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@fduran
Created October 24, 2012 22:18
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CloudFlare Always Online
<h1>CloudFlare Always Online</h1>
<b>Summary:</b> I'd like to know if CloudFlare's <a href="http://www.cloudflare.com/always-online">Always Online</a> works when a web server goes completely down (server unresponsive).
1) According to CloudFlare's web site, the answer seems to be "yes" (emphasis mine):
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cloudflare.com/always-online">Description of the service</a>: Always Online is a feature that caches a static version of your pages in case your <b>server goes offline</b>.</li>
<li><a ref="http://blog.cloudflare.com/always-online-because-downtime-sucks">Blog entry</a>: "If, for any reason, your web host or service provider <b>goes down</b>, we kick in to keep your site online"</li>
<li><a href="https://cloudflare.tenderapp.com/kb/troubleshooting/why-doesnt-always-online-display-all-pages-of-my-site-when-my-server-is-down">KB documentation</a>: on the point 7: "In order to trigger Always Online, your web server will need to be <b>completely unresponsive</b>, or ..."</li>
<li>In another <a href="http://support.cloudflare.com/kb/top-frequently-asked-questions/what-happens-if-my-website-goes-down">KB FAQ</a>: "When your site <b>goes down</b> because of your server, we can continue to serve your visitor's page requests as long as..."</li>
<li>A <a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/always-online-v2">blog entry</a>: "The video on CloudFlare's home page promises that we will keep your web page online "even if your server goes down." It's a feature we dubbed "Always Online" and..."</li>
<li>Another <a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/?tag=doodle">blog entry</a>: CloudFlare's Always Online technology kicked in and served cached versions of the page ... as our servers waited for a response or timeout from the backend."</li>
</ul>
2) According to CloudFlare's support twitter, the answer seems to be "No":
<a href="https://twitter.com/CloudFlare/status/261211807279108096">tweet</a><br/>
<a href="https://twitter.com/CloudFlare/status/261210230271115264">tweet</a><br/>
<a href="https://twitter.com/CloudFlare/status/261210383098970113">tweet</a><br/>
<a href="https://twitter.com/CloudFlare/status/261211807279108096"></a><br/>
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