We’re experiencing consistent timeout failures when exporting incident reports containing more than 10,000 records. The export process runs for approximately 5 minutes before timing out with a generic error message.
Our current export timeout configuration is set to the default 300 seconds, and we’ve noticed the query performance degrades significantly as dataset size increases. We need to export these large datasets for quarterly compliance audits, but the current limitations are blocking our audit preparation.
Export Error: Request timeout after 300000ms
at ReportExporter.generateIncidentReport(line 234)
Execution time: 5m 12s, Records processed: 8,547/10,234
Has anyone successfully configured scheduled report delivery for large incident datasets? We’re particularly concerned about optimizing the query performance and adjusting timeout settings appropriately.
The timeout is one issue, but query performance is the root cause here. Your incident report query likely lacks proper indexing on date range filters and status fields. I’d recommend analyzing the execution plan first. Also, are you pulling all fields or just the necessary ones? Reducing column selection can dramatically improve export speed for large result sets.
I ran into this same timeout issue last year with our quarterly incident exports. Here’s what we implemented to resolve it:
1. Export Timeout Configuration
Increase the timeout settings in your arena.properties:
export.timeout.seconds=1800
report.query.timeout=1200
This gives you 30 minutes for export processing and 20 minutes for query execution, which handles datasets up to 50K records comfortably.
2. Query Performance Tuning
Optimize your incident report query by:
- Adding composite indexes on (incident_date, status, priority) fields
- Excluding large TEXT/CLOB fields from the main query
- Using date range partitioning if your dataset spans multiple years
- Implementing query result caching for static date ranges
We reduced our 10K record export from 5+ minutes to under 90 seconds by adding these indexes:
CREATE INDEX idx_incident_export
ON incidents(created_date, status, assigned_to);
3. Scheduled Report Delivery
Configure Arena’s scheduled report feature to:
- Run exports during off-peak hours (we use 2 AM daily)
- Break large date ranges into monthly segments
- Deliver reports via email or SFTP automatically
- Implement incremental exports for ongoing monitoring
Set up the schedule in Admin > Reporting > Scheduled Reports with these parameters:
- Frequency: Daily at 02:00
- Date Range: Previous month (rolling window)
- Output Format: CSV with selective field mapping
- Delivery: Email to compliance team + archive to secure storage
Additional Optimization
For audit preparation, we now maintain a materialized view that pre-aggregates incident metrics monthly. This reduces the live query load and provides instant access to historical data. The view refreshes nightly and includes all fields needed for compliance reporting.
Implementing these three focus areas-timeout configuration, query optimization, and scheduled delivery-eliminated our export failures completely. Our largest quarterly export (45K records) now completes in under 8 minutes with zero timeouts.
I’ve seen this exact issue before. The default 300-second timeout is too aggressive for large datasets. You’ll need to adjust both the application-level timeout and the database query timeout. Check your arena.properties file for the export.timeout.seconds parameter and increase it to at least 900 seconds for datasets over 10K records.
Another consideration: are you exporting during peak usage hours? Database contention can add 40-60% to query execution time. Schedule your large exports during off-peak hours, and consider implementing query result caching for frequently accessed date ranges.
Pagination definitely helps, but for scheduled compliance reports, I’d recommend a hybrid approach. Use Arena’s built-in scheduled report delivery feature with optimized queries that exclude large text fields from the initial export. You can always pull detailed records separately if needed for specific incidents during the audit. This keeps your main export under the timeout threshold while still providing the comprehensive data you need.
Good point about the query optimization. We’re currently selecting all fields including several large text fields (investigation notes, corrective actions). Would pagination help here, or should we look at breaking this into multiple scheduled exports?