BREAKING: SendGrid DNS Issues in us-west-2 — Immediate Workarounds Inside

SendGrid experiencing AWS us-west-2 DNS health check failures. What's affected, workarounds, and monitoring steps for indie hackers.

BREAKING: SendGrid DNS Issues in us-west-2

Status: Monitoring | Severity: High | Last Updated: Now

What's Down & Who's Affected

SendGrid is reporting DNS health check failures in the AWS us-west-2 region. This impacts:

Email delivery from applications routing through us-west-2 infrastructure

API requests to SendGrid endpoints in that region

Webhook callbacks may experience delays or failures

Primary impact: Users with explicit region routing or default us-west-2 assignment

Good news: Not all SendGrid users are affected. If your app routes through other regions (us-east-1, eu-west-1, etc.), you're likely unaffected.

Check If You're Affected RIGHT NOW

1. Check your SendGrid region setting: - Log into SendGrid dashboard → Settings → API Keys - Note your configured region/endpoint

2. Test connectivity: ```bash curl -X GET https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" ``` - If timeout/DNS errors → you're affected - If 400/401 response → DNS is working, auth may be issue

3. Monitor in real-time: - Check SendGrid status page: https://status.sendgrid.com - Watch for "us-west-2" region updates

Immediate Workarounds (Do These Now)

Option 1: Switch Regions (Fastest Fix)

If you're flexible: 1. Create new API key with different region (us-east-1 recommended) 2. Update your .env or config: SENDGRID_API_ENDPOINT=https://api.sendgrid.com (forces default routing) 3. Test send immediately 4. Swap credentials in production if successful

Option 2: Queue & Retry Strategy (0 Code Changes)

Implement exponential backoff on SendGrid calls

Queue failed emails (Redis/Bull for Node, Celery for Python)

Automatic retry in 30-60 seconds (DNS issues typically resolve within minutes)

Option 3: Temporary Email Provider Failover

Add fallback provider to your stack: ```javascript try { await sendgrid.send(email); } catch (err) { if (err.message.includes('ENOTFOUND')) { console.warn('SendGrid DNS issue, using Mailgun fallover'); await mailgun.send(email); } } ```

Alternative Email Tools to Consider

Mailgun: Solid API, good uptime, more affordable at scale

AWS SES: If you're AWS-native, built-in redundancy

Postmark: Premium option, excellent deliverability

Resend: Modern API, great for developers

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): EU-friendly alternative

How to Monitor Recovery

1. Watch the status page: https://status.sendgrid.com (refresh every 2-3 min) 2. Set up alerts: Use Statuspage.io webhook or email notifications 3. Monitor your own metrics: Track SendGrid API response times in your logs 4. Test periodically: Run your curl command every 5 minutes 5. Check Twitter/Reddit: Search #SendGrid for community updates

Bottom Line

This is DNS-level, not a data issue. Your emails aren't lost. Workaround for 5-15 minutes is typical for AWS region issues. Don't panic and deploy major changes—this resolves on its own in most cases.

Already fixed it? Reply to this post so the community knows what worked.

—Your friendly neighborhood indie hacker ops team