SSIS builds fail on Windows Server 2022 MS Hosted Agents as user upgraded from Windows Server 2019 MS Hosted Agents

[shmohanty]

Description

Hi Team ,

The customer has reported a critical failure in their Azure DevOps CI pipelines when building an SSIS project using Windows Server 2022 Microsoft-hosted agents.

The pipeline was functioning as expected on the Windows Server 2019 image; however, that image was deprecated and became unavailable yesterday. After switching to the Windows Server 2022 image, the pipeline began failing during the build process with the following error during NuGet restore:

error MSB4067: The element beneath element is unrecognized.

Suspecting a NuGet version compatibility issue, we upgraded to a newer NuGet version, but the error persisted. Since this is a Visual Studio build, the task itself should handle package restore, so we disabled the explicit NuGet restore step and reran the pipeline. Unfortunately, the build failed again with the same error.

Relevant log excerpts include:

Warnings indicating the project could not be restored

Messages stating that no projects were eligible for NuGet restore

The same MSB4067 error related to the SSIS project file

Based on our analysis, it appears the pipeline succeeded on Windows Server 2019 because the required package
SSIS.SqlServerIntegrationServicesProjects (v4.6) was preinstalled on that image. This package does not appear to be available on the Windows Server 2022 or 2025 hosted images.

As a result, all related pipelines are currently blocked, and this is causing a significant impact to the customer’s delivery workflows.

Ask:
Given the immediate impact and the fact that all related pipelines are currently blocked, we kindly request guidance on any supported workaround or mitigation to build SSIS projects on Windows Server 2022 Microsoft-hosted agents. Specifically, please advise whether there is a supported way to install or reference SSIS.SqlServerIntegrationServicesProjects (v4.6) on hosted agents, or if there is an alternative recommended approach until a permanent fix or updated image becomes available.

Any direction or interim solution would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance !

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

2026-01-07T11:42:07.7077581Z ##[section]Starting: Initialize job
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7081604Z Agent name: 'Azure Pipelines 3'
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7082180Z Agent machine name: 'runnervm2z21m'
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7082444Z Current agent version: '4.264.2'
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7113696Z ##[group]Runner Image Provisioner
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7114129Z Hosted Compute Agent
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7114353Z Version: 20251211.462
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7114596Z Commit: 6cbad8c2bb55d58165063d031ccabf57e2d2db61
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7114884Z Build Date: 2025-12-11T16:28:49Z
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7115158Z Worker ID: {15707275-0576-4508-9d59-8141c93cd994}
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7115379Z ##[endgroup]
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7115598Z ##[group]Operating System
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7115817Z Microsoft Windows Server 2022
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7116033Z 10.0.20348
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7116221Z Datacenter
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7116398Z ##[endgroup]
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7116605Z ##[group]Runner Image
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7116884Z Image: windows-2022
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7117119Z Version: 20251216.147.1
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7117459Z Included Software: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/win22/20251216.147/images/windows/Windows2022-Readme.md
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7117868Z Image Release: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win22%2F20251216.147
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7118148Z ##[endgroup]
2026-01-07T11:42:07.7122008Z Current image version: '20251216.147.1'

Is it regression?

Windows server 2019 MS Hosted Agent

Expected behavior

Build should have been successful without failing at restore .

Actual behavior

Failure occurs at Nuget restore ,
If nuget restore is disabled fails at the VS build task :
error MSB4067: The element beneath element is unrecognized.)

Repro steps

Build an SSIS project

[GitPaulo]

I believe this is a duplicate, please see:

• Error MSB3644: The reference assemblies for .NETFramework,Version=v4.0 were not found #13502

cc @erik-bershel to continue this investigation in case I misinterpreted something (should we close or act?)

[shmohanty]

Hi @GitPaulo ,

I see the extension SSIS.SqlServerIntegrationServicesProjects not present on 2022 which was there on 2019 , could it be a reason the schema is not being recognized ? : error MSB4067: The element beneath element is unrecognized.
Also in the previous issue the cx is building an SSRS project , and this issue is with an SSIS project so the workaround the user mentioned didnt work for our scenario .