Video-conferencing platform Zoom Communications announced that it has resolved a global outage that disrupted its services, including its website, video calls, and application, impacting thousands of users around the globe. According to Downdetector.com, a site that monitors outages by aggregating status reports from various sources, including user-submitted errors, the number of reported issues peaked at 67,280 Zoom users as of 3:01 p.m. ET. Users in the United States and other countries reported interruptions to the Zoom web portal and application. “Service has now been restored after the earlier outage,” the company stated on the social media platform X.
On Wednesday, Zoom witnessed a major global outage that disrupted services for thousands of users. The issues began around 2:30 p.m. EDT, with reports of problems rapidly escalating on the outage-tracking site DownDetector. By 3 p.m. EDT, over 59,000 users had reported difficulties accessing the platform, which is widely used for video conferencing and online meetings. The primary issues reported included difficulties with the website, the application, and login processes, with 46 percent of users experiencing website-related problems, 36 percent facing app issues, and 18 percent unable to log in.
Domain name resolution issue
The outage was attributed to a domain name resolution issue affecting the zoom.us domain. This problem was identified as a DNS (Domain Name System) failure, which is crucial for translating user-friendly domain names into IP addresses that computers use to communicate with each other. Without proper DNS resolution, users were unable to access Zoom’s services, including its main website and various subdomains. The outage was first detected at approximately 18:25 UTC and lasted for about two hours, with services being restored around 20:12 UTC. However, some users continued to experience disruptions until about 20:30 UTC.
Company response and recovery
Zoom’s status page acknowledged the issue at 3:17 p.m. EDT, indicating that the company was investigating the domain name resolution problems. By 4:55 p.m. EDT, the company announced that services had been restored, advising users who were still experiencing issues to flush their DNS cache and attempt to reconnect. This advice is common during DNS-related outages, as it can help clear outdated or incorrect DNS information stored on users’ devices.
Impact on services
The outage had a cascading effect on Zoom’s services, particularly impacting its main webpage and the status page itself, which is typically used to communicate service issues to users. During the outage, users attempting to access the status page encountered HTTP 502 Bad Gateway errors, indicating that the content delivery network (CDN) responsible for serving Zoom’s website could not connect to the backend services. This situation highlights the interconnected nature of online services, where a failure at one point in the infrastructure can lead to widespread accessibility issues.
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Detailed analysis of the incident
ThousandEyes, a network performance monitoring service, provided a detailed analysis of the outage, noting that the root cause was likely related to missing DNS records at the top-level domain (TLD) nameservers for zoom.us. Their investigation revealed that the authoritative nameservers for zoom.us were reachable and correctly configured, but the TLD nameservers did not have the necessary records, resulting in a non-existent domain error (NXDOMAIN) for users trying to access the service. This type of DNS issue is comparable to a phone service being temporarily disconnected, where users cannot reach a number even if they know it, due to the lack of proper routing information.
Importance of DNS management
The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of robust DNS management and monitoring. For organizations that rely heavily on online services, ensuring that DNS records are correctly configured and monitored can prevent similar outages in the future. The demand for seamless online experiences has never been greater, especially as remote work and virtual communication continue to be integral to business operations. Companies must prioritize maintaining visibility across their entire service delivery chain to quickly identify and resolve issues when they arise.
