200#5444: the event "ngx_master_200" was not signaled for 5s

Projects NGINX
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1

Please use this template for troubleshooting questions.

My issue:
the following error was raised in the error log:
200#5444: the event “ngx_master_200” was not signaled for 5s

How I encountered the problem:
set up nginx on a Windows server using the default configuration, but add by websites cert.pem and cert.key file to the default.

# HTTPS server
#
server {
    listen       443 ssl;
    server_name  localhost;

    ssl_certificate      server.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key  server.key;

    ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:1m;
    ssl_session_timeout  5m;

    ssl_ciphers  HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers  on;

    location / {
        root   html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }
}

}

Solutions I’ve tried:

Version of NGINX or NGINX adjacent software (e.g. NGINX Gateway Fabric):
I tried nginx-1.28.0 and nginx-1.29.0 same issue
Deployment environment:
Windows 2019
nginx.conf (2.7 KB)

Minimal NGINX config to reproduce your issue (preferably running on https://tech-playground.com/playgrounds/nginx for ease of debugging, and if not as a code block): (Tip → Run nginx -T to print your entire NGINX config to your terminal.)

NGINX access/error log: (Tip → You can usually find the logs in the /var/log/nginx directory.)

2

Heya @rswyman! Can you change the error log value to debug (Core functionality) and share your entire error log? I will also note that NGINX is not really supported on Windows (it’s an experimental build) so it’s entirely possible this issue is related to the experimental status.

3

Hi Alessandro,

Understood. Only when I’m using SSL does this occur http works fine.

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: malloc: 01693700:16

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: bind() 0.0.0.0:80 #612

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: bind() 0.0.0.0:443 #616

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [notice] 2236#1060: using the “select” event method

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: malloc: 015F5010:30

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: counter: 2F0E0080, 1

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [notice] 2236#1060: nginx/1.29.0

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [info] 2236#1060: OS: 260200 build:9200, “”, suite:10, type:2

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: master started

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: close listening 0.0.0.0:80 #612

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: close listening 0.0.0.0:443 #616

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [notice] 2236#1060: start worker processes

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [debug] 2236#1060: GetModuleFileName: “C:\nginx-1.29.0\nginx.exe”

2025/07/21 18:30:45 [notice] 2236#1060: start worker process 6724

2025/07/21 18:30:55 [debug] 2236#1060: WaitForMultipleObjects: 258

2025/07/21 18:30:55 [alert] 2236#1060: the event “ngx_master_2236” was not signaled for 5s

Thx

Ron

4

Something is stalling the master process. Its job is to read the configuration and pass it to the worker process.

Does nginx -t complete successfully? If so I would start making adjustments to the SSL configuration.

1 Like
5

Does your SSL key use a passphrase? There seems to be a similar thread on SO https://stackoverflow.com/q/69896680 where that was the issue.

This would track with the master process stalling due to being unable to read the SSL key.

1 Like
6

Hi Liam,

Thank you for your reply.

-t is successful. It turns out that my cert uses a passphrase and only when using conf files command to read this information from a file does nginx work with passphrase and not from the command line.

Thanks again for your thoughts

Ron

7

Hi Alessandro,

Putting the passphrase in a text file worked for me. Thx for the effort.

Thank You

Ron

8

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