CDA/ARA: Release Automation Perspective no longer loads after server patching

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

After server patching, the Release Automation perspective no longer loads and viewing the browser console shows repeated messages stating: start sending authenticate post message.

To Reproduce:
1.) Have the .net framework roll-ups from November/December 2019 recently installed on your ARA Server
2.) Log into the CDA/ARA* client
3.) Attempt to open the Release Automation perspective
4.) As the page stays blank, open the browser console (F12 in Chrome).
5.) There will be repetitive browser messages stating:
start sending authenticate post message

* This may be known as Automic Release Automation, ARA, CDA, Automic Continuous Delivery Manager

Cause

This is due to a change in how .Net handles SameSite specifications, which is utilized by CDA for authentication.

For more information:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/iis-support-blog/samesite-cookie-updates-in-asp-net-or-how-the-net-framework-from/ba-p/1156246

https://blog.chromium.org/2019/10/developers-get-ready-for-new.html

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/iis-support-blog/samesite-lax-in-the-new-world/ba-p/1156292

Resolution

To resolve this, configure the CDA components to utilize a Fully Qualified Host Name (FQHN) within the customer.config (located in the WebUI folder of the CDA component) and connection.properties (located within the \config\webui-plugin-bond folder of each Automic Web Interface (AWI)) and ensure that the CDA system and the AWI are within the same domain. 

An example customer.config:

<add key="UC4Deployment.ECCURL" value="http://myserver1.subdomain.mydomain:8080/awi/" /> <add key="UC4Deployment.CallbackUrl" value="http://myserver2.subdomain.mydomain:80/CDA" />

An example connection.properties:

# URL of BOND on IIS

url=http://myserver2.subdomain.mydomain:80/CDA

To find the FQHN, you can access the /service/deploymentservice.svc of your CDA server. Using the example above:

http://myserver2.subdomain.mydomain:80/CDA/service/deploymentservice.svc

This will display the URL that will be used for all CDA references.