On June 20, several websites and apps like Discord, Zerodha, Canva, and more were down for some time, showing a “500 Internal Server Error” message to users.
This was due to an issue with the content delivery network Cloudflare. The outage was acknowledged and resolved by Cloudflare shortly after the outage reports, what is a 500 internal server error, and why does it show up? We’ll explain.
WHAT IS A 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
The “500 internal server error” usually shows up on websites when the server is experiencing issues, but the root cause can not be found. There is no single cause for a 500 error, but it is one of the most common HTTPS error. The 500 error is a little tricky to fix since it requires engineers to identify the problem before being able to address it.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH WEBSITES ON JUNE 20?
On June 20, websites that use Cloudflare services started getting a “500 internal server error.” This turned out to be an issue with the content deliver system (CDN) facing a critical issue, Cloudflare said on its website. The company said that the incident affected all the data plan services in its network, resulting in the “500 internal server error” across websites.
Cloudflare fixed the issue soon after users reported outage. According to the statement from the company, the network faced a “critical P0 incident,” which caused the servers to malfunction. A P0 incident causes interruption while users are doing certain tasks.
WHAT IS A CDN?
A CDN or a content delivery network is a network of servers spread across regions that distributes content from an origin server to servers throughout the world. A CDN uses cached content in a server closer to the user for distributing content quickly.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH CDN IN RECENT OUTAGE
As many people reported getting a “500 internal server error” while visiting some websites, Cloudflare’s CDN showed a “cricial P0 incident,” the company said on its website. According to the statement from the company, the network faced a “critical P0 incident,” which caused the servers to malfunction.
WHAT TO DO WHEN A 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR SHOWS UP
Now, if you see this error on a website you’re visiting, there isn’t much to do. End users can’t usually fix this since the issue arises from the server end. However, sometimes, users see this error due to some fault at their end. To double check, users can refresh the page they are visiting, or delete browser cache.