[ww-devel] The library browser not updating problem

[Brian Chase]

Recently I ran into something that is either the same as this, or at 
least similar to this.  I saw it in servers running both WW 2.7 and 
2.8.  How the problem manifested itself when I ran into it was that I 
wasn't able to add problems to problem sets through the Library 
Browser.  It took me a little while to figure out what had happened, but 
I finally determined that it was (somehow) related to a redirect to the 
HTTPS service that I'd added in my Apache server config.  The change was 
in the following form:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.domain.edu
    Redirect / https://www.domain.edu/
   </VirtualHost>

So, while I don't have an explanation for the problem, maybe the above 
could be a starting point for someone who wants to replicate and debug 
it.   In my case, the redirect was just intended as a convenience, so I 
ended up taking it out and just blocked all traffic on the server to 
port 80.  Once I did that everything started working fine again.

Brian.


On 8/26/14 5:49 PM, Jason Aubrey wrote:
> Well, at this point I think the error has something to do with how my 
> ssl is configured.  Here is some evidence from my apache log with 
> LogLevel info:
>
> There were a lot of errors: 500 Can't connect to 
> webwork.math.arizona.edu:443 <http://webwork.math.arizona.edu:443> at 
> /opt/webwork/webwork2/lib/WebworkClient.pm line 158
>
> [Tue Aug 26 14:35:13 2014] [info] [client 127.0.0.1] SSL library error 
> 1 in handshake (server webwork.math.arizona.edu:443 
> <http://webwork.math.arizona.edu:443>)
> [Tue Aug 26 14:35:13 2014] [info] SSL Library Error: 336151576 
> error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca
> [Tue Aug 26 14:35:13 2014] [info] [client 127.0.0.1] Connection closed 
> to child 0 with abortive shutdown (server webwork.math.arizona.edu:443 
> <http://webwork.math.arizona.edu:443>)
>
> So, you can see (1) that 'it' can't connect to 
> webwork.math.arizona.edu:443 <http://webwork.math.arizona.edu:443> and 
> (2) the ssl handshake seems to be dying due to an unknown certificate 
> authority.  But if you looked at my server, you would see (3) that my 
> certificate authority is in fact well known:
>
>     Issued By
>
>     Common Name (CN) InCommon Server CA
>
>     Organizaton (O) Internet2
>
>     etc...
>
> Also, there is the fact that (4) my web browsers have no problem 
> connecting to the https site.
> So,
> (a) Maybe the perl module(s) running the webservice calls (LWP?) don't 
> recognize the certificate authority.
> (b) Maybe the way my redirect to ssl is set up is messing with the web 
> service calls. (Permanent redirect to a *:443 vhost)
> (c) Maybe there is some other configuration problem with my ssl set up.
> (d) Maybe this is completely unrelated to the actual problem.
>
> Thanks for any ideas.
> Jason
>

-- 
Brian Chase // Systems Administrator // College IT Office
College of Arts & Sciences // Indiana University
brchase at indiana.edu // 812-855-1387

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