timeout settings for our server

Hey there!

The timeout settings for external connections on your Ubuntu server aren’t managed directly through the Droplet settings on DigitalOcean but can be configured in a few key places on your server itself which you have root access to.

As you’re using Cloudflare and an Ubuntu Droplet, here’s where you can look to increase the timeout:

1. Cloudflare has a default timeout of 100 seconds for HTTP requests. Unfortunately, this is a fixed limit and can’t be extended directly through Cloudflare’s free plan. If you’re on a paid plan, you may have options to adjust this under “Load Balancing” or “Workers”, but it’s still limited. For more information check out their docs here: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/increase-cloudflare-max-request-duration/482873

2. Nginx or Apache Timeout Settings on your Droplet:

   • If you’re using Nginx or Apache as your web server, you can adjust the timeout settings to handle longer connections.

   For Nginx:

   • Open the Nginx configuration file (usually located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf or within /etc/nginx/sites-available/).
   • Add or update these directives within your server block:

     proxy_read_timeout 300s;
     proxy_connect_timeout 300s;
     proxy_send_timeout 300s;
     

   • Restart Nginx:

     sudo systemctl restart nginx
     

   For Apache:

   • Open the Apache configuration file, typically found at /etc/apache2/apache2.conf or in /etc/apache2/sites-available/.
   • Add or update these directives:

     Timeout 300
     ProxyTimeout 300
     

   • Restart Apache:

     sudo systemctl restart apache2
     

3. PHP Timeout Settings:

   • If you’re running a PHP application, you may also want to increase the execution time for PHP scripts.
   • Open your PHP configuration file (php.ini, often located at /etc/php/8.2/fpm/php.ini or /etc/php/8.2/apache2/php.ini).
   • Update these settings:

     max_execution_time = 300
     max_input_time = 300
     

   • Restart PHP-FPM (if applicable):

     sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm
     

Feel free to share more details on the services that you are using if those are not the ones you use.

Also worth mentioning that, extending timeout settings too much can sometimes lead to performance issues, as long connections consume resources. Make sure these settings match your server’s capacity like RAM and CPU.

- Bobby