Rebill and PrestaShop site unavailability

Tip

This guide explains Ciklik’s behavior when your PrestaShop site is temporarily inaccessible during automatic subscription renewal, and the precautions to take on the hosting side.

Prerequisites

• Ciklik module installed and configured on PrestaShop
• Access to hosting configuration (firewall, WAF, .htaccess)
• Knowledge of how rebills work

Behavior in case of unavailability

If the PrestaShop site is inaccessible when Ciklik attempts to place renewal orders:

1. Rebills are not marked as errors in the Ciklik interface
2. They do not appear as typical failures
3. The rebill is automatically retried 24 hours later
4. The subscription remains at active status during this time

Information

This behavior is different from credit card payment errors which follow the configured retry scenario. See Payment attempts: Rebill.

Causes of unavailability

PrestaShop maintenance

• CMS PrestaShop update
• Module installation/update
• Database migration
• Server intervention

Technical issues

• Web server crash (Apache, Nginx)
• Resource exhaustion (memory, CPU)
• SSL certificate expiration
• DNS problem

Security blocks

• Firewall blocking Ciklik IP
• WAF (Web Application Firewall) rejecting requests
• Overly restrictive anti-DDoS protection
• Blocking .htaccess rules

Hosting precautions

Whitelist Ciklik IP

Critical action

Make sure the Ciklik server IP is allowed in all security layers of your hosting.

Checks to perform:

Layer	Action
System firewall (iptables, CSF, UFW)	Add Ciklik IP to whitelist
WAF (ModSecurity, Sucuri)	Create an exception rule for Ciklik IP
Cloudflare / CDN	Configure a bypass rule
Anti-DDoS protection (OVH, etc.)	Add IP to whitelist
.htaccess	Verify no rule blocks API requests

To obtain the Ciklik server IP, contact support: support@ciklik.co

PrestaShop maintenance mode

PrestaShop maintenance mode also blocks Ciklik API calls.

Best practice

When activating maintenance mode:

1. Add the Ciklik IP to the list of allowed IPs
2. Or schedule maintenance outside the rebill window

See also: Activating maintenance mode / Closing the site to visitors

Maintenance scheduling

Rebills are generally processed at night. To minimize impact:

Recommendations:

• Schedule PrestaShop maintenance during the day
• Avoid critical updates on rebill days (often the 1st of the month)
• If maintenance must occur during the rebill window, contact Ciklik support to schedule a manual rebill after maintenance

Problem diagnosis

Symptoms of unavailability

• Active subscriptions with end_date no longer updating
• No visible errors in the Ciklik interface
• No new orders in PrestaShop for several days

Server-side checks

# Check access logs for Ciklik requests
grep "IP_CIKLIK" /var/log/apache2/access.log

# Check error logs
tail -100 /var/log/apache2/error.log

# Check HTTP responses (should be 200)
curl -I https://your-site.com/module/ciklik/api

Common pitfall — Empty HTTP response

An empty HTTP response from the PrestaShop server is harder to diagnose than an explicit 500 error code.

Common causes:

• PHP memory_limit exceeded
• max_execution_time reached
• Apache/Nginx crash during processing
• PrestaShop module generating a fatal error

Diagnosis: Check the web server access logs to identify Ciklik requests that do not receive a complete response.

Ciklik-side checks

1. Access rebill errors via the API:

   GET /api/rebill-errors?filter[created_at_after]=2026-01-01

2. Check if “PrestaShop API” type errors appear

3. Contact Ciklik support if you suspect a communication problem

Corrective actions

After an unavailability

If your site was unavailable during a rebill window:

1. Verify that the site is accessible again from outside
2. Test the Ciklik API endpoint: https://your-site.com/module/ciklik/api
3. Wait 24 hours: rebills will be automatically retried
4. Or contact support to trigger an immediate manual rebill

Prevention

• Configure monitoring (UptimeRobot, Pingdom, etc.) on the Ciklik API endpoint
• Enable alerts in case of unavailability
• Document the IPs to whitelist for technical teams

FAQ

Q: Will customers be charged twice if the rebill is retried?

No. The system checks if the rebill has already been successfully completed before retrying. No double charging is possible.

Q: How many times does Ciklik retry in case of unavailability?

The rebill is retried every 24 hours until the site is accessible again. There is no limit on retry attempts for accessibility errors (unlike credit card payment errors).

Q: How can I know if my site was unavailable during a rebill?

Check your web server access logs at the scheduled rebill date/time. The absence of requests from the Ciklik IP or response codes other than 200 indicate a problem.

Q: Does PrestaShop maintenance mode affect rebills?

Yes. Maintenance mode blocks all requests, including those from Ciklik. Add the Ciklik IP to the exception list or disable maintenance mode before rebills.