Understanding 503 HTTP Status Codes in a Test Environment

This article explains the common causes of receiving 503 HTTP status codes in your test environment, providing insights to help you diagnose and resolve these issues effectively.

Typically, for testing purposes, you may have one or more test environments hosted on the Crownpeak Cloud infrastructure. Please note that these environments are not designed for high availability unless explicitly stated in your contract. As a result, they will operate at minimal capacity, allowing your teams to effectively test new features or configuration setups.

If you plan to conduct load or functional testing, it is essential to request additional capacity in advance and discuss it with your Customer Success Manager (CSM). Operating at minimal viable capacity means that you will have access to a pre-published endpoint and the Merchandising Studio, along with a published endpoint that has limited capacity, as it does not handle production traffic.

For more detailed information, please refer to the official FHR Cloud Policy regarding test environments.

What it means for a test environment to be operating on minimal viable capacity, is that you will have access to a prepublished endpoint and the Merchandising Studio, and a published endpoint with limited capacity as it does not serve production traffic.

For more information, please refer to the official policy FHR Cloud Policy for test environments.

Scenario

You are encountering 503 HTTP status codes on:

• Your prepublished endpoint
• Your published endpoint

Steps to Resolve: Prepublished endpoint

If you experience a 503 HTTP status code on the prepublished endpoint or if the Merchandising Studio becomes inaccessible, please follow these steps:

1. Check Data Dashboard: Verify whether there is a reindex currently in progress for your environment by consulting the Data Dashboard.
2. Consult Your Data Team: If needed, confirm with your data team regarding the status of any reindexing activities.

Full Reindex: If a full reindex is underway, the Merchandising Studio will be temporarily inaccessible as the entire catalog is being reloaded. During this time, please refrain from making any configuration changes.

If no full reindex is taking place and you still encounter error messages, we recommend reaching out to the Support team by submitting a ticket through the Support Centre.

 

Steps to Resolve: Published endpoint

If your published endpoint is returning 503 HTTP status codes, please check for any ongoing full reindexing:

1. Regular Test Environment: If a full reindex is indeed in progress and this environment is a regular test setup, receiving a 503 status code is expected, as it operates with limited capacity. The published endpoint will be unavailable while new catalog data is being updated.

If there is no reindex currently occurring or if it seems to be taking longer than anticipated, please contact the Support team for further investigation.