You visit your site and you don’t see what you’re expecting; you see a white screen, a 404 or a 502 error. Your site is down, and you’re losing visitors, and potentially lots of money. How do you handle those first pivotal minutes to find out what’s going on? With the experience and tools of front-line web support, John will go through the steps required to figure why your site is down and how to fix it as quickly as possible.

1. Site Down: How to Triage Those
First Important Minutes
John P. Gamboa
jpgamboa.com
@jgamboa
WordCamp Tampa 2016

2. @jgamboa
• Technical Project Manager, WP Engine
• 2+ years in technical support
• Developed and managed sites in China

3. Is it just you?
• Downforeveryoneorjustme.com
• GeoPeeker.com
• Check on mobile Internet
• Webpagetest.org

8. Is it just you?
• Downforeveryoneorjustme.com
• GeoPeeker.com
• Check on mobile Internet
• Webpagetest.org

9. What if it is just me?
• Reconnect to Network/Restart Computer or Router
• Ensure no changes to network security/firewall/NetNanny
• Cached DNS after domain changes
• Run Traceroute to server to confirm hole in connection

10. It’s not me. The site’s still down
• What is the error code on the site?
• What kind of error is it?
• Is it a WordPress problem, or a server problem?
• Is the DNS configured correctly?

11. My site’s down! Help!
Working, but not ideal
• SSL Error
• Google Malware Message
• Non-fatal Theme and
Plugin error

15. My site’s down! Help!
Working, but not ideal
• SSL Error
• Google Malware Message
• Non-fatal Theme and
Plugin error

19. My site’s down! Help!
Working, but not ideal Site is down
• SSL Error
• Google Malware Message
• Non-fatal Theme and
Plugin error
• White Screen of Death
(WSoD)
• Redirect Loops
• Fatal Error in Plugin and
Theme

20. Site Down, cont.
• Database error
• Multisite registration/domain
mapping issue
• Datacenter issue/Connection
Timeout

21. Know Your HTTP Codes
• 500 – Internal Server Error
• 502 – Bad Gateway
• 504 – Gateway Timeout
• 522 – CloudFlare Connection
Issue
• 200 – HTTP OK
• 301/302 – Permanent
and Temporary Redirect
• 404 – Not Found
• 403 - Forbidden

22. Know Your HTTP Codes
• 500 – Fatal Error or bad
.htaccess
• 502 – Server issue or overload
• 504 – Server issue or bad
process
• 522 – A likely 504 or 502 without
CloudFlare
• 200 – Page loads
• 301/302 – Permanent and
Temporary Redirect
• 404 – Not Found
• 403 – Security or
Authentication

23. cURL the site
• Use Terminal/Putty or any
command line tool to confirm site
down.
• Cross check HTTP code with
common causes.

24. cURL
Examples
file:///Users/john.gamboa/Desktop/wso20
0.swf
Videos of site down curls which can’t be embedded.

25. What to do with the results
• Check your Error logs. They are a window into 500 Errors
• Use WordPress debug for additional data
• If system issue, contact your server administrator/host

26. Questions to Ask, Things To Do
• What changes have been
made?
• Is system maintenance
expected?
• What am I seeing?
• Are all pages on the site down?
• Take a screenshot
• Make note of the domain
• Is this multisite-related?

27. When asking for help
• Don’t just say “Help! My site is down.” More info, the better
• Provide screenshots and cURL results
• Stay calm!

28. Common WordPress Site
Down Causes
• Old plugins breaking after core updates
• Bad code changes to plugins, themes or or core
• Malformed changes to .htaccess and wp-config.php
• Database issues in multisite management

29. When The Dust
Settles
• Pingdom, Uptime Robot, and
Jetpack (be careful of false
positives!)
• Keep your plugins, theme and
core updated
• Don’t modify code on your
live site
• Website IP browser extension

30. Knowledge for Future
Resolution
• Know your server architecture (NGINX, Apache, IIS)
• Learn WP-CLI
• Track hosting maintenance and status pages
• Don’t be afraid of PHPMyAdmin

31. Q & A
John P. Gamboa
@jgamboa
jpgamboa.com