Why do I receive 'There was an error retrieving the configuration, can not process this page' when accessing certain manager pages?

[hazekamp]

When accessing a manager page for example:

manager/<app_name>/authentication/roles

I receive an error There was an error retrieving the configuration, can not process this page even though I have the edit_roles capability.

What gives?

[hazekamp · Accepted solution]

The reason for this is simple. The ability to "read" manager pages is controlled by the search app's metadata regardless of capabilities assigned to the role/user accessing the page. In order to edit roles (in this example) using the manager/<app_name>/authentication/roles a role must meet the following criteria:

1. Be allowed to read the manager page:

   ## $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/search/metadata/local.meta
[manager/authentication_roles]
access = read : [ admin, my_role ], write : [ admin ]

2. Be granted the appropriate capability (in this case edit_roles)