Bing Search API ERROR: 503, message='Service Unavailable'

sogary 20

Dear Support Team,

I have been experiencing continuous errors since January 8, 2025 (2025.01.08).

The error message is '503, Service Unavailable', and most of the API queries are failing.

I verified that my API key is within the quota limits (QPS), so it does not appear to be a quota issue.

Below is the error log for your reference. I am using Squid Proxy as the forward proxy server. Could you please check what might be causing this issue?

Additionally, the proxy server is using an internal IP address (http://xx.yy.zz.ww)

Error Log:

URL: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search
Status: 503
Message: 'Service Unavailable'
Proxy Address: http://xx.yy.zz.ww
Query Parameters:
- q: "Headcount index using Excel INDEX function"
- mkt: "en-US"
- safeSearch: "Strict"
- count: 6

Additionally, I would like to provide specific details about the implementation. I'm making the call using an instance of ClientSession from the aiohttp library in Python.

Thank you for your support.

sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-10T07:15:49.95+00:00

Thank you for your prompt response and support.
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-10T07:32:38.92+00:00

I have an additional question about this.

If the region of the Azure service is not specified and set to global, does the API request go to the geographically closest region to the server?

The server is using GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine) (located in America), and the proxy is located in Korea. In this case, does my API request go to 'east us2' region?
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-10T07:33:36.6433333+00:00

I have an additional question about this.

If the region of the Azure service is not specified and set to global, does the request go to the geographically closest region to the server?

The server is using GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine) located in America, and the proxy is located in Korea.

In this case, does my API request go to the 'east us2' region?
Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-10T08:51:41.4333333+00:00

Hi Hi sogary

When the Azure service region is set to "global" without specifying a particular region, the request is directed to the endpoint that offers the best performance based on the client's location, using Azure Traffic Manager's performance routing method.

your server is using GKE in America and the proxy is in Korea, it's likely that the request will be routed to the Azure region that delivers the best performance for the client in Korea. This might be a region closer to Korea, like 'east Asia' or 'southeast Asia', rather than 'east us2'.

kindly refer below link: traffic-manager-routing-methods

Thank You.
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T02:25:32.41+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri

Thank you for your prompt and helpful response.

Currently, the '503, Service Unavailable' error is no longer occurring. It seems that the error stopped around the same time the East US2 region was normalized.

Although the error has ceased, I do have some questions regarding this.

According to your explanation (about how Azure Traffic Manager operates), is it likely that the error in my request was sent to the 'east asia' region and had nothing to do with the East US2 region?

I’m curious about that part.

Thank you.
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T02:27:52.8066667+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri

Thank you for your prompt and helpful response.

Currently, the '503, Service Unavailable' error is no longer occurring. It seems that the error stopped around the same time the East US2 region was normalized.

Although the error has ceased, I do have some questions regarding this.

According to your explanation (about how Azure Traffic Manager operates), is it likely that the error in my request was sent to the 'east Asia' region and had nothing to do with the East US2 region?

I’m curious about that part.

Thank you.
Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-13T04:40:55.1733333+00:00

Hi sogary

As per latest azure status outage in east us2 has been mitigated now. Are you still experiencing any issue.

Thank you.
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T04:47:04.8833333+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri

There's no issue now, but I'm wondering why I was affected by the issue in the East US2 region.

According to your explanation, Azure Traffic Manager is more likely to route my requests to the East Asia region rather than East US2.

Could you clarify why the East US2 issue impacted my requests?
Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-13T05:08:05.7233333+00:00

Hi sogary

East Us and East US 2 are part of availability zones in a US region, So East US is slightly or moderately impacted if outages are occurring in East US 2. As additional pointer would suggest checking whitelisting of concerned Azure URLs in proxy and org firewall to smoothen network flow. Could you please upvote my answer if my pointers helped.

Thank You
sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T05:21:48.82+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri
Thank you for your response. I’ve upvoted your answer.
However, I mentioned 'East Asia', not 'East US'.
Is it possible for East Asia to be affected by East US 2 issue?
(You mentioned that my request may go to 'East Asia' region because of the routing methods of the Azure Traffic Manager')

Accepted answer

Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-10T05:24:05.7333333+00:00

Hi sogary

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum, thank you for posting your query here!

Yes, there are ongoing issues on eastus2 region. Posting the update from Azure portal service health page for reference.

last updated at 03:48 UTC on 10 January 2025

Impact Statement:

we noticed a partial impact to some of the Azure Services in East US2 due to a configuration change in a regional networking service. The configuration change caused inconsistent service state. This could have resulted in intermittent Virtual machine connectivity issues or failures in allocating resources or communicating with resources in the region. The services impacted include Azure Databricks, Azure Container Apps, Azure Function Apps, Azure App Service, SQL Managed Instances, Azure Data Factory, Azure Container Instances, PowerBI, VMSS, PostgreSQL flexible servers etc. Customers using resources with Private Endpoint NSG communicating with other services would also be impacted.

Current Status: To avoid any further impact, we are validating the fix on one of the partitions, and once that is confirmed, the mitigation will be applied to the other unhealthy partitions as well. We do not have an ETA available at this time, but we expect to be able to share more details on our progress in the next update. We continue to advise customers to execute Disaster Recovery to expedite recovery of their impacted services. Customers that have already failed out of the region should not fail back until this incident is fully mitigated. The next update will be provided in 1 hour or as events warrant.

Could check in other available regions aside east us 2.

Kindly refer below link: https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Thank You.
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Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-12T10:03:04.4533333+00:00

Hi sogary

Just checking in to see if the below answer helped. If this answers your query, do click "Accept the answer” for the same, which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Thank You.

Saideep Anchuri 1,285 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-13T00:39:40.9+00:00

Hi sogary

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if the give response was helpful.

Thank You.

sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T04:32:01.7233333+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri

I posted a comment on your reply.

It has already been very helpful. However, I asked additional questions to clarify my curiosity regarding the region-related issue.

Thank you.

sogary 20 Reputation points

2025-01-13T07:50:38.33+00:00

Hi @Saideep Anchuri

I'm experiencing continuous occurrences of the '503 Service Unavailable' error again today afternoon (in KST).

It seems that there might be a specific issue with my execution environment or API key.
Is there an official channel or process where I can raise a query regarding this issue related to my API key or service account?
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Bing Search API ERROR: 503, message='Service Unavailable'

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