topic Re: Unable to access online documentation in Security

Unable to access online documentation

VBScab — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:22:37 GMT

I have trialled v4.3 and it has now switched to the free version. My problem, however, existed prior to the license change. This is not a connectivity issue, as the browser can open a window to splunk.com with no problem. The test workstation is running Windows XP SP3.

When clicking the 'Learn more' link on an entry in the License Manager screen, after 10 seconds the page simply displays "Unable to access online documentation". On examining the source for the page, it appears that I am missing an entire folder tree, viz. [webroot]/en-GB, as in:

        <script type="text/javascript" src="/en-GB/config?autoload=1"></script>             
        <script type="text/javascript" src="/en-GB/static/@115073/js/common.min.js"></script>

Having said that, the installing MSI doesn't contain an entry in the Directory table to create that folder. Perhaps one of the myriad Custom Actions does that....

Re: Unable to access online documentation

piebob — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:53:12 GMT

can you provide the URL for that help link? (hover over, right click, copy link)

Re: Unable to access online documentation

VBScab — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:43:55 GMT

Update 20120308_0942
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Splunk, this time opting directly for the free license. I am still prompted, after 10 seconds, "Unable to access the online documentation".

Interestingly, the free license is set to expire 6 days AGO!

Re: Unable to access online documentation

lesterw — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:01:46 GMT

I am having the same problem on two separate servers: Brand new fresh install of Splunk for Windows. The URL in question:

http://splunkserver:8000/en-US/help?license=pro&locale=en-US&versionNumber=4.3.2&installType=trial&location=licensing.forwarderlicense&skin=default

Re: Unable to access online documentation

millenniumdan — Tue, 10 May 2016 22:12:19 GMT

Same problem here: Splunk 6.4.0 on Windows 8.1,
http://localhost:8000/en-US/help?location=learnmore.search.transforming

Re: Unable to access online documentation

ChrisG — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:40:26 GMT

There are a few possible causes for the help links to fail.

Sometimes it is a firewall or network issue.
You might have a browser extension running that interferes with the call (AdBlock Plus is one likely culprit, or based on the comments below, Privacy Badger). Your browser developer tools console will show net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT if this is the case.
Occasionally there is a transient problem that causes help links to fail, but that should resolve if you clear your cache and refresh the page.

Re: Unable to access online documentation

wrangler2x — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:12:49 GMT

I have EFF Privacy Badger on my (Chrome) browser. I was getting this same thing. After reading this I disabled it for my Splunkweb site, and now the Splunk Documentation and Tutorial buttons work correctly.

Re: Unable to access online documentation

xavierashe — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 20:58:46 GMT

EFF Privacy Badger was the culprit for me too.

Re: Unable to access online documentation

jbillings — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 21:13:39 GMT

I receive "Unable to access online documentation. Please ensure docsCheckerBaseURL in web.conf is correct." with pop-up blocker turned off, no blocking. Do you know what the configuration for docsCheckerBaseURL in web.conf should look like? https://localhost:8000/en-US/help?location=learnmore.datamodel.about

Re: Unable to access online documentation

ChrisG — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 21:43:32 GMT

Do you have other extensions running? Does your console show net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT?

Re: Unable to access online documentation

wrangler2x — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 21:43:34 GMT

When I get this message and I do <ctrl><shift>I a pane opens on the right which shows this (Chrome, by the way):

Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT quickdraw.splunk.com/help/pro/6.5.2/splunkcore.homepage.docs/prod/default?locale=en-US&product=enterprise:1

I added quickdraw.splunk.com to the Disabled Sites list in Privacy Badger, and tried it again, and got the exact same thing.

I tried this on a co-workers browser and it worked fine, and then I noticed that quickdraw.splunk.com had redirected to docs.splunk.com, so I added that into the Disabled Sites list and it still does not work.

What did you do in Privacy Badger to allow this to work properly?

Re: Unable to access online documentation

wrangler2x — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 22:10:00 GMT

Okay, I figured it out. I had to click on Privacy Badger icon after the error occurred, then click on Disable Privacy Badger for this site.

Why manually editing the exception list did not fix it I do not know. But it works now. I reported this to IETF

Re: Unable to access online documentation

jbillings — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 15:56:51 GMT

I have other extensions, but none are blocking. I get "help?location=manager.apps.local:142 GET http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/pro/7.1.2/manager.apps.local/prod/default?locale=en-US&product=enterprise net::ERR_ABORTED 404 (Not Found)"

Re: Unable to access online documentation

ChrisG — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 16:55:56 GMT

Correction. I can't reproduce the issue here. Apologies for the confusion. I was not looking at 7.1.2.

In 7.1.2 (for real), in a fresh local installation, the help links work for me.

http://localhost:8000/en-US/help?location=manager.apps.local

correctly resolves to

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.1.2/Admin/Managingappobjects.

Re: Unable to access online documentation

jbillings — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:29:27 GMT

Thank you for working on this Chris.
What is your Web.conf CheckerBaseURL set to?

Re: Unable to access online documentation

jbillings — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 14:16:41 GMT

The solution was I changed the docsCheckerBaseURL URL to https://quickdraw.splunk.com/help and I'm able to reach the documentation now. Thank you for your help working on this.

Re: Unable to access online documentation

ww9rivers — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 17:07:16 GMT

I am having the same issue with version 8.1.5. We upgraded from 7.3.4 a few months ago but I don't know if this has happened before. The error message is the same: "Unable to access online documentation. Please ensure docsCheckerBaseURL in web.conf is correct." I get that with any inline help or Help >> Tutorials.

So the URL is: https://localhost:8000/en-US/help?location=search_app.tutorial

I looked in web.conf using Splunk btool, which is the default setting:

app/splunk/etc/system/default/web.conf docsCheckerBaseURL = https://quickdraw.splunk.com/help

When I manually put that URL in the browser, I get a complete blank response with status 200.

I checked the Chrome browser console in the developer tool. There is no error about client blocking the request. The error messages is in the HTML response.

What else can I check? Thanks!

Re: Unable to access online documentation

mykol_j — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 19:30:12 GMT

This has never worked for me (since version 4.0). I always assumed it was because we're on an isolated enclave (no Internet) regardless of the URL shown. Well, I'm on 9.0.0.1 now and it's still not working. Thought I'd try one more time... nope. I can't believe something so simple has *never* been fixed by Splunk. Going back to giving up on it again.