AEM forms- On submission guideContainer.af.submit.jsp return 504 sometimes

[chinmayis865517]

AEM forms- On submission guideContainer.af.submit.jsp return 504 sometimes. But the issue is occuring frequently for users belonging to Australian region

[Karishma_begumSh]

Hi @chinmayis865517 

In AEM Forms, the guideContainer.af.submit.jsp handles adaptive form submissions. A 504 Gateway Timeout indicates that the server (AEM) didn’t receive a timely response from an upstream service or internal process.

In this case, since the error occurs mostly for users in the Australian region, it suggests network latency, dispatcher/CDN routing delays, or backend endpoint timeout issues specific to that geography rather than an AEM form logic error.

Common causes include:

• Slow or unreachable backend endpoints (SOAP/REST services, workflow, or DB integrations).
• Geo-based network latency due to CDN or load balancer configuration.
• Dispatcher or firewall timeout before the AEM Publish instance completes processing.
• Form submission size or server-side validation taking too long.

Troubleshooting and Fix:

1. Check AEM error.log and access.log around submission time for the affected users.
2. Verify if backend API or workflow integrations are responding slowly from Australia (use network trace or API logs).
3. Review Dispatcher and load balancer timeout settings (e.g., Apache ProxyTimeout, CDN origin timeout).
4. Monitor submission time in AEM to detect processing delays.
5. Optionally, implement asynchronous submission or increase backend timeout thresholds for that region.

Regards,

Karishma.

[chinmayis865517]

Hi @Karishma_begumSh ,

Thank you for your response. We see the below error for  a particular time stamp.
[Wed Nov 05 05:46:56.413888 2025] [:error] [pid 788489] [client 2409:40c0:2008:75ab:fdd6:35e7:5660:aab4:0] [client 2409:40c0:2008:75ab:fdd6:35e7:5660:aab4] ModSecurity: Multipart parsing error (init): Multipart: Invalid boundary in C-T (malformed). [hostname "www.abc.com.au"] [uri "/content/forms/af/.../australia/---/jcr:content/guideContainer.af.submit.jsp"] [unique_id "Xxxxxxxxx"]

We are making a call to 

/libs/fd/afaddon/components/actions/emailpdf  . There's no integration with any 3rd party API. This form only generates pdf and sends an email.

Thanks,

Chinmayi

[chinmayis865517]

This error was occurring because the multipart boundary was malformed or incomplete on upload of any form of asset or signature. Hence, the ModSecurity  was relaxed and the security standpoint was also covered.