Postmortem - Website Downtime Incident

Introduction

In my ALX software engineering curriculum, I learned about postmortem, thus I decided to create a report about an issue. I believe this report holds valuable insights and lessons learned that can serve as a guide to anyone that wants to create a postmortem report. Please be aware that this postmortem is a fictional scenario.

Definition

In case you don't know what a "Postmortem" is, we will define a postmortem and shed light on its purpose;

Postmortem is a detailed analysis and report that is conducted after a significant issue or incident occurs. It's like a thorough examination to understand what went wrong, why it happened, and how to prevent similar issues from happening again in the future.

The postmortem process involves identifying the duration of the problem, the impact it had on users or services, and the root cause that led to the issue. It also includes a timeline of when the problem was detected, how it was noticed (by monitoring systems, customer complaints, or other means), and the actions taken to investigate and resolve the problem.
Let's get started.

Issue Summary

Duration: April 5, 2023, 6:00 PM - April 6, 2023, 9:00 AM (UTC).

Impact: The company's website experienced a significant downtime period, and couldn't be used by anyone for a while. This breakdown affected 100% of website visitors and resulted in a complete loss of online sales and customer engagement.

Timeline

• Issue Detected: April 5, 2023, 6:00 PM (UTC)

• Detection Method: Several users reported the inability to access the website through customer support channels and social media platforms.

• Actions Taken: The customer support team immediately alerted the IT department about the reported website accessibility issues.

• Misleading Investigation Paths: Initially, the IT department suspected a Domain name system (DNS) configuration issue and investigated DNS records and domain settings.

• Escalation: As the issue persisted, it was escalated to the web development team responsible for the website's infrastructure.

• Incident Resolution: The incident was resolved by identifying and addressing a critical hardware failure in the web server hosting the website.

Root Cause and Resolution

The root cause of the website downtime was traced back to a hardware failure in the web server. A critical component within the server experienced a sudden malfunction, causing the server to crash and rendering the website inaccessible.

To resolve the issue, the web development team undertook the following steps:

• Diagnosis: The team performed a thorough analysis of the server logs and conducted hardware diagnostics to identify the specific component causing the failure.

• Component Replacement: The faulty hardware component was identified and promptly replaced with a new, functioning component.

• Server Restoration: After replacing the faulty hardware, the web server was restored to its previous state and configurations.

• Testing and Verification: Extensive testing was conducted to ensure the stability and performance of the server after the hardware replacement.

• Redundancy Enhancement: To reduce the risk of future hardware failures, the team implemented redundant systems and load-balancing mechanisms to distribute website traffic across multiple servers.

Corrective and Preventative Measures

To prevent similar incidents and minimize downtime in the future, the following measures have been identified:

• Redundancy and Load Balancing: Implement redundant servers and load-balancing mechanisms to distribute traffic and ensure high availability.

• Monitoring and Alerting: Enhance server monitoring systems to detect hardware failures promptly and trigger immediate alerts to the IT team.

• Disaster Recovery Plan: Develop and regularly test a comprehensive disaster recovery plan to ensure efficient restoration procedures in the event of critical infrastructure failures.

• Proactive Maintenance: Establish a proactive maintenance schedule to regularly inspect and replace ageing hardware components before they reach their failure points.

• Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Maintain up-to-date documentation of server configurations and troubleshooting procedures to enable quick resolution of future incidents.

Tasks to Address the Issue

• Replace the faulty hardware component in the web server.

• Enhance server monitoring systems to detect and alert hardware failures.

• Develop and test a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for critical infrastructure failures.

• Establish a proactive maintenance schedule for hardware component replacements.

• Update documentation with server configurations and troubleshooting procedures.

  By implementing these corrective and preventative measures, we aim to improve the resilience and availability of our website, ensuring uninterrupted access for our users and minimizing the impact of hardware failures.

Conclusion

Postmortems foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. They provide an opportunity for individuals and teams to openly share their experiences, thoughts, and observations, promoting collaboration and knowledge exchange.