Symptoms

Dependencies are not processed anymore and dependent plan chains fail. In some cases the chain can successfully run after a Bamboo re-start. Also, trying to remove dependencies from under plan's dependency tab does not work despite having the right permissions. Following warnings show up in the logs:

.....
2014-07-08 14:38:32,186 WARN [http-abc-8085-exec-22] [TextProviderHelper] The first TextProvider in the ValueStack (com.atlassian.bamboo.ww2.actions.plans.admin.ConfigurePlanDependencies) could not locate the message resource with key 'Dependency blocking strategy <span class="aui-icon icon-help" id="chainDependencyStrategyInfo">Info</span>
'
2014-07-08 14:38:32,187 WARN [http-abc-8085-exec-22] [TextProviderHelper] The default value expression 'Dependency blocking strategy <span class="aui-icon icon-help" id="chainDependencyStrategyInfo">Info</span>
' was evaluated and did not match a property. The literal value 'Dependency blocking strategy <span class="aui-icon icon-help" id="chainDependencyStrategyInfo">Info</span>
' will be used.
2014-07-08 14:38:35,695 WARN [http-abc-8085-exec-1] [TextProviderHelper] The first TextProvider in the ValueStack (com.atlassian.bamboo.ww2.actions.plans.admin.ConfigurePlanDependencies) could not locate the message resource with key 'Dependency blocking strategy <span class="aui-icon icon-help" id="chainDependencyStrategyInfo">Info</span>
....

Cause

If Bamboo is integrated with Stash via application links and plan is set up to poll the repository for changes, when Stash is experiencing OOM issues it goes to a frozen mode that causes the polling for longer running build chains fail with no clear errors. The frozen Stash state exhausts Bamboo's buffer of repository-polling tasks so no more dependencies checking happens. Please check Bamboo Administration - > System Errors for more details.

Resolution

Check Stash for memory problems and increase the memory. Perform a re-start and test if it makes the failing build chains run. We have the following open improvement request ticket in our system to have a more clear error message or banner showing up when health issues with linked applications are causing issues similar to the above: Add mechanism to provide feedback on linked applications. Please vote-watch this ticket to receive future updates.