"Exception getting tag information" error message observed in the scdf-server log

Products

• VMware Tanzu Spring Runtime

Issue/Introduction

Seeing Exception getting tag information error message in the scdf-server log. 

2026-05-20 08:00:00.001  INFO 1 --- [   scheduling-1] c.v.d.s.AppRegistryVersionUpdateService  : Retrieving all the applications' versions
2026-05-20 08:00:00.123 ERROR 1 --- [   scheduling-1] o.s.c.d.c.r.ContainerRegistryService     : Exception getting tag information for the SOURCE
2026-05-20 08:00:00.456 ERROR 1 --- [   scheduling-1] o.s.s.s.TaskUtils$LoggingErrorHandler    : Unexpected error occurred in scheduled task

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.util.List.contains(Object)" because "availableVersions" is null
        at com.vmware.dataflow.server.AppRegistryVersionUpdateService.getAppVersions(AppRegistryVersionUpdateService.java:191) ~[scdf-pro-server-core-1.6.10.jar:na]
        at com.vmware.dataflow.server.AppRegistryVersionUpdateService.updateAllApplicationsTags(AppRegistryVersionUpdateService.java:165) ~[scdf-pro-server-core-1.6.10.jar:na]
        at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor90.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at org.springframework.scheduling.support.ScheduledMethodRunnable.run(ScheduledMethodRunnable.java:73) ~[spring-context-5.3.46.jar:5.3.46]
        at org.springframework.scheduling.support.DelegatingErrorHandlingRunnable.run(DelegatingErrorHandlingRunnable.java:43) ~[spring-context-5.3.46.jar:5.3.46]
        at org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ReschedulingRunnable.run(ReschedulingRunnable.java:84) ~[spring-context-5.3.46.jar:5.3.46]
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]

2026-05-20 09:00:00.000  INFO 1 --- [   scheduling-1] c.v.d.s.AppRegistryVersionUpdateService  : Retrieving all the applications' versions
2026-05-20 10:00:00.000  INFO 1 --- [   scheduling-1] c.v.d.s.AppRegistryVersionUpdateService  : Retrieving all the applications' versions

Cause

The error message is triggered by a scheduled check in SCDF Pro/Enterprise which periodically queries container registries to gather available image tags for all registered applications. This information feeds three dashboard-only features:

• "Available Versions" column on the Apps page — shows which newer image tags exist in the registry
• Stream details — shows which apps are part of which streams, plus their available versions
• Task details — same for tasks

Resolution

A quick workaround is to disable the scheduled check. Disabling this has zero impact on:

• Deploying, launching, or scheduling streams and tasks
• App registration
• Any core SCDF functionality

The only effect of disabling it is that the "available versions", "stream names", and "task names" fields in the App Registry section of the dashboard will show as empty/null until the next manual refresh (the UI also has a ?refresh=true button that triggers it on-demand).

How to disable the scheduled check?

Set the following environment variable on the SCDF server pod:

SPRING_CLOUD_DATAFLOW_APPS_VERSION_UPDATE_CRON=-

Or if you are using a property file, then set: 

spring.cloud.dataflow.apps-version-update.cron=-

Or if you are using a yaml configuration file:

spring:
  cloud:
    dataflow:
      apps-version-update:
        cron: "-"

This disables the periodic job entirely.