Amazon OpenSearch Serverless Dashboards: A Comprehensive Guide
Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers using OpenSearch Serverless Dashboards might occasionally face access issues when the network access is set to "VPC Endpoint." These issues can manifest in various forms, including connection timeouts, 401 Unauthorized errors, or HTTP 403 errors, each requiring a distinct troubleshooting approach.
When network access is configured as 'VPC Endpoint', resources within the same Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) as the endpoint should have seamless access. However, problems can arise if the resource does not have proper access or if network policies restrict the connection.
Key Issues and Solutions:
Connection Timeouts: This usually indicates that the resource does not have the correct permissions to access the VPC endpoint. Resolving this issue involves adding the correct source security group or IP address to the inbound rules of the VPC endpoint’s associated security group. Additionally, confirming that the VPC endpoint's DNS resolves to the correct private IP is crucial.
401 Unauthorized Errors: These occur when the client machine is outside the VPC, or an access policy is blocking the request. A diagnostic step involves running a
nslookupcommand to ensure the DNS resolves to the expected private endpoint. If the DNS points to a public hostname, reconfigure the VPC, subnet, and security groups to reflect the correct settings.HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden: This error typically appears when the IAM user or group lacks the necessary permissions to access the Dashboards. Updating IAM permissions to include
aoss:APIAccessAllandaoss:DashboardsAccessAllis a necessary step in resolving this issue.
Additional Tools for Troubleshooting:
Reachability Analyzer: For Amazon EC2 instances trying to connect to the VPC endpoint, using Reachability Analyzer can help pinpoint connectivity problems. The tool analyzes the path between EC2 instances and the VPC endpoint to detect any issues.
HAR Files: If the errors persist, customers are advised to generate HAR (HTTP Archive) files while reproducing the issue in the browser. These files provide detailed error codes and headers that can reveal whether the problem stems from a network access policy or incorrect IAM permissions.
Recommendations for Admins:
AWS administrators should review security group settings, VPC configurations, and IAM roles regularly. Ensuring that the OpenSearch Serverless Dashboards URL is accessed correctly—directly in a new browser tab, rather than through the AWS Management Console link—is also important, as the latter can trigger authentication problems.
By following these troubleshooting steps, AWS users can resolve common access issues to OpenSearch Serverless Dashboards and improve their overall experience with AWS OpenSearch services.
For more detailed steps and troubleshooting guides, AWS users can visit the AWS Knowledge Center or consult the OpenSearch service documentation.
This summary is based on AWS's official troubleshooting guide and is aimed at assisting OpenSearch Serverless Dashboard users in resolving access-related issues effectively.