Install Issues and Troubleshooting
Table of Contents
Rapid Resolution of Blackboard Scholar install and registration issues.
The following steps will resolve virtually all installation and registration issues and address virtually all error messages. Further background to these issues is in the latter part of this article. Work through the following issues:
- Was the 2nd part of the installation process in the Scholar Installation instructions (in Download Centre, Behind the Blackboard) completed i.e. registration of server with www.scholar.com If not, Scholar will not work. Quick test: At www.scholar.com, click on Advanced Search, then Add Criteria then Institutions. Type the first few characters of the name entered in the Display name field during registration. If this name does not come up, registration has not completed and needs to be re-done.
SOLUTION: Re-do registration. See Register Scholar Building Block (or Powerlink) section in Scholar Installation Instructions (in Download Centre, Behind the Blackboard). Exclude below issues first.
- What server URL was entered in the registration process ? Does this URL come up in a browser, when outside of the institution? If not, the server URL can not be used. Server URLs used in registration must be publicly accessible. This is often the case with test servers, behind a firewall.
SOLUTION: use externally accessible server URL for registration
- If the local server is SSL enabled, is the certificate self signed, out of date or not attached to the exact server URL used in registration? This can be easily determined: SSL certificate messages will arise when the server URL is brought up in a browser. Publicly signed and up-to-date current SSL certificates are needed. SSL URL being registered must match SSL URL to which the certificate is assigned.
SOLUTION: Address above SSL issues, disable SSL or install straight to production server.
- What is the server time on the server, at the application level? Differences of more than 5 minutes to official time, regardless of time zone, will cause communication with Scholar to break.
SOLUTION: Run an NTP process (Network Time Protocol), or otherwise address server time issue
- Scholar Powerlink registration failing. Was the full URL used in registration i.e. full URL, ending in /webct As per the Scholar Installation instructions, successful registration requires the full URL, ending in /webct to be used in registration.
SOLUTION: re-register with full URL ending in /webct
- In the admin properties, the shared secret was changed. This will cause communication with the Scholar central server to break. This should not be done.
SOLUTION: tell Blackboard Support what you changed the shared secret to. They will liaise with you and the Beyond Team to resolve
- Is an older version of the Scholar Building Block or Powerlink being used i.e. anything pre v1.2? Check the admin properties for the Scholar Building Block or Powerlink. There are several known issues which will cause registration to fail with versions pre v1.2. Updating the Building Block/Powerlink does not require re-registration. There are no known registration issues with v1.2 or above.
SOLUTION: obtain and install v1.2 or above of Building Block or Powerlink as per the update instructions at the end of the Scholar Installation Instructions (in Download Centre, Behind the Blackboard)
- Is the server a Blackboard ASP hosted server and has the firewall been opened to allow 2 way communication with www.scholar.com? This can be an issue with Blackboard ASP test servers. If Blackboard ASP firewall is not allowing bidirectional communication, registration will fail.
SOLUTION: Ask Blackboard ASP contact to check firewall is open
- Standard ports are not open across firewalls for communication between customer server and Scholar central service
SOLUTION: Ask instituional network staff to check that ports 80 and 443 are open for bidirectional communication between your server and www.scholar.com
If you are using custom authentication and Scholar is not registering, contact Blackboard Support for the necessary URL paths which must be excluded from your custom authentication scheme. The same issue may also arise if you have any other device or software implementation which attempts to redirect traffic to your server. Essentially, several specific channels for traffic from www.scholar.com to your server have to be excluded from such redirection.
Registration Issues
Authentication and Single sign-on Issues
Registration Issues
Overview
During the server registration process, Scholar needs to verify that it can communicate with the Building Block to ensure that Blackboard/Scholar integration will work. The Server URL that is provided in the "Register Blackboard Server with Scholar" form is used as the base URL for communication. The most common problems with registration of the Scholar Building Block are related to the Server URL that is entered.
Problem: Registration fails because the Server URL is not available via the Internet. If the Server URL entered in the "Register Blackboard Server with Scholar" form is not accessible via the internet, the Scholar system will not be able to ping your Blackboard server to confirm the registration.
Solution: Please make sure that the Server URL you are attempting to register is accessible via the Internet and not just from within your local campus network.
Problem: Registration of the Scholar Building Block fails because of SSL certificate issues. If the Server URL uses HTTPS, then the SSL Certificate must be valid for the domain specified. For example, if the Server URL provided is https://my.foo.com
and you normally use an SSL certificate that is registered for https://www.foo.com, then this will be considered an invalid certificate, and the registration of that Server URL will fail. Furthermore, certificates that have expired will also cause registration to fail.
Solution: If you are using HTTPS, make sure your certificate is valid for the Server URL you are attempting to register.
Note that normal HTTP connections (e.g. begins with http://) will not have this limitation.
Authentication and Single Sign-on Issues
Overview
The first time users click on the Scholar tab or another Scholar access point within the Blackboard Learning System, they should be prompted to create a Scholar account or login with an existing Scholar account created through some other Blackboard installation. After that point, single sign-on should remove the need to ever log into Scholar from that Blackboard server again.
However, if users are directed to the public Scholar site, this is an indication that there is some problem with the single sign-on. (You can tell if users are being directed to the public Scholar site because the welcome message will say "Hello, Public User."
Problem: Single Sign-on fails because the Blackboard server has not been registered with Scholar. If the Scholar Building Block has been made available, but the Blackboard System Admin has not yet registered their Blackboard server with Scholar, then when a user clicks on the Scholar tab or another Scholar access point within the Blackboard Learning System, the user will be directed to the public Scholar site.
Solution: The Blackboard System Administrator should register their server with Scholar. See the "Registering Your Blackboard Server with Scholar" section earlier in this document.
Problem: Single Sign-on fails because the Blackboard server's clock is not synchronized. Part of the validation for single sign on requests to Scholar through the Scholar Building Block includes a timestamp. If the institution's server's timestamp is off of the Scholar server's by plus or minus five minutes, then Scholar won't accept the request. (Note: the Building Block automatically adjusts for time zone differences). The inclusion of the timestamp in the request increases security by minimizing the ability of someone to spoof a request.
Solution: Run an NTP process (Network Time Protocol, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol) on your Blackboard server to keep your server clock in synch with one of the "official" clocks, e.g. an atomic clock. This will assure that the Blackboard server's clock is within the appropriate timeframe.
