
Redis version >= 2.8.0? ... yes
Ruby version >= 2.5.3 ? ... yes (2.6.3)
Git version >= 2.21.0 ? ... yes (2.21.0)
Git user has default SSH configuration? ... yes
Active users: ... 8
Elasticsearch version 5.6 - 6.x? ... skipped (elasticsearch is disabled)


Checking GitLab App ... Finished


Checking GitLab subtasks ... Finished

Possible fixes

The manual (and annoying) workaround is to go the the CI / CD page of the project and manually run a pipeline for the branch of the merge request. The results of that pipeline are displayed in the merge request (at least as long as the MR is still open).

If no root cause can be identified, a possible "fix" could be to put a button next to the error message inside the MR to quickly run the pipeline for the branch without having to switch to different views first.

Edited by Franz Geiger