Post-Mortem: Nginx Configuration Issue

Incident Summary

On March 3, 2025, a configuration issue in Nginx caused a temporary service disruption on respect-code.org. The issue was identified and resolved promptly.

Root Cause

A syntax error in the Nginx configuration file led to a failure in the location directive. This prevented Nginx from correctly parsing the configuration and resulted in downtime.

Impact

Service Unavailability: The website was inaccessible for X minutes/hours.
Affected Users: All visitors to respect-code.org.

Resolution

Identified the misconfiguration in the Nginx config file.
Corrected the syntax error in the location directive.
Restarted Nginx after verifying the configuration.

Preventive Measures

Added validation checks before deploying configuration changes.
Improved internal review processes for Nginx configurations.
Implemented monitoring alerts to detect similar issues earlier.

Conclusion

The issue was resolved swiftly, and additional safeguards have been put in place to prevent recurrence.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your understanding.

Respect Code Team