Splunk Web UI - Getting "Cannot get username when all users are selected" along with some web elements not loading

[vtalanki]

Hi,

We have setup our Splunk cluster, version 7.3.3 in AWS and seeing that on logging into splunk UI, some of the web elements are not loading - like User id, 'Search and Reporting' App(sometimes) etc.

Also when we are performing any search we see that it displays "Cannot get username when all users are selected"

Our search heads are behind AWS NLB. Our policies do not support ALB and hence we have to settle with NLB, which at this time do not support Sticky sessions or persistence.

I have gone thru some of the Splunk Answers on this similar issue and came to know that this is probably because of missing sticky sessions. 

Is this really a missing sticky session issue? If yes, Is there any alternate way to resolve this apart from moving from NLB to ALB?

[livehybrid]

Unfortunately this will indeed be as a result of using an NLB which doesnt support the sticky sessions you need (https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.4/DistSearch/UseSHCwithloadbalancers)

Other options you could look at might be using DNS to use a primary SH and using a health-check to create a failover configuration, although this will only give you High-availability rather than spreading of load through the UI.

Could you front it with something like HAProxy which could then apply the session persistence?

[vtalanki · Accepted solution]

Thanks for responding @livehybrid . Unfortunately we cannot go ahead with another lb than what AWS provides. 

AWS documentation says you can enable sticky sessions for NLB with type='source_ip' and when I enable stickiness in target group section for NLB in AWS Console, I'm not seeing this issue anymore. 

Do you think this might be the solution then?

[livehybrid]

Ah fantastic. That will work as long as everybody using your instance isnt coming from the same source IP/Proxy/NAT gateway out of your company, otherwise you will all end up hitting the same SH!

[vtalanki]

Yup. Thats right. Agree