Welcome to the Alteryx Knowledge Base

To make a Hosts file configuration, and why.

What is the host file used for?

The hosts file is a configuration file which tells a machine what hosts should route to what IPs. By mapping a particular hostname to an IP address, this has the side effect of bypassing DNS outside of the machine and navigating straight to the mapped IP address.

• Alteryx
  • Designer
  • Server

• Admin privileges on the machine
• Text editor of your choice (Notepad++ or notepad recommended)

When to use the host file

SAML Authenticated Alteryx Server + Load-balancer (server admin-only)
 

The host file configuration is required for SAML Authentication with Alteryx Server in a load-balanced environment on any Alteryx Server machine with Gallery/Server UI enabled as both the root Gallery URL(s) and load-balancer alias must match for SAML login to work properly. This is required so the AlteryxService will ping itself instead of the load balancer during the health check performed at startup. As a result, this eliminates the possibility of a false negative health check that would otherwise be returned by the load balancer.

Making this configuration change involves mapping the root gallery/alias host to the loopback address (127.0.0.1), which is the local address for any computer that allows you to tell the machine to reference itself instead of making a network call to the load-balancer. Here are the steps to follow to edit the hosts file for a Gallery/Server UI-enabled machine:

1. Run notepad as admin OR open Notepad++
2. Navigate to File->Open in your notepad and navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
3. Open the hosts file
4. Add a new line at the bottom and enter the following information (for example, if your gallery link is https://mycompany.alteryx.com/gallery):

127.0.0.1             mycompany.alteryx.com

5. Save and close the file (if using Notepad ++, will prompt you to re-open/save as Admin)
6. Start the Alteryx Service

Troubleshooting Designer/browser connection to Alteryx Server or 3rd party data source

If you are experiencing connections issues with a particular data source or when connecting to Server, it may be helpful to rule out other network issues by mapping your workstation to the IP address of your data source.

For example, lets assume you were having issues connecting to Server in order to upload a workflow. By mapping the root host of the gallery to the actual IP of your company's Gallery/Server UI instance, you can test to see if this will succeed and rule out a potential network/environmental issue.

Below are the steps to accomplish troubleshooting the above scenario:

Note: Please be aware this will require admin privileges on your machine and may require approval/assistance from your IT team that  changing this file. It will also require your server admin to provide you the direct IP of the Alteryx Server Gallery

1. Run notepad as admin OR open Notepad++
2. Navigate to File->Open in your notepad and navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
3. Open the hosts file
4. Add a new line at the bottom and enter the following information replacing the IP address in red with the ip provided by your Alteryx Server or data source admin and the root host of your gallery or data source URL in blue:

123.4.5.6             mycompany.alteryx.com

5. Save and close the file (if using Notepad ++, will prompt you to re-open/save as Admin)
6. Restart your Designer or browser and attempt to connect to Alteryx Server or data source. If successful, please consult your IT department further to diagnose any network/environmental configuration that might be interfering with the connection. If your connection still fails, please contact Alteryx Support.

• How to reset your hosts file
• Requirements for Configuring Alteryx Server with a Load Balancer (or Reverse Proxy/VIP)