This error means that Varnish had no response (even not an HTTP error) from the backend within the timeout limit.
You can troubleshoot that in many ways :
- On the backend : do you see requests from Varnish in your webserver log ?
- On Varnish server : Run varnishlog and check the request process. You should have events in this order : RxRequest > TxRequest > RxResponse > TxResponse. Your problem is between TxRequest (request sent to backend) and RxResponse (response received from backend).
- On your Varnish server try connecting on the backend using telnet (telnet ). Does it connect ? If it does, try sending a request (e.g. "GET / "). Do you receive a response ?
Probable causes could be : firewall/selinux blocking between varnish & backend, bad varnish or backend web server config (are backend address & port sync ?), webserver stopped,