63 lines
No EOL
3.1 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
No EOL
3.1 KiB
Markdown
# Postmortem: Server Downtime on August 24th
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## Incident Overview
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**Start Time:** August 24th, 00:08 UTC
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**End Time:** August 24th, 03:10 UTC
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The server experienced a significant outage beginning at 00:08 UTC, which lasted until 03:10 UTC, totaling approximately 3 hours and 2 minutes of downtime.
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## Impact
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- Inaccessible services hosted on the affected server
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- Disruption of user access and potential data transfer issues
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- System stability was compromised due to proxy management failure
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## Cause
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The primary cause of the outage was identified as a failure in the **Nginx Proxy Manager**. Specifically, it broke due to issues with **Let's Encrypt**-based certificates. The broken certificates caused the proxy manager to malfunction, leading to the entire system becoming inaccessible.
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*Note:* The exact root cause remains uncertain, but the failure of certificate renewal or validation appears to be a critical factor.
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## Timeline
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| Time (UTC) | Event |
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|------------|---------|
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| 00:08 | Proxy manager failure detected; system becomes inaccessible |
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| ~00:08 - 02:40 | Attempted to deploy alternative proxy solutions (Traefik, Caddy, Nginx Proxy Manager Plus) |
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| 02:40 | Abandoned alternative deployment attempts after ~2.5 hours |
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| 02:40 - 03:10 | Installed a fresh copy of Nginx Proxy Manager on a new LXC container and reconfigured from scratch |
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| 03:10 | Services restored; system fully operational |
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## Resolution & Actions Taken
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1. **Failed Attempts with Alternative Proxy Solutions**
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Spent approximately 2.5 hours trying to deploy and configure Traefik, Caddy, and Nginx Proxy Manager Plus. These efforts were unsuccessful, leading to delays in restoring service.
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2. **Fresh Install of Nginx Proxy Manager**
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Decided to start from scratch by deploying a new instance of Nginx Proxy Manager on a new LXC container. This involved:
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- Setting up a new container environment
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- Installing Nginx Proxy Manager anew
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- Reconfiguring proxy and SSL certificates via cloudflare's SSL provider
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This approach successfully restored service and stabilized the environment.
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## Lessons Learned
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- **Certificate Management:** Automated certificate renewal processes can cause system failures if not properly monitored or if certificate validation fails unexpectedly.
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- **Backup & Recovery:** Maintaining backups of configuration and certificates could reduce downtime during such incidents.
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- **Testing Alternative Solutions:** Prolonged attempts to deploy alternative proxy solutions highlight the importance of testing and validation in staging environments before production deployment.
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- **Monitoring & Alerts:** Enhanced monitoring and alerting for certificate expiry or proxy failures could enable quicker response times.
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## Next Steps
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- Investigate the root cause of the Let's Encrypt certificate failure to prevent recurrence.
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- Implement regular backups of configurations and certificates.
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- Improve monitoring for SSL certificate health and proxy server status.
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- Document and test fallback procedures for proxy management failures.
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- Review and optimize deployment procedures for proxy solutions.
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---
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**Prepared by:** Kneesox - Shiro
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**Date:** 08/24/25 |