Jira Service Desk Side Bar does not load

[Michael Walkley]

I have recently updated a test server from Jira 6.3.8 to 7.12.1 (Software and core) and installed then installed Service Desk 3.15.1 as well. When opening any Service Desk project the side bar does not load and an error appears saying "Loading sidebar is taking longer than usual. You can refresh the page to load it again." This error pops up immediately and refreshing does not fix the issue.

This happens for every project that has been designated as a Service Desk project. If I change the same project to a Software project or Business (Core) project the sidebar loads just fine.

I wanted to ask the community if there were any known solutions or ideas to fix this (I have tried searching) before I open a ticket with Atlassian. Thanks!

How the Side Bar appears:

The Error message:

[Michael Walkley · Accepted solution]

For anyone else who may encounter this issue, by going back and upgrading Jira Core/Software and Jira Service Desk simultaneously the sidebars now load properly.

Necessary upgrade path:

1. Upgrade Jira 6.x -> Jira Core/Software 7.0
2. Install Jira Service Desk 3.0
3. Upgrade Jira Core/Software to 7.x (7.12 in my case)
4. Upgrade Jira Service Desk to 3.x (3.15)

Unfortunately this is mentioned in the Jira/Service Desk Migration Hub (https://confluence.atlassian.com/migration/jira-7/server_jira+jsd_upgrade) but NOT in the Jira/Agile/Service Desk Migration Hub (https://confluence.atlassian.com/migration/jira-7/server_jira+agile+jsd_upgrade).

[Tóth_Roland_Richárd]

Hi,

After Restore it doesn't work on JSD 4.2.0

Regards,

[Brant Schroeder]

I would first try clearing browser cache.  Sometime on major updates the browser cache uses old JS files that cause issues like this.

There is also a known issue that relates to the version that you upgraded from.  https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/service-desk-project-s-navigation-bar-shows-unable-to-render-element-due-to-an-error-even-though-required-upgrade-tasks-are-fulfilled-858760681.html?_ga=2.99139230.1491448794.1536589895-188448510.1531496950

I have also seen this occur when there are not enough resources on the server as well at startup.  You can see errors in your logs.  

[Michael Walkley]

Clearing the browser cache and using different computers/browsers does not solve the issue.

Thank you for the link. It appears that the symptoms are slightly different however its lead me to what to look for in the error logs and I'm receiving a similar error: JIRA-Bootstrap ERROR      [c.a.s.b.lifecycle.server.ServerPluginLifeCycle] '2.3.3' version of Service Desk cannot be upgraded to '3.15.1-REL-0002'. Upgrade to '3.0.0' <= <version> < '3.2.0' first.

I'm thinking maybe I should try manually installing Service Desk 3.0 first and upgrading from there. But I originally came from a version that did not have a separate Service Desk, so it seems odd that this would matter.

[Michael Walkley]

I think I better understand my confusion now. Service Desk was originally a plugin as version 2.3.3 and it needed a staggered upgrade to be paralleled during my Jira 6.3 -> Jira Software/Core 7.12 upgrade.

I'll see if I can backtrack a bit to do this or if I'll just start entirely from scratch and report back. Thanks for the assistance.

[Hernan Montes]

Hello @Michael Walkley,

Please try the following steps:

1. Navigate to http:<JIRA-base-URL>/secure/admin/SiteDarkFeatures!Default.jspa to get to the Dark Features page.
2. Enable the dark feature com.atlassian.jira.config.BIG_PIPE_KILLSWITCH

After doing this, please check if the project renders correctly, if not, revert changes made, you may need to contact Atlassian as it may be something with Service Desk and the solution might be more difficult to apply. - Have you used Service desk in any version prior to last upgrade? - If you had service desk installed before the last upgrade and you jumped from version 6 to 7.12.X without doing intermediate upgrades, I would recommend doing the upgrade again rather than trying to troubleshoot this issue, upgrade to Jira 7.0.X, also upgrade JSD to available version compatible with current upgraded Jira (7.0.X), then upgrade to 7.12.X and finally upgrade JSD to current compatible version.

To avoid any other issues please look at the Jira upgrade matrix so you can check for requirements and upgrade notes / changes you may need to be aware of.

JSD upgrade notes nad warnings - https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedesk/jira-service-desk-3-12-x-upgrade-notes-947856376.html

Jira upgrade matrix - https://confluence.atlassian.com/ug/jira-software-upgrade-matrix-933696761.html

[Michael Walkley]

Enabling the dark feature com.atlassian.jira.config.BIG_PIPE_KILLSWITCH seems to have solved the issue for me. Thank you.

Is there anything else I should be aware of in regards to enabling this feature? From what I could find it appears that it "will revert to pre 7.2 page rendering behaviour". Not sure what else this change might effect and what I should look out for.

Thanks again for your help!

[Michael Walkley]

Upon further inspection it appears that enabling the BIG_PIPE_KILLSWITCH actually just removes the side bar entirely from the Service Desk projects. Certainly this is better than having it show an empty unloaded portion of the site, but it still doesn't seem to fully address the issue.

And to answer your other questions. I did in fact do a staggered upgrade, from 6.3 -> 6.4 -> 7.0 -> 7.12.  Although I didn't install Service Desk until 7.12 because it didn't exist as a separate application prior to 7.0. And the JSD is up to date with the recommended version.

[Hernan Montes]

I see you mentioned that the error log is referencing the JSD version, the appropriate procedure to fix this is in this KB - https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/after-upgrading-to-jira-service-desk-3-2-x-or-greater-service-desk-project-s-navigation-bar-shows-unable-to-render-element-due-to-an-error-845943102.html - however, I should recommend re-doing the upgrade process like I mentioned before rather that fixing it, it should save you time, what might have happened is that JSD was pre-installed but nor activated (enabled) or even licensed, but the records might have existed in the DB and the DB structure for JSD is what making this issue since you installed the latest and the DB upgrade process might have corrupted the entries in the DB, there's no other reason why the error logs are showing that the version upgrade was incorrect.