Jira (8.20.1) not loading through F5 portal

[Megan Ferguson]

We utilize an F5 portal to allow our vendors access to our internal Jira instance. We recently upgraded from 8.5.6 to 8.20.1. When our vendors access Jira through the portal, they see the header and menus but the menu dropdowns don't work. They can search and view issues but editing does not work.  Is anyone familiar with this setup? My assumption at this point is that there was some configuration change in Jira that is causing this to no longer work appropriately. I've been digging through release notes to try to find what may have changed with no success. Is anyone aware of any changes that could have impacted this type of setup?

[Tim Perrault · Accepted solution]

Hi @Megan Ferguson 

This sounds like a configuration issue with the F5. What happens when you access the application bypassing the F5?

Thanks,

Tim

[Joshua Sneed Contegix]

Hi Megan,

Tim asks a good question. If it functions normally when bypassing, review F5 logs. If it behaves the same, review your SSL/proxy configuration.

You can also use your browser inspector's Network tab to identify failed requests to the app and view the response. This can produce errors that don't get surfaced in browser and identify if it is the F5 blocking or if it is something else. Cheers!

[Megan Ferguson]

It works fine when we don't go through this portal on the F5. Jira 8.5.6 worked fine going through the F5 portal. The network group says nothing changed in the F5 configuration so my only idea at this point is that there is some configuration setting in Jira that changed how it works between 8.5 and 8.20 that the F5 is using and no longer finding what it expects.  My best guess is something within the default urls Jira uses since the F5 portal opens Jira to a different url then converts it to the real url behind the scenes to open the app. Unfortunately, I have no insight on what is really happening on the F5 side so I was hoping someone might be aware of a major change made in Jira configuration that I could try digging into a bit.

I will give the browser inspector a try and see if I can find anything.

[Tim Perrault]

The F5 changes the URL? So when you don't go through the F5 you use the Jira Base URL, but when you do go through it changes the URL?

Did you setup a proxy in the server.xml file?

[Megan Ferguson]

That is the way it was explained to me. No F5, it uses the Jira Base URL. Through the F5, the user clicks an icon that opens the browser with the home page set to something like https://portal.jira.com which is not our Jira Base URL. This is apparently just for display as the F5 administrator says it converts it to our actual Base URL on the backend and the purpose is just so these users can't see our actual Base URL. This worked in the past but I'm getting a message about an incorrect Base URL when I access Jira that way so I'm guessing there were some changes in Jira that are blocking this from working now and that if they just allowed the Jira Base URL in the browser window that the issue would be resolved but they say that is a security risk.

I don't believe there is a proxy setup. I also don't have access to that level of the application so I will need to confirm with our hosting provider. If doing that could resolve the issue, I will certainly pursue it.

[Tim Perrault]

ok If nothing changed in the F5 and the only change made was an upgrade to 8.20.1 you will need to check the following files to see if modifications from the previous install were re-applied:

- <jira-home-directory>/atlassian-jira/ directory
- <jira-home-directory>/conf/server.xml
- <jira-home-directory>/bin/setenv.sh

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

Here is the link that explains the custom modifications(Step4) that Tim has posted

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/upgrading-jira-installer-938846937.html#UpgradingJira(installer)-modifications

[Tim Perrault]

Thanks @Reneesh Kottakkalathil for finding that!

To further my guess, it's probably a missing proxy in the server.xml, but again just a guess.

[Megan Ferguson]

Thank you both! Our hosting service just notified us that they found an incorrect configuration in server.xml just as you suspected. Waiting for approval to reboot the server and will update you if it worked.

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

@Megan Ferguson 

Please review the 8.20 supported platform link https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver0820/supported-platforms-1095776511.html

Maybe you don't have a supported browser. Have you tried a different browser. Try restarting Jira again and review the startup logs for any errors.

Tim has also asked a great question. Bypass F5 and see if you have the same problem when using the base URL with port.

[Megan Ferguson]

Thanks Reneesh. We have tried in various browsers. The Jira logs are not recording any issues related to this from what I can see.

[Pertti Oinonen]

Hi Megan,

did you resolved this problem and how because I think we have the similar

problem

[Megan Ferguson]

Hi Pertti,

Unfortunately, no. We haven't been able to resolve the issue. We made some changes on the F5 to add various jira URIs. It fixed some of the issue but not everything. We also made many changes to Jira configuration without success. 

[Reneesh Kottakkalathil]

Hi Megan,

You commented "They can search and view issues but editing does not work". Have you checked the Jira project permissions?