Accessing Test Environment

[bluntk]

I am having an issue regarding access to the test instance of our institutions Canvas; more specifically the schools LMS team has informed me that they cannot access the test environment from any browser or device whether on or off campus.  Further information from them indicates that every time they type or use the [org name].test.instructure.com URL they get a 403: Forbidden error message. Are there any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

[mzimmerman]

Hello Keith,

The error message looks like they are being redirected to a page/file that does not exist.  

Most of the settings in the test server are copied over from the production server.  Does your production server have any custom authentication or SSO set up?  

What happens if they try to connect to the default local login page on the test server, which would be:  [org name, just like on your production server].test.instructure.com/login/canvas ?

Mike

[bluntk]

I'm not privy to much information concerning the Canvas server or if there is one on prem here at our environment; but I can say that through our portal authentication we are currently using SSO authentication.

[mzimmerman]

Then it's likely that there's something about the way that the SSO is set up which does not transfer over to the test server.

As I mentioned, they can log in with local (non-SSO) passwords by going directly to the Canvas login page at <server>/login/canvas.   They can also go directly to any of the specific authentication providers by looking at the URLs for the authentication providers on the production server and adding the "test" to the server name.

Mike

[bluntk · Accepted solution]

Thank you Mike, your comments have been most helpful; after a lengthy discussion with Canvas Support it was determined that the our user’s were attempting to log-in to the test environment using SSO, the for which there is no connector in test. It was recommended by them to use Canvas authentication by using /login/canvas instead. Thank you again for all of your help.