cannot login to confluence

[Deleted user]

On a recently installed confluence server (V6.7.1 on Linux) I can no more login as admin.

I get the login screen, enter userID/password, and I get once again the login screen.

The credentials are checked, as I see an error message if I enter an invalid password.

I have already tried:

- reset the password

- restart confluence

- restart the server

There are no log entries in confluence or catalina log.

[SMS]

Jean,

Can you try to login with the local user by using this article:

• Restore Passwords To Recover Admin User Rights

That will allow you to recover access even if there's an issue going on with your user directory.

By the way, can you confirm what you use for your user directory? Is it the local Confluence one or are you using something else, like Jira's directory, Crowd, LDAP, etc.?

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Thank you Shannon for the fast response.

My password is validated, as another password generates an error message.

We have a local user directory (essentially for the administrators) and the company LDAP as user directories. The admin I am using is a local user.

Jean

[Deleted user]

I have tried the recovery mode described in your reference. The result was the same.

Reading the reference you indicated I remembered that we tried (in vain) to implement  a JIRA user server for our confluence server (item 3 in your page: "You're using an external directory or Jira for user management, have disabled the built in user management, and your external directory is not currently available. ")

Then I deleted the confluence server in the "JIRA user server" list. Still not better.

Finally I wanted to delete the configuration for the user server on the confluence server but couldn't find where this is stored. I grepped the installation directory and a DB dump.

[SMS]

Jean,

You can use step 3 of the older document to put your internal directory in first position:

• Restore passwords to recover admin user rights > Step 3. Put the Internal Directory in First Position

For the issue where it keeps sending you back to your login page, could you try to clear your cookies and see if you still have the issue? Please also try it in Incognito Mode.

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Hi Shannon,

I followed Steps 1 to 3 of the indicated page, and on the way noticed that:

• The JIRA user management server was gone (through the last week action)
• LDAP had index 0, the internal directory had index 1 - which I changed by the given instructions
• The internal directory was not active - which I also changed by the given instructions

Now the tables look ok (see below), but I still cannot login. I fill in admin/admin and I am again returned to the login screen.

confluencedb=> select d.id, d.directory_name, m.list_index from cwd_directory d join cwd_app_dir_mapping m on d.id=m.directory_id;
   id    |        directory_name         | list_index
---------+-------------------------------+------------
   98305 | Confluence Internal Directory |          0
 2883586 | g02.fujitsu.local             |          1
(2 rows)

confluencedb=> select id, directory_name, active from cwd_directory where id = 98305;
  id   |        directory_name         | active
-------+-------------------------------+--------
 98305 | Confluence Internal Directory | T
(1 row)

[AnnWorley]

Hi Jean,

The behavior you are reporting now does not sound like a bad username and password, but rather, the issue described in Login Screen Loops Back To Login Screen With No Error When Using Correct Username And Password

1. The browser cache has two values for JSESSIONID or if using Crowd, extra values for crowd.token_key.
2. A software application firewall is blocking Confluence.
3. Multiple Atlassian products are using the same IP Address or hostname, and the same context path, but are listening on different ports. Due to the way the browser stores cookies, their session cookies step on each other, and sometimes that can lead to this issue happening.

The resolutions are included in Login Screen Loops Back To Login Screen With No Error When Using Correct Username And Password.

Cause one

• Clear your browsers cache and reconnect to Confluence.

Cause two

• Ensure there are no software firewalls blocking Confluence and the cookie JSESSIONID.

Cause three

• Change the context path of the different Atlassian products so that they are no longer using the same context path, see Logging into another Atlassian application logs me out of Confluence for more information.

I look forward to hearing whether any of those suggestions work for your case.

Thanks,

Ann

[Deleted user]

Cause one was the right hint, but it was more complicated than that.

We are using reverse proxying from a common server to a confluence and a Jira server behind the firewall. Because an add-on application on the Jira server wants to read the JSESSIONID cookie we had used the ProxyPassReverseCookiePath directive. When I looked at the JSESSIONID from confluence I saw that it contained the path we had set for Jira. 

Now confluence is working again.

Thank you for your support!

[AnnWorley]

Happy to hear Confluence is working again!

I appreciate your circling back to the thread to let the Community know the answer.