Problem

If database queries are taking too long to perform, and your application is becoming unresponsive, you can configure a timeout for database queries.

Cause

There is no default timeout in Confluence.

Resolution

To configure a database query timeout, do the following on your test server:

1. Shut down Confluence.
2. Extract databaseSubsystemContext.xml from the confluence-x.x.x.jar that is in confluence/WEB-INF/lib/, and put a copy in confluence/WEB-INF/classes/. See Editing files within .jar archives.

3. Edit confluence/WEB-INF/classes/databaseSubsystemContext.xml to add the defaultTimeout property to the "transactionManager" bean:

   <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate.HibernateTransactionManager">
       <property name="sessionFactory">
           <ref bean="sessionFactory"/>
       </property>
       <property name="defaultTimeout" value="120"/>
   </bean>
   

   The timeout is measured in seconds and will forcibly abort queries that take longer than this. In some cases, these errors are not handled gracefully by Confluence and will result in the user seeing the Confluence error page.

4. Start Confluence.

Once the timeout is working properly in your test environment, migrate the configuration change to your production Confluence environment.

Additional Information

• Configuring database query timeout – official documentation for this configuration
• CONF-13462 – feature request to allow configuration within the application.