[next][queens] Horizon Errors out on first login or first access to a given dashboard unit: TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found

[Dmitrii Shcherbakov]

bundle:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/whdWff4KYy/

I am getting "something went wrong" page periodically while using Horizon with Queens:

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/B8K8fv24RH/

[Thu Mar 08 22:16:41.491638 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68565:tid 140145296692992] No handlers could be found for logger "neutron_lbaas_dashboard.dashboards.project.ngloadbalancersv2.panel"
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219735 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] Internal Server Error: /identity/
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219772 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219777 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 132, in get_response
...

[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219855 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] enforcer = _get_enforcer()
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219859 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/openstack_auth/policy.py", line 64, in _get_enforcer
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219863 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] if os.path.isfile(enforcer.policy_path):
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219877 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/genericpath.py", line 37, in isfile
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219882 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] st = os.stat(path)
[Thu Mar 08 22:16:42.219885 2018] [wsgi:error] [pid 68563:tid 140145296692992] TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found

It seems painfully similar to this but with a different dashboard plugin: https://bugs.launchpad.net/charm-openstack-dashboard/+bug/1712617

This is reproducible on a fresh installation and after any apache2 restart.

The reason is that heat_policy.json is not present in horizon's conf directory:

# heat policy is not present in a conf dir
root@juju-98ec86-6-lxd-8:~# locate heat_policy.json
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/heat_dashboard/conf/heat_policy.json

# again, nothing here
root@juju-98ec86-6-lxd-8:~# ls /usr/share/openstack-dashboard/openstack_dashboard/conf/
cinder_policy.d glance_policy.json keystonev3_policy.json nova_policy.d
cinder_policy.json keystone_policy.json neutron_policy.json nova_policy.json

root@juju-98ec86-6-lxd-8:~# grep -iP -A5 policy_files /etc/openstack-dashboard/local_settings.py
#POLICY_FILES_PATH = os.path.join(ROOT_PATH, "conf")

# Map of local copy of service policy files.
# Please insure that your identity policy file matches the one being used on
# your keystone servers. There is an alternate policy file that may be used
# in the Keystone v3 multi-domain case, policy.v3cloudsample.json.
--
POLICY_FILES = {
    'identity': 'keystonev3_policy.json',
    'compute': 'nova_policy.json',
    'volume': 'cinder_policy.json',
    'image': 'glance_policy.json',
    'orchestration': 'heat_policy.json', # <--- this is a problem

See this asciinema for a live demo

https://asciinema.org/a/QJwm8xRpULwZgLVx0DN3Vpa0u

After heat_policy.json is commented out the exception disappears.

This policy file needs to be present to make sure things work as expected.

[Dmitrii Shcherbakov (dmitriis)]

Heat devs have implemented policy-in-code for Queens:

https://governance.openstack.org/tc/goals/queens/policy-in-code.html#heat
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/heat/+spec/policy-in-code
https://review.openstack.org/#/q/(status:open+OR+status:merged)+project:openstack/heat++%22policy+in+code%22

However, horizon relies on copies of policy files of individual services:
https://docs.openstack.org/horizon/latest/contributor/topics/policy.html#policy-file-maintenance

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Fix proposed to branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/551213

[James Page (james-page)]

This is actually a problem with the way the split out of heat from horizon is being managed in the packaging - the heat-dashboard package needs some updates to support this.

[Liam Young (gnuoy)]

Marking charm bug as invalid inlight of the packaging fix

[Corey Bryant (corey.bryant)]

This should be fixed as of heat-dashboard 1.0.2-0ubuntu2.

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Change abandoned by Liam Young (<email address hidden>) on branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/551213
Reason: Fixed in heat plugin package

[Ryan Beisner (1chb1n)]

heat-dashboard 1.0.2-0ubuntu2.1~cloud0 is currently released in the Queens cloud archive