The connection either timed out or was lost.

[jcaballe_1]

I have a Power BI Report Server on-premises with a large number of paginated reports and dashboards with data models. Some are large and sometimes take over an hour to refresh, while others are small and refresh in less than two minutes. All data is imported; I don't use direct queries.
I have an Intel Xeon Platinum 8-core CPU, speed 2.80 GHz. Occasionally, I receive the message "The connection either timed out or was lost." or "Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation. The exception was raised by the IDbCommand interface."

I'd like to know which resources in my configuration file I can modify to give more processing time to dashboards with automatic updates, preventing them from failing or throwing timeout errors. I have a large number of dashboards that refresh at 7 AM, and I don't want any of them to be affected.

Part of my configuration is attached:

<Add Key="CleanupCycleMinutes" Value="10"/>

<Add Key="MaxActiveReqForOneUser" Value="20"/>

<Add Key="DatabaseQueryTimeout" Value="300"/>

<Add Key="RunningRequestsScavengerCycle" Value="60"/>

<Add Key="RunningRequestsDbCycle" Value="60"/>

<Add Key="RunningRequestsAge" Value="30"/>

<Add Key="MaxScheduleWait" Value="5"/>

<Add Key="DisplayErrorLink" Value="true"/>
<Add Key="WebServiceUseFileShareStorage" Value="false"/>
<!-- <Add Key="ProcessTimeout" Value="150" /> -->
<!-- <Add Key="ProcessTimeoutGcExtension" Value="30" /> -->
<!-- <Add Key="WatsonFlags" Value="0x0430" /> full dump-->
<!-- <Add Key="WatsonFlags" Value="0x0428" /> minidump -->
<!-- <Add Key="WatsonFlags" Value="0x0002" /> no dump-->

<IsSchedulingService>True</IsSchedulingService>
<IsNotificationService>True</IsNotificationService>
<IsEventService>True</IsEventService>
<PollingInterval>10</PollingInterval>
<IsDataModelRefreshService>True</IsDataModelRefreshService>
<MaxCatalogConnectionPoolSizePerProcess>0</MaxCatalogConnectionPoolSizePerProcess>
<WindowsServiceUseFileShareStorage>False</WindowsServiceUseFileShareStorage>
<MemorySafetyMargin>80</MemorySafetyMargin>
<MemoryThreshold>90</MemoryThreshold>
<RecycleTime>720</RecycleTime>
<MaxAppDomainUnloadTime>30</MaxAppDomainUnloadTime>
<MaxQueueThreads>0</MaxQueueThreads>

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @jcaballe_1 ,

Just checking in to see if you query is resolved and if any responses were helpful.
Otherwise, feel free to reach out for further assistance.

Thank you.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @jcaballe_1 ,

Just wanted to check if the response provided by @Zanqueta was helpful. If further assistance is needed, please reach out.

Thank you.

[Zanqueta · Accepted solution]

Hi @jcaballe_1, the timeout is configured in the report or model (PBIX/RDL), not in rsreportserver.config.
Therefore, large reports that take a long time to execute (for example, over one hour) tend to hit this command timeout and fail. 

In practical terms, the three key levers that will help you are:

 

Per‑report data source timeout:

• Increase the command/query timeout on the data sources of the heavy dashboards (PBIX and/or RDL). This is where the main timeout error originates.

For Power BI reports (PBIX) on Power BI Report Server:

• Open the report in Power BI Desktop for Report Server (the RS‑specific build).
• Go to File → Options and settings → Data source settings.
• Select the data source → Edit Permissions → Edit → Advanced options.
• Increase the Command timeout (in minutes) for the heavy queries.

For paginated reports (RDL):

• Open the report in Report Builder or Visual Studio.
• On the Data Source or Dataset properties, increase the Query timeout value.

Global scheduled refresh timeout on the server:

• Add or adjust ScheduledRefreshTimeoutMinutes to a level consistent with your longest acceptable refresh time (for example, 240 minutes).

Concurrency control at peak time:

• Reduce MaxQueueThreads to limit how many heavy refreshes run at once at 7 a.m., improving stability and reducing the likelihood of timeouts.