The Tool Desk
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Identify the failing connection
Use the error and where it appears to choose the right path. “Unable to connect to Bob services,” “Network request failed,” “Connection timeout,” or “SSL certificate verification failed” in the desktop IDE point first to the client-to-Bob path. If Bob itself works but Bob Shell reports “Bob Shell cannot connect to the IDE” or “Failed to connect to IDE companion extension,” investigate the Shell integration separately. Errors from a self-hosted Model Gateway—such as a missing model, 401 Unauthorized, or 502 Bad Gateway—concern the cluster-to-model path.
A deployment can be healthy while its model endpoint is unreachable, and a model can be reachable while the desktop client cannot sign in. Test each connection independently.
Troubleshoot the Bob desktop IDE connection
Check the corporate firewall allowlist
Ask the network administrator to allow IBM’s Bob and identity endpoints for your subscription region. IBM specifies HTTPS over TCP port 443. Its common allowlist includes:
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bob.ibm.comapi.us-east.bob.ibm.comiam.cloud.ibm.comconsole-ibm-prod.verify.ibm.comidaas.ice.ibmcloud.comwww.ibm.comlogin.ibm.commyibm.ibm.com
api.us-east.bob.ibm.com is required in every subscription region because authentication is centralized in US East. For Europe, IBM also lists *.eu-de.bob.ibm.com and api.eu-de.bob.ibm.com; for Japan, it lists *.jp-tok.bob.ibm.com and api.jp-tok.bob.ibm.com. Once a firewall change is applied, restart Bob and try again.
Set a required proxy
- Open IDE settings with
Cmd+,on macOS orCtrl+,on Windows or Linux. - Search settings for
proxy. - Enter your organization’s proxy URL in HTTP: Proxy. Use an
https://URL if that is what your proxy requires. - Restart Bob and start a conversation in the Bob panel to test the connection.
HTTP: Proxy Strict SSL is checked by default. Unchecking it may reduce security when a proxy uses a self-signed certificate; consult your security team before changing it rather than treating weaker certificate checking as a routine fix.
Separate Bob Shell integration problems
If only Shell-to-IDE communication fails, check that the companion extension is installed and available, that Shell and the IDE are using the matching workspace directory, and that you are using a supported integrated terminal. In a dev container, also check port forwarding. These checks address the IDE companion connection, not a general Bob services outage.
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Rule out basic workstation prerequisites
IBM lists macOS, Linux, and Windows as supported platforms, an active internet connection, at least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended), and 500 MB of free disk space. These are installation requirements; meeting or missing them alone does not establish the cause of a particular network error. IBM directs users with outbound network problems to check firewall and proxy configuration.
Troubleshoot a self-hosted Bob Model Gateway on OpenShift
Test cluster access to the model endpoint before installation
Before running bobctl install, test each configured model endpoint from a temporary debug pod in the target OpenShift namespace. For an OpenAI-compatible provider, check the configured base_url and its /v1/models endpoint from inside the cluster. A successful request from a laptop does not prove the OpenShift cluster has a route to that endpoint; the in-cluster test is especially important for private or air-gapped infrastructure.
Validate provider credentials out of band before placing them in configuration secrets. If the endpoint requires a custom CA, verify that the supplied certificate is PEM encoded, unexpired, and appropriate for the endpoint’s trust chain.
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Check operator, Bob resource, and inference service health
IBM’s post-install checks distinguish the operator and Bob resource from the Model Gateway’s inference service. Run the operator and resource checks in their respective namespaces:
oc get pods -n <operator-namespace>— inspect the operator pods.oc get bob -n <instance-namespace>— inspect the Bob custom resource.
A successful installation is indicated by all operator pods Running, the Bob resource Ready, and no operator log errors blocking reconciliation or progress. If those checks do not pass, inspect operator logs before treating the problem as an upstream model outage.
For model health, inspect the inference pod and its startup logs. IBM describes an in-cluster request to the inference service’s /v1/model/info endpoint as a way to check loaded models, with model-list and inference checks available after installation. A model missing from the public model list is not automatically a network failure: only models configured with exposed: true appear there, while hidden models may still be available internally.
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Match the error to the likely layer
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
Model missing from /v1/model/info |
Check whether exposed: false is intentional. Then review startup logs for registration errors and verify the provider’s base_url, model ID, and credentials. |
401 Unauthorized |
Check that the secret contains the current credential and that the case-sensitive env.<VAR> reference exactly matches the secret key. Validate the credential out of band. If the secret changed without a restart, restart the Inference Service and retry. |
502 Bad Gateway or connection refused |
Test endpoint reachability from the cluster. Check the base URL’s trailing slash, scheme (http versus https), and port, and look for a network policy that blocks outbound access. |
| Certificate signed by unknown authority | Verify that ca_cert_pem refers to a valid environment variable present in bob.modelGateway.secrets. Check certificate expiry and confirm its Subject Alternative Names cover the endpoint hostname. |
Inference Service CrashLoopBackOff |
Inspect the previous instance’s logs, configuration parse errors, pod events for missing secret mounts, and YAML validity. |
no route to host during verification |
Treat this as a model endpoint connectivity failure: check model reachability and cluster network rules. |
Do not disable certificate verification as a production workaround. Correct the CA configuration and certificate or hostname mismatch so the connection can be verified securely.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Collect evidence for escalation
For a cluster-side incident, gather time-bounded inference logs, previous pod logs if a restart occurred, pod descriptions, and namespace events. Review logs and diagnostic files for accidentally exposed credentials before sharing them. Include the failing URL or hostname without secrets, timestamp, namespace, pod status, exact error text, recent network-policy or configuration changes, and the relevant log window. This gives the platform or network team evidence tied to the failing connection boundary.
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