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Best Practices for handling Website Server Outages and Downtime

Joydeep Deb | August 15th, 2011
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As per Wikipedia.org: The term downtime is used to refer to periods when a system is unavailable. Downtime or outage duration refers to a period of time that a system fails to provide or perform its primary function.

This is usually a result of the system failing to function because of an unplanned event, or because of routine maintenance. Unplanned downtime may be the result of a software bug, human error, equipment failure, malfunction, high bit error rate, power failure, overload due to exceeding the channel capacity, a cascading failure, etc.

Website Server Outages and Downtime

Inevitably, web sites will suffer outages and downtime based on common events, including:

  • Hardware failures
  • Software failures
  • Server updates
  • Human Error
  • Many other potential factors

As per W3.org (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html)

10.5.4 503 Service Unavailable

The server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. The implication is that this is a temporary condition which will be alleviated after some delay. If known, the length of the delay MAY be indicated in a Retry-After header. If no Retry-After is given, the client SHOULD handle the response as it would for a 500 response.

Note: The existence of the 503 status code does not imply that a server must use it when becoming overloaded. Some servers may wish to simply refuse the connection.

Best Practices for handling server outages:

  • Utilize a 503 HTTP Response Code: Search engines recognize this as the valid response code for a temporary outage, and it will prevent them from removing pages from the index if the duration of the outage is reasonable.
  • DO NOT report a 400-level error, or a 200 OK with an error message: This will cause search engines to think the site has changed significantly, or no longer has many of the deep content pages.
  • Specify a realistic Retry-After value in the headers: This should be a reasonable estimate of when the site will be alive again. Don't specify 30 minutes if the site will be down for several hours.
  • Never choose to refuse the connection if there is an option to report a 503 Response Code in times of excess usage.
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Posted in Web DesignTagged 503, headers, howto, SEO, server status, technical

About the Author: Joydeep Deb

Joydeep Deb is a Senior Digital Marketer and Technical Marketer with 12+ years of experience in Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Brand Management, Marketing Campaigns, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), PPC, eMail Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Technologies, Web Design and Development.

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