[Question]: Why is backward compatibility not working for Synapse CI/CD DevOps extension after upgrading to Node 20? How can I also test its backward compatibility using self-hosted agents in the pipeline?

[iankitms]

Task name

Synapse workspace deployment

Task version

2.3.0

Environment type (Please select at least one enviroment where you face this issue)

• Self-Hosted
• Microsoft Hosted
• VMSS Pool
• Container

Azure DevOps Server type

dev.azure.com (formerly visualstudio.com)

Azure DevOps Server Version (if applicable)

No response

Operation system

Windows-latest

Question

Description: 
After upgrading the Synapse CI/CD DevOps extension to Node 20_1, we observed that backward compatibility is no longer functioning as expected. The extension fails to work with earlier versions of Node that were previously supported. Below are the details of the changes made, the testing steps followed, and the specific errors encountered. Additionally, we seek guidance on how to effectively test backward compatibility on self-hosted agents.

Changes Made : 
Node version upgraded to 20_1: Updated the runtime environment and dependencies to Node 20_1.

Dependency updates: Updated the dependencies in the task.json to ensure compatibility with Node 20_1.

Steps followed as per document to support node20 in our extension
Setting up self hosted agent and removing the node_20 folder from 'agent/external'
Testing the extension using release pipeline with agent selected as self hosted agent
Error we are observing when we deployed the release given below:

"2024-12-30T07:08:15.8124308Z ##[error]This step requires a node version that does not exist in the agent filesystem. Path: C:\agent\externals\node20_1\bin\node.exe"

We have followed the documentation for the upgrade process, but it is still not working. Is there anything we might have missed or need to update in the code?