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Upgrading to RSA NetWitness 11.x fails due to a parse error

Issue

Upgrading from 11.3.1.1 to 11.4.1.2 via the NetWitness Admin UI fails and the host status changes to 'Update Error'.

The following error is found in /var/lib/netwitness/config-management/cache/stack-trace.
Net::HTTPFatalError: 500 "Internal Server Error"
/opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/2.5.0/net/http/response.rb:122:in 'error!'

/var/log/messages shows more meaning parsing errors as below.
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: [2020-08-14T00:07:24+00:00] ERROR: #<FFI_Yajl::ParseError: parse error: trailing garbage
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Tls" : true } } }, "override_attributes" : { }
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: (right here) ------^
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: >
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/ffi-yajl-2.3.1/lib/ffi_yajl/parser.rb:87:in `do_yajl_parse'
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/ffi-yajl-2.3.1/lib/ffi_yajl/parser.rb:87:in `parse'
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/ffi-yajl-2.3.1/lib/ffi_yajl/parser.rb:46:in `parse'
 
================================================================================
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Error expanding the run_list:
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: ================================================================================
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Unknown Server Error:
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: ---------------------
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: The server had a fatal error attempting to load a role.
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Server Response:
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: ----------------
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Exception raised! #<FFI_Yajl::ParseError: parse error: trailing garbage
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: Tls" : true } } }, "override_attributes" : { }
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: (right here) ------^
Aug 14 00:07:24 netwsa-as-01p salt-minion: >





Cause

The parser error is due to incorrect syntax in /etc/netwitness/config-management/environments/netwitness.json. This may occur due to a human error while following a KB like 36446.

For example, an extra curly brace and a comma below "global" cause a parsing error while closing the object towards to the end, just before "override_attributes".
{
  "name" : "netwitness",
  "description" : "Default environment",
  "chef_type" : "environment",
  "json_class" : "Chef::Environment",
  "default_attributes" : {
    "nw-repositories" : {
      "repo_base" : {
        "url" : "file:///var/netwitness/common/repo"
      }
    },
    "global" : {

      },
      "mongo" : {
        "port" : "27017",
        "host" : {
          "hostname" : "10.1.1.1"
        },
        "useTls" : true
      },
      "nodezeroipaddress" : "10.1.1.1",
      "nw-services" : [ ],
      "rabbitmq" : {
        "port" : "5671",
        "host" : {
          "hostname" : "10.1.1.1"
        },
        "use Tls" : true
      }
    }
  },
  "override_attributes" : { }
}
Some non-printable garbage characters may cause such problem as well.

Resolution

Take a backup of /etc/netwitness/config-management/environments/netwitness.json and modify it to remove the syntax errors.

Product Details

RSA Product Set: NetWitness Platform
RSA Product/Service Type: NetWitness Platform
RSA Version/Condition: 11.x

Approval Reviewer Queue

RSA NetWitness Suite Approval Queue