Why is the website monitoring app giving the error "Exception generated when attempting to get the proxy configuration"

[jacobpevans]

@LukeMurphey

According to the issue at the URL below, this problem was resolved in 2.7.5, but I am on version 2.9.2.

https://github.com/LukeMurphey/splunk-website-monitoring/issues/31

Here's the error:

2020-03-11 12:46:05,880 ERROR Exception generated when attempting to get the proxy configuration stanza=web_ping://[web input name], see url=http://lukemurphey.net/projects/splunk-website-monitoring/wiki/Troubleshooting
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\Program Files\Splunk\etc\apps\website_monitoring\bin\web_ping.py", line 941, in run_ping
    self.get_proxy_config(input_config.session_key, conf_stanza)
  File "D:\Program Files\Splunk\etc\apps\website_monitoring\bin\modular_input.zip\modular_input\shortcuts.py", line 31, in wrapper
    return function(*args, **kwargs)
  File "D:\Program Files\Splunk\etc\apps\website_monitoring\bin\web_ping.py", line 799, in get_proxy_config
    website_monitoring_config = self.get_app_config(session_key, stanza)
  File "D:\Program Files\Splunk\etc\apps\website_monitoring\bin\modular_input.zip\modular_input\shortcuts.py", line 31, in wrapper
    return function(*args, **kwargs)
  File "D:\Program Files\Splunk\etc\apps\website_monitoring\bin\web_ping.py", line 735, in get_app_config
    raise Exception("Could not get the website_monitoring configuration")
Exception: Could not get the website_monitoring configuration

The steps I performed to achieve this:
- Install website monitor version 2.7.6
- Add a website input
- I believe it was broken here, but I did not verify this
- Upgrade to the latest website monitor (2.9.2)

[jacobpevans · Accepted solution]

It's hidden, but at the bottom of Luke's troubleshooting is the answer (http://lukemurphey.net/projects/splunk-website-monitoring/wiki/Troubleshooting).

Specifically,

Some of my inputs are returning a 403 error even though I haven't told them to use authentication.
This is likely because you have a proxy server configured but you input is unable to authenticate with the proxy. Oftentimes, this happens because there is a global HTTP proxy defined using using environment variables (often in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/splunk-launch.conf).

To get around this, define a value for the proxy_ignore setting in website_monitoring.conf. You can also set this using the setup page for the Website Monitoring app. Set the value of the "Server Ignore List" to "*", like this:

All I did was set "Server Ignore List" to * via the GUI. Problem solved. My website_monitoring.conf looks like this:

[default]
proxy_type = http
thread_limit = 20
proxy_ignore = *

I would think this could be handled in the default website_monitoring.conf, but I'll leave that to the expert @LukeMurphey . Thanks for a great app! I just wanted to get this answer up since I do not see it anywhere else besides your troubleshooting wiki.

Cheers,
Jacob