GOCDB Troubleshooting

The GOCDB is a web based interface to the GOC core database. It is accessed through HTTPS so many of the problems that users experience are caused by browser misconfigurations and not problems with the interface itself. This page will help you to resolve most problems that you might experience.

You can also check the bugs page to see if the problem you are encountering is known or not. 

Problems accessing the GOCDB

The GOCDB will only allow access to holders of EGEE recognised x509 digital certificates (for a list of supported CAs click here). This means that you must install / import your personal certificate in whatever browser(s) you want to be able to access the GOCDB with. If you do not have a digital certificate installed any attempt to access the GOCDB will result in a HTTP 403 - Access Forbidden message. If you are recieving this message despite having a certificate installed, you should check that the certificate you have is still valid. This can be achieved by locating your certificate store in the browser and making sure that it has not expired. Certificate stores for popular browsers can be accessed following the paths below:

• Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Options -> Content -> Certificates
• Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Certificates
• Opera: Tools -> Preferences -> Security -> Manage Certificates
• Netscape Navigator:

< a href="http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/ca/openssl.htm" target="_blank">Instructions for converting to and from P12 format certificate bundles can be found here.

If you continue to experience problems with accessing the GOCDB despite having a valid certificate installed, you should try clearing your browsers cache and then restarting it (it's important you close ALL browser windows for this to take effect). The locations of the controls to clear the browser cache for popular browsers can be found below.

• Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Options -> General -> Delete Files... (you should also check the 'Delete all offline content' box)
• Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Cache -> Clear
• Opera: Tools -> Options -> History & Cache -> (Disk cache) Empty now (and apply afterwards)
• Netscape Navigator: Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cache -> Clear cache 

Browser asks for certificate multiple times (Firefox / Netscape)

This occurs when you have Client Certificate Selection set to 'Ask every time'. You should change it to 'Select automaticially' and this should resolve the problem.

Still have problems?

If you have got this far and are still unable to access the GOCDB, please email GOCDB admins along with your certificate subject. You can find your certificate subject by accessing your certificate store as detailed above. They will take a form similar to 'CN = joe bloggs/ L = RAL / OU = CLRC / O = eScience / C = UK'.