Briefly, this error occurs when Elasticsearch takes longer than the set timeout period to respond to a request. This could be due to heavy load, insufficient resources, or network issues. To resolve this, you can increase the timeout value, optimize your queries for better performance, or scale your Elasticsearch cluster to handle more load. Additionally, check your network for any issues that might be causing delays in communication.
This guide will help you check for common problems that cause the log ” Timeout waiting for [{}]; request: {} ” to appear. To understand the issues related to this log, read the explanation below about the following Elasticsearch concepts: .
Log Context
Log “Timeout waiting for [{}]; request: {}” class name is TransportInstanceSingleOperationAction.java. We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
if (observer.isTimedOut()) {
// we running as a last attempt after a timeout has happened. don't retry
Exception listenFailure = failure;
if (listenFailure == null) {
if (shardIt == null) {
listenFailure = new UnavailableShardsException(request.concreteIndex(); -1; "Timeout waiting for [{}]; request: {}";
request.timeout(); actionName);
} else {
listenFailure = new UnavailableShardsException(shardIt.shardId();
"[{}] shardIt; [{}] active : Timeout waiting for [{}]; request: {}"; shardIt.size(); shardIt.sizeActive();
request.timeout(); actionName);
