PDF Server timing out during scheduled dashboard PDF generation

[mmarod]

My PDF server is timing out when I try to generate a PDF from a dashboard. When I do the test PDF in 'Email Alert Settings' the PDF is generated properly, however when I run it on a dashboard it times out after 30 seconds.

Here is the excerpt from python.log:

2010-07-22 13:35:36,988 WARNING pdfhandler:340 - body=Splunk;4.1.3;4.1.3
2010-07-22 13:35:36,988 WARNING body=Splunk;4.1.3;4.1.3
2010-07-22 13:35:36,988 WARNING pdfhandler:341 - entries=['Splunk', '4.1.3', '4.1.3']
2010-07-22 13:35:36,988 WARNING entries=['Splunk', '4.1.3', '4.1.3']
2010-07-22 13:35:36,999 INFO    xvfb:45 - Started new X server. Now 1 active
2010-07-22 13:35:36,999 INFO Started new X server. Now 1 active
2010-07-22 13:35:37,000 WARNING pdfhandler:437 - Restricting Firefox to following hosts only: *:53 x.x.x.x
2010-07-22 13:35:37,000 WARNING Restricting Firefox to following hosts only: *:53 x.x.x.x
2010-07-22 13:35:37,000 INFO    pdfhandler:442 - Executing opt/splunk/etc/apps/pdfserver/bin/firefox-i386/firefox -print http://splunk.devis.com:8000/app/search/dgov_hits_today -printmode pdf -printfile /tmp/tmpZpNBjn -title Splunk Alert: dgov_hits_today -orientation portrait -paperwidth 216 -paperheight 279 -mode splunk -timeout 360 -windowsize 1200x768 -footer_right Generated by Splunk at &D -cookie session_id_8000=4d6ef55e9ae628eced6ba2026222503470699ad8
2010-07-22 13:35:37,000 INFO Executing /opt/splunk/etc/apps/pdfserver/bin/firefox-i386/firefox -print http://splunk.devis.com:8000/app/search/dgov_hits_today -printmode pdf -printfile /tmp/tmpZpNBjn -title Splunk Alert: dgov_hits_today -orientation portrait -paperwidth 216 -paperheight 279 -mode splunk -timeout 360 -windowsize 1200x768 -footer_right Generated by Splunk at &D -cookie session_id_8000=4d6ef55e9ae628eced6ba2026222503470699ad8
2010-07-22 13:35:37,008 INFO    xvfb:205 - Assigned DISPLAY :5
2010-07-22 13:35:37,008 INFO Assigned DISPLAY :5
2010-07-22 13:35:37,009 INFO    xvfb:115 - Starting X Server: ['/usr/bin/Xvfb', ':5', '-screen', '0', '3000x768x24', '-nolisten', 'tcp']
2010-07-22 13:35:37,009 INFO Starting X Server: ['/usr/bin/Xvfb', ':5', '-screen', '0', '3000x768x24', '-nolisten', 'tcp']
2010-07-22 13:35:37,009 INFO    xvfb:116 - Starting X Server env: {'XAUTHORITY': '/opt/splunk/var/run/splunk/xvfb/xauth-5/Xauthority'}
2010-07-22 13:35:37,009 INFO Starting X Server env: {'XAUTHORITY': '/opt/splunk/var/run/splunk/xvfb/xauth-5/Xauthority'}
2010-07-22 13:35:39,039 INFO    xvfb:122 - X Started
2010-07-22 13:35:39,039 INFO X Started
2010-07-22 13:36:06,688 ERROR An error occurred while generating a PDF of this report: Failed to generate PDF: Appserver failed to dispatch report request to http://127.0.0.1:8089/services/pdfserver/renderpdf: Splunkd daemon is not responding: ('timed out',)

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

[gareth · Accepted solution]

The log indicates that it's trying to contact splunkd without SSL (http://127.0.0.1:8089/services/pdfserver/renderpdf instead of https://...) - Unless you've actually configured splunkd to not use SSL (which isn't generally recommended) then you should check that the "Remote PDF Report Server URL" setting in Manager->System Settings->Email Alert Settings is blank.

If you actually want to use a remote PDF server then that field should be set to https://servername:8089/

[mmarod]

Thank you! For some reason splunkd was explicitly set to not use SSL. Until I removed that setting, leaving the Remote PDF Server box blank did not give me any results... After enabling SSL for splunkd leaving the Remote PDF Server box blank gave me the intended results. Thanks again for the prompt response!