Website Monitoring: Unable to set up Website URL - "ConnectionError: ('Connection aborted.', gaierror(-2, 'Name or service not known'))"

[ashidhull]

ERROR A connection exception was thrown when executing a web request
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/web_ping.py", line 289, in ping
    http = requests.get(url.geturl(), proxies=proxies, timeout=timeout, cert=cert, verify=False, auth=auth)
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/website_monitoring_app/requests/api.py", line 65, in get
    return request('get', url, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/website_monitoring_app/requests/api.py", line 49, in request
    response = session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/website_monitoring_app/requests/sessions.py", line 461, in request
    resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/website_monitoring_app/requests/sessions.py", line 573, in send
    r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/splunk/etc/apps/website_monitoring/bin/website_monitoring_app/requests/adapters.py", line 415, in send
    raise ConnectionError(err, request=request)
ConnectionError: ('Connection aborted.', gaierror(-2, 'Name or service not known'))

[LukeMurphey · Accepted solution]

Check the domain name to ensure it is valid. This exception can be generated when:

1. The IP address is invalid (if referring to the host by IP)
2. The domain name is invalid or cannot be resolved
3. The port number provided is invalid (if a port is specified)

[ashidhull]

Will try to ping the website through the Linux box, I am thinking there might be a firewall issue

[LukeMurphey]

Oh, I bet you are correct. I recall seeing this before from other customers. Furthermore, the message says "Connection aborted" which may indicate it got a RST packet forcing the connection closed (although most firewalls usually quietly drop the packet).

Either way, I'm going to update the log message to make it more clear in case others run into this in the future.