Incident Report: When Load Balancers Take a Coffee Break

This Article was first published on medium on Jan 22, 2024

Issue Summary:

Duration:

• Start Time: January 15, 2024, 10:30 AM (UTC)
• End Time: January 15, 2024, 12:45 PM (UTC)

Impact:

• The web application service decided it needed a quick coffee break, resulting in a complete outage.
• Users reported the app was napping, and approximately 80% of them had an unexpected break as well.

Root Cause:

The load balancer, our overworked traffic cop, was caught sipping coffee and accidentally sent all traffic to the servers taking a siesta.

Timeline:

• Detection Time:
• January 15, 2024, 10:30 AM (UTC)

Detection Method:

• Automated monitoring system woke up from its own coffee break and raised the alarm on slow response times.

Actions Taken:

• Investigated server logs and discovered the load balancer playing a game of hide and seek with incoming traffic.
• Initially suspected a DDoS attack but turns out our servers are not that popular.
• Escalated the incident to the infrastructure and networking teams, who quickly put down their coffee mugs to assist.

Misleading Paths:

• Briefly considered blaming the interns for overloading the servers with cat videos but decided against it.
• Wondered if the hosting provider was pranking us but they assured us they had their coffee break scheduled for later.

Escalation:

• Incident was escalated to the infrastructure and networking teams with a note saying, “Emergency — Load Balancer Found with Coffee Cup.”

Resolution:

• Identified the load balancer had misplaced its coffee cup, leading to uneven distribution of traffic.
• Reconfigured the load balancer to share traffic more fairly among our hardworking servers.
• Monitored the system to make sure the load balancer wasn’t sneaking off for another caffeine fix.

Root Cause and Resolution:

Root Cause:

• Load balancer decided to play traffic cop without its coffee, leading to uneven distribution of work.

Resolution:

• Load balancer was promptly reunited with its coffee cup, and settings were adjusted to ensure fair distribution of traffic.
• Implemented a new policy — coffee breaks are to be taken after work hours only.

Corrective and Preventative Measures:

Improvements/Fixes:

• Added a new clause to our load balancer’s employment contract — “No Coffee Breaks During Work Hours!”
• Implemented regular “Coffee Check” meetings for our load balancers.

Tasks:

• Conducted a thorough review of load balancer configurations to ensure no coffee mugs were left behind.
• Implemented a new load balancing strategy called “Equal Sips for All Servers.”
• Scheduled a team-building event to improve the load balancer’s relationship with coffee.

Conclusion

Our web application took a short nap due to a load balancer in dire need of caffeine. We’ve taken steps to ensure that our traffic cop stays caffeinated and attentive. Apologies to our users for the impromptu break; we promise our load balancer won’t be caught napping again.

Note: This incident report is a creation of fiction for humor purposes and does not represent any real incident.

Here’s a “serious” but simulated account of the same.