Error Categories

Pingward classifies test failures into categories to help you understand and respond to issues.

Category List

Connection Errors

Category	Description	Common Causes
Timeout	Request exceeded timeout limit	Slow server, network issues, server overload
ConnectionRefused	Server rejected the connection	Server down, wrong port, firewall
DnsResolutionFailed	Could not resolve hostname	DNS misconfiguration, domain expired
SslCertificateError	TLS/SSL handshake failed	Expired certificate, invalid cert, hostname mismatch
ConnectionReset	Connection was reset	Server crash, network interruption
RedirectLoop	Too many redirects	Misconfigured redirects

HTTP Errors

Category	Description	HTTP Codes
ServiceUnavailable	Server cannot handle request	502, 503, 504
ServerError	Server-side error	500, 501, other 5xx
BadRequest	Client error in request	400
AuthenticationFailed	Authentication required/failed	401
Forbidden	Access denied	403
NotFound	Resource not found	404
RateLimited	Too many requests	429
ClientError	Other client errors	Other 4xx

Validation Errors

Category	Description
AssertionFailed	Response didn't match assertions
ContentMismatch	Response content unexpected
BodyTooLarge	Response exceeded size limit

Other

Category	Description
Unknown	Unclassified error

Default Severities

Each category has a default severity that reflects its typical impact:

Critical (Immediate Action)

• ServiceUnavailable
• Timeout
• ConnectionRefused
• DnsResolutionFailed

High (Urgent)

• SslCertificateError
• ServerError
• ConnectionReset
• RedirectLoop

Medium (Important)

• AssertionFailed
• AuthenticationFailed
• Forbidden
• RateLimited
• ContentMismatch

Low (Minor)

• BadRequest
• NotFound
• ClientError
• BodyTooLarge
• Unknown

Customizing Severity

You can change the severity for any category in Settings → Severity.

Common customizations:

• NotFound → Critical: For critical resources that must exist
• Timeout → Medium: For known-slow APIs
• AssertionFailed → High: For critical validation checks

Using Categories in Routing

Route alerts based on error category:

Conditions:
  Error Categories: Timeout, ConnectionRefused, ServiceUnavailable

Actions:
  → PagerDuty (Infrastructure Team)

Conditions:
  Error Categories: AssertionFailed, ContentMismatch

Actions:
  → Slack #api-team

Troubleshooting by Category

Timeout

• Check server response times
• Look for resource exhaustion
• Check network path
• Consider increasing timeout threshold

ConnectionRefused

• Verify server is running
• Check correct port
• Review firewall rules
• Check security groups

DnsResolutionFailed

• Verify domain name is correct
• Check DNS propagation
• Review DNS server configuration
• Check for domain expiration

SslCertificateError

• Check certificate expiration
• Verify certificate chain
• Ensure hostname matches
• Update root certificates

ServiceUnavailable

• Check upstream dependencies
• Review server capacity
• Look for deployment issues
• Check load balancer health