What is a 503 error?

A "503 Service Unavailable" is an "HTTP response status code" which indicates that the requested service is unavailable. This can be caused by, for example, a temporary overload of the server or a service interruption due to maintenance.

As with most HTTP status codes, it is difficult to determine the cause of a 503. Below we discuss a number of things that may lead to a 503 status code.

Client side or server side?

A 503 status code falls into the category of “server error responses” and is therefore a server-side problem. In rare cases, your browser may still display a 503 status code, this can sometimes be due to old cache or cookies. In that case it is client-side.

Cause

A 503 status code can have a number of different causes, here are a few:

The server has run out of resources and is therefore unable to process the requests. As soon as the resources are available, the server will try to process them.

When using shared hosting, it is possible that the user in question has exhausted the resources of his hosting package. Everything else on the server will work just fine, but the specific user will not.

There may be an error in a website that produces an unnecessary number of error messages. Because the server has to keep processing these error messages, this can lead to increased resource usage. This also allows the server to run out of resources.

Dissolve

Resolving a 503 status code can sometimes be a bit complicated, but in general it is quite easy to solve. We discuss a number of options:

Make sure the server has more resources available. You can do this by stopping unnecessary processes and not wanting to run too much on the server at the same time.

In the case of shared hosting, the processes you perform may be too heavy for your hosting package. In that case it is often possible to request more resources and thus have more resources available for your web hosting package.

Check the website's logs if you have access to them. Error messages will be visible from the website in the logs. If there are unnecessary error messages and they can be solved, this can make a difference on resource use.

You may also have another http error 500. This often means that there is an error in your website and you can often solve this simply through our steps.

Resource limit reached at Maxvankekeren-IT

When you have purchased a web hosting package from Maxvankekeren-IT, you may also have to deal with the resource limit. When you log in to DirectAdmin you can go to “advanced features” and click on the “resource usage” link.

You will be redirected to a new page where you have an overview of the resource usage of your hosting package. It is not a disaster if you see peaks and troughs in resource use, because resource use is never constant. It always varies. As long as no peaks are reached, there is in principle no problem.

To check whether errors from your website cause the 503 status code, it is best to check your error log of the domain. This can also be viewed via DirectAdmin.

Inode limit

At Maxvankekeren-IT we use an inode limit for each user. An inode represents 1 file. This inode limit is set at 500,000 and cannot be increased. When you are on the inode limit your website can give a 503 status code. This may be because the website can no longer write cache files or process other things, for example.