HTTP 413 "Request Entity Too Large" Troubleshooting in Windchill PDMLink

• How to troubleshoot Request Entity Too Large or Payload Too Large errors
• How to troubleshoot HTTP status code 413
• Users receiving intermittent Request Entity Too Large error when performing any action
• Users are getting an infinite loading screen when using the system
• Reproducible in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge
• While finishing task or creating a task, getting loading symbol in Windchill PDMLink
• While creating ECN, getting Request Entity too Large error
• Failed to upload attachment with error below during creation of Document 

  Request Entity Too Large

• In some cases no error is displayed and a spinning wheel is shown
• Users receiving intermittent HTTP 413 errors after configuring SSO with IBMid using OIDC
• Disabling SSO allows Windchill to function normally
• Example of Chrome showing spinning wheel:

• The same operation in Edge failed immediately with the error message:

• HTTP/1.1 413 response in Apache access log:

xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:51303 - <username> [03/Oct/2022:09:05:58 +0000] "POST /Windchill/ptc1/principalpicker/principalPickerCD_step?unique_page_number=58293595480137_0&AjaxEnabled=row&wizardActionClass=com.ptc.windchill.principal.administration.ParticipantCommands&wizardActionMethod=addPrincipalsToParticipantAdmin&tableID=table__participantAdministration.listParticipants_TABLE&actionName=addParticipantToPAList&portlet=poppedup&context=administration%24participantAdministration%24OR%3Awt.inf.container.OrgContainer%3A109160%24&oid=OR%3Awt.inf.container.OrgContainer%3A109160&stepId=principalpicker.principalPickerCD_step&dynamicStepLoad=true HTTP/1.1" 413 316 1175

• Apache mod_jk.log_XXXX-XX-XX_XX_XX_XX is reporting errors as the following:

[NO-ID] [3708756:140584756774656] [error] ajp_marshal_into_msgb::jk_ajp_common.c (520): (tomcat1) failed appending the query string of length 1151


[NO-ID] [3708756:140584681240320] [error] ajp_marshal_into_msgb::jk_ajp_common.c (476): (tomcat1) failed appending the header value for header 'cookie' of length 6

• Some of the Windchill pages keep loading in Firefox