Troubleshooting 504 Gateway Timeout

Applies To:

HTTP LargeThis platform has been optimized to cache and deliver static content (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ISO, multimedia, and software downloads, etc.) over HTTP or HTTPS.

HTTP SmallLegacy. If you are currently serving traffic over this platform, then you may continue to do so. However, we recommend that you serve your traffic over our more robust HTTP Large platform.

ADNThe Application Delivery Network platform has been optimized to deliver dynamic content (e.g., login credentials, account information, etc.) over HTTP or HTTPS. Typically, user-specific and database-driven content are served over this platform.

Purpose

The purpose of this troubleshooting procedure is to troubleshoot 504 Gateway Timeout errors. A 504 Gateway Timeout indicates that a timely response was not received from a web server.

Requesting Content from a Web Server

Try to narrow down the source of this error by requesting content directly from your web servers. A response code other than 200 OK may be indicative of a non-CDN related issue.

A firewall may prevent requests from being served directly from a web server.

Point a request directly to a web server by replacing the URL segments highlighted below with a hostname or IP address defined in the Hostname Configuration section of a customer origin configuration.

CDN URL:

http://wpc.0001.edgecastcdn.net/800001/myorigin/marketing/viral/product.jpg

Edge CNAME URL:

http://cdn.mydomain.com/marketing/viral/product.jpg

Checklist:

Point the request generating a 504 Gateway Timeout to a hostname/IP address defined in the corresponding customer origin configuration.

Location

Find out whether this issue is specific to a particular location. Location-specific issues are indicative of broader network issues.

Checklist:

Check whether user complaints are restricted to a single region.

Frequency

Which of the following best describes the conditions under which this status code is returned for a particular customer origin?

All requests
Intermittent requests
A single request
A single time period

Checklist:

Find out the frequency at which this error occurs.

Load Balancer

A load balancer in front of a set of web servers may cause this issue to occur intermittently. This scenario is indicative of an issue with a specific web server within the load balancing scheme. This status code is only generated for traffic that is load balanced to that web server.

Checklist:

Check whether a load balancer is in front of your web servers.