Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding

  • Users are receiving the "Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding." error when trying to retrieve data from the tables. In this particular instance a user was trying to run a report to display ALL the data from a few tables.

    What could be the cause of this error? Should I start with the query behind the report or the connection timeout?

    Thanks.

  • Start with the query, but if the query returns all rows from a join of several tables you will probably have to bump out hte timeout value. Returning all the rows is not usually the best way to handle things because it loads up the server.

  • The timeout itself is usually issued by the calling application. If it is using ADO, there are 2 timeout parameters that can be configured to lengthen the amount of time before it times out. ADO has a connection and a command time out. I think the default for these is 30 seconds.

    Keep in mind that the timeouts are there for a reason. One user running a massive query can eat up valuble system resources and cause others to timeout or wait. I would start by looking at the query and helping the user determine how to better write it. What end-user would really want to see all data from a table? As tables get into the 10's and 100's of thousands of rows, how valuble can a report be that contains all of the data?

    John Rowan

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