Jira Confluence application links: No response was received from the URL you entered. 404 manifest

Question

I am attempting to make applications links between Confluence and JIRA as configured on a server install. Both are behind a proxy using paths, /confluence and /JIRA contexts respectively. I can login to each system through the proxy and also through the localhost plain text ports as well as the ssl ports for each. Confluence has plaintext port 8090 and ssl port 8453 whereas JIRA uses plaintext port 8080 and ssl port 8443. At this time there is absolutely no firewall rules in place:

# iptables -L -n  
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination

When attempting to create an application link from either app using either the localhost plain text ports, the localhost ssl ports, or the https proxy, all with and without the path contexts (/confluence and /jira) I receive this message:

No response was received from the URL you entered - it may not be valid.
 Please fix the URL below, if needed, and click Continue.

According to tcpdump on the localhost there is traffic however I see a 404 error returned when the manifest is requested:

traffic.png

I have been running around in documentation circles suggesting everything from old docs specifying Oauth needs to be setup on pre-existing connections to new docs stating Oauth is on by default and I need a plugin to connect the two.

I have yet find any plugin in the marketplace that seems pertinent to linking these applications when searching for oath, links, manifest, authentication. I certainly cannot find any manifest file underneath the application homes though I'm lead to believe this request is dynamic in nature and generated during the request to pass oath information back and forth.

I'm looking for ideas on something I've missed in the documentation, or in the server configs, or in the application settings. Thank you!

traffic.png

Steven F Behnke · Answer

Woohoo! Glad to hear it's working!! :)  Atlassian supports this configuration but I do want to point out you should secure those ports behind your firewall if you aren't using SSL to secure them.

I know there's some oddities with setting up application links behind SSL but I'm not sure where to start with the info I have.

Again, securing the ports behind your firewall should be sufficient! Good luck!

Morgan Smith_o9pml3 · Answer

It seems this was an issue with proxying and base urls and a bad entry in /etc/hosts. While attempting to re-create the application links as per the request of @Steven Behnke I saw some odd behaviour with redurects in the browser url where internal port numbers were being added to the url which went through the proxy. Odd hostname resolution usually leads me to check /etc/hosts. In there 127.0.0.1 was assigned my fqdn which I promptly assigned to my public address. That fixed a lot of weird little things however the apps were still unable to link properly... this time I could see the POST from the form in the apps come into the proxy but for some reason the proxy wasn't forwarding the requests (according to tcpdumps on all interfaces). This lead me to How to bypass reverse proxies for application links and furthermore How to create an unproxied Application Link. After following those I was able to add new unproxied connectors to get the apps linked. The whole thing works even with the firewall enabled and I'm happy as a clam

Steve Behnke [D1 · Answer

Delete the application link.
Please watch the Application Logs and the Catalina logs of both applications. 
Attempt to create the application link again.

SOMETHING will throw a stacktrace likely. Please post that error so we can figure it out with you.