Object reference not set to an instance of an object on server. The object is associated with

[Pieter-Veenstra]

Category

[X] Bug [ ] Enhancement

Environment

[ ] Office 365 / SharePoint Online [X] SharePoint 2016 [ ] SharePoint 2013

If SharePoint on-premises, what's exact CU version: 16.0.4327.1000

Expected or Desired Behavior

During the export the following lines are created in the Security -> Permissions -> RoleAssignments section of the template:

            <pnp:RoleAssignment Principal="{associatedownergroup}" RoleDefinition="{roledefinition:Administrator}" />
            <pnp:RoleAssignment Principal="{associatedvisitorgroup}" RoleDefinition="{roledefinition:Reader}" />
            <pnp:RoleAssignment Principal="{associatedmembergroup}" RoleDefinition="{roledefinition:Editor}" />

During the import you would expect these to be handled.

Observed Behavior

When applying the template I get:

Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate : Object reference not set to an instance of an object on server. The object is associated with 
property AssociatedVisitorGroup.
At line:1 char:1
+ Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path C:\temp\template.xml
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (:) [Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate], ServerObjectNullReferenceException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : EXCEPTION,SharePointPnP.PowerShell.Commands.Provisioning.ApplyProvisioningTemplate

Removing the above lines resolves the issue, but does make automating site creation a harder task.

Steps to Reproduce

Not 100% sure at this stage.

I've got a STS#0 site collection in SharePoint 2016.

[maciaszek]

Hello @Pieter-Veenstra,

I've got similar issue in my project. Have you managed to solve this problem?

[rfeagley]

I experience the same issue when any of the default groups are not present