iPhoneHandle 4.0.1 - troubles

[jgardner]

Hi folks,

I am using OTRS::ITSM 4.0.3 on ubuntu. So far, everything is lovely except that I just cannot seem to get the iphone iOS app to authenticate properly.

I installed the package from within OTRS sysconfig.

Here's the issue that happens and the steps I take:

a) I use the "official" otrs app on my iphone.
b) I feed it the correct url (in my case, http://192.168.200.131/otrs/json.pl)
c) I give it the right username and password
d) When I save the settings, it says "initializing account" or something very similar, and then I wait and wait and wait.
e) an error message comes back:

"Initialization error - during initialization of the account the following error has occurred: the request timed out"

f) if I look at /var/syslog, which is where otrs dumps it logs, I see this:

Feb 23 09:37:05 otrs OTRS-iPhoneHandle-10[26284]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Auth::DB::Auth] User: jgardner authentication ok (Method: sha256, REMOTE_ADDR: 192.168.200.3).
q

g) and I also turn on the iphone debug log too, and I see this:

[2015-02-23 09:37:05][Debug] [Inbound] User=jgardner&Password=****&Object=CustomObject&Method=VersionGet&Data={}
[2015-02-23 09:37:05][Debug] [Outbound] {"Result":"successful","Data":[{"Name":"iPhoneHandle\n","URL":"http://otrs.org/","Version":"4.0.1","Fr ... dor":"OTRS AG "}]}

--

As you can imagine, I am rather stumped. My agents auth from otrs's db. My customers auth from LDAP (actually active directory). Interestingly, my AD username is also jgardner but I cannot imagine this being the source of my troubles... or could it be? It doesn't matter when i hit the agent login page, of course. But could that be the issue for the json login?

[jgardner]

Interestingly, I tried creating a new agent in otrs who doesn't have an AD account. Then I tried using this user to login through the OTRS iPhone app and had exactly the same issue as with my "jgardner" user.


Hmm!

[eandrex]

Well,

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[2015-02-23 09:37:05][Debug] [Inbound] User=jgardner&Password=****&Object=CustomObject&Method=VersionGet&Data={}
[2015-02-23 09:37:05][Debug] [Outbound] {"Result":"successful","Data":[{"Name":"iPhoneHandle\n","URL":"http://otrs.org/","Version":"4.0.1","Framework":"4.0.3","Vendor":"xxx "}]}

According to that, OTRS is handling your request fine.

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Initialization error - during initialization of the account the following error has occurred: the request timed out

There seems to be a connection issue between your OTRS and your Iphone App..maybe OTRS is taking too long to respond the query.

[jgardner]

Indeed, but I haven't seen anyway to adjust what the timeout should be for OTRS iPhone Handle... certainly the module's own manual doesn't say anything about this.

Could this be a permissions issue? There are some API Object fields that seem to have something to do with access restrictions. They default to empty and I have left them as such, but I also doesn't know what's a valid setting for those, or not.

[eandrex]

the timeout setting is in the Iphone App. And not, it is not a permission issue.

if you go to (in your webbrowser):

Code: Select all

http://192.168.200.131/otrs/json.pl?User=YOURUSER;Password=YOURPASSWORD;Object=CustomObject;Method=VersionGet 

you should see the same result as the one that is being logged in your OTRS. By the way, how many seconds does it takes to reply you back the JSON response?.

The only thing you can do, is try to debug the connection issues between your iphone app and your OTRS instalation. Since there is no open source code for the IphoneApp, you cant change the timeout(Implying that it will fix the issue).

[jgardner]

Just tested witting the json page from my browser while tailing the iPhone debug log - the auth successful message shows up instantaneously, for all practical purposes. So I don't think that the OTRS server itself is taking too long to respond.

Once I supply a wellformed url in my browser, I see this response:

{"Result":"successful","Data":[{"Version":"4.0.1","Name":"iPhoneHandle\n","URL":"http://otrs.org/","Vendor":"OTRS AG","Framework":"4.0.3"}]}

which looks like a good response string to me.

I'm looking at the network connection between the wifi network my phone is on, and the server's network. Maybe something is getting filtered in there? Shall I assume that the entire conversation between the phone client and the otrs server happens over port 80?

[eandrex]

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Shall I assume that the entire conversation between the phone client and the otrs server happens over port 80?

Most likely.

What happens if you try to open

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http://192.168.200.131/otrs/json.pl

in your standard Iphone web browser?

Do you get a reply at all?

[jgardner]

What happens if you try to open

CODE: SELECT ALL
http://192.168.200.131/otrs/json.pl


in your standard Iphone web browser?

weird, weird indeed. I get nothing. I explicitly type http://192.168.200.131/otrs/json.pl but the phone's browser seems to show the little lock symbol, like it is trying to speak https. Eventually, the browser just times out and says the server stopped responding.

This is safari on whatever the latest version of iOS is.

Actually just even trying to hit apache's default page doesn't work from my phone either. I don't get the lock symbol, so it looks like there is some firewall business going on in between.

[eandrex]

there you have then. Now the question is, does it only happen with your OTRS? all other urls are ok? what if you try with index.pl instead of json.pl? can you see the login box?.

I have never used Iphone, so i dont know where to go from here.. maybe some security options in IOS itself?.

edit: can you test your json.pl URL in another mobile app? same behaviour? what about an android powered device?

[jgardner]

does it only happen with your OTRS? all other urls are ok? what if you try with index.pl instead of json.pl? can you see the login box?.

Happens with all urls from the phone, to this server 192.168.200.131 actually. Must be a firewall issue - I cannot imagine anything else.

edit: tested from another mobile device (android) - with same results.

[eandrex]

yeah, but the weird part, is that your OTRS Iphone App makes a successful request to your OTRS server(at least thats what your logs say).

perhaps an outgoing firewall rule in your OTRS Server?.

edit: is your otrs instalation reachable from outside your company network?

[jgardner]

I thought that was weird too.

Currently the server isn't reachable from outside my company's network. So I am speaking to it only from my internal corporate wifi network (but that's its own network segment distinct from where the server lives).

There are no firewall rules in effect on the OTRS server at the moment. iptables isn't actually even running.

[jgardner]

resolved - this turned out to be an issue with our transparent proxy that we use to monitor people's network activity. problem solved!

Thanks for the quick and friendly help!