ADF Inner Pipeline Still Runs Disabled Stored Procedure Activity via Triggered Parent Pipeline

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ADF Inner Pipeline Still Runs Disabled Stored Procedure Activity via Triggered Parent Pipeline

Suyash Kant 20

Hi,

I'm facing an issue in Azure Data Factory where a disabled stored procedure activity is still being executed when a pipeline is triggered.

Here's the setup:

I have a pipeline (let's call it InnerPipeline) that contains a stored procedure activity (SP_Activity).

I disabled SP_Activity, saved, and published the changes.

I confirmed in the pipeline JSON (viewed via Azure DevOps) that:

json
Copy
"state": "Inactive",
"onInactiveMarkAs": "Succeeded"

However, this SP_Activity still runs when InnerPipeline is invoked.

InnerPipeline is not triggered directly—it is called from another pipeline (OuterPipeline) which is on a scheduled trigger.

I expected the disabled activity to be skipped, but it seems to run regardless.

Has anyone experienced this or know what might be causing the issue? Could it be a versioning/publish issue or something specific to how inner pipelines behave?

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 1

Suyash Kant hi, a disabled stored procedure activity still running? that's not what u expect, right..

check if u republished after disabling the activity. sometimes changes don't stick until u hit that publish button. make sure u're looking at the right environment, sometimes dev vs prod can trip u up. peek at the pipeline runs in the monitor section. see if the activity shows as 'inactive' in the run details. if it's still running, might be a caching thing. try stopping and restarting the integration runtime. yeah, sounds basic, but it fixes stuff more often than u'd think ))

this might help in other tools too, always double save when disabling stuff. some platforms need an extra 'are u sure?' step. worth looking into whether your outer pipeline is passing some hidden parameter that reactivates the activity. happens more than u'd believe!

aha, and one more thing! check if your outer pipeline has any 'continue on error' flags that might be bypassing the inactive state.

good luck! hope this sorts it out %)

Best regards,

Alex

and "yes" if you would follow me at Q&A - personaly thx.
P.S. If my answer help to you, please Accept my answer
PPS That is my Answer and not a Comment

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Answer 2

Hi @Suyash Kant If a disabled Stored Procedure activity in your InnerPipeline still runs when triggered via the parent (OuterPipeline), this typically points to a versioning or publishing mismatch between what you see in source control and what’s actually running in Azure Data Factory.

Here are a few things to check and try:

Pipeline Not Fully Published: Disabling an activity in the pipeline JSON (e.g., "state": "Inactive") isn’t enough unless those changes are published to the live ADF environment. Make sure you save and publish both the InnerPipeline and the OuterPipeline after making changes. Refer: Publish changes to Azure Data Factory

Incorrect Pipeline Version Executed: When a pipeline is triggered (especially via another pipeline), it might still be using an older published version if the new one wasn’t published properly. Use the Monitor tab → Pipeline run → Input tab to confirm the exact pipeline JSON version executed in the run. Refer: Monitor pipeline runs

CI/CD Pipeline or Release Artifacts Not Updated: If you deploy via Azure DevOps or other release pipelines, the published artifacts may not contain your latest changes, causing the old active version to run. Double-check your release process includes the latest pipeline JSON. Refer: CI/CD with Azure Data Factory

Dynamic Expressions or References to Disabled Activity: Even if disabled, if the activity is referenced dynamically (in expressions, conditions, or loops), it may still get evaluated or cause unexpected behavior. Review your pipeline logic to remove any such references.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Kindly consider upvoting the comment if the information provided is helpful. This can assist other community members in resolving similar issues.

Venkat Reddy Navari 2,200 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-10T10:26:29.31+00:00

Hi @Suyash Kant Following up to see if the above answer was helpful. If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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ADF Inner Pipeline Still Runs Disabled Stored Procedure Activity via Triggered Parent Pipeline

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