Setting request timeout

Learn how to set the time within which a response for a request must be returned by your Knative serving services. If a response isn't returned within the time specified, the request ends and error 504 is returned.

Timeout limits

The maximum timeout limit differs based on the version of your GKE cluster.

GKE version Default limit Maximum timeout limit
0.16.0-gke.1 and later 300 seconds 24 hours
0.15.0-gke.3 and earlier 300 seconds 900 seconds

In addition to changing the Knative serving request timeout, you should check your language framework to see whether it has its own request timeout setting that you must also update.

Setting and updating request timeout

Any configuration change leads to the creation of a new revision. Subsequent revisions will also automatically get this configuration setting unless you make explicit updates to change it.

You can set request timeout using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, or a YAML file when you deploy a new service or update an existing service and deploy a revision:

Console

  1. Go to Knative serving in the Google Cloud console:

    Go to Knative serving

  2. Click Create Service if you are configuring a new service you are deploying to. If you are configuring an existing service, click on the service, then click Edit & Deploy New Revision.

  3. Under Advanced settings, click Container.

  4. In the Request timeout field, enter the timeout value that you want to use. The value you specify must be less than the timeout limit for the cluster's GKE version.

  5. Click Next to continue to the next section.

  6. In the Configure how this service is triggered section, select which connectivity you would like to use to invoke the service.

  7. Click Create to deploy the image to Knative serving and wait for the deployment to finish.

Command line

  • For existing services, set the request timeout by running the gcloud run services update command with the --timeout parameter:

    gcloud run services update SERVICE --timeout TIMEOUT

    Replace:

    • SERVICE with the name of your service.
    • TIMEOUT with the desired time, using an integer value in seconds, or an absolute duration value, for example 1m20s which is 1 minute, 20 seconds. The value you specify must be less than the timeout limit for the cluster's GKE version. Specify 0 to set the timeout to the default value.

  • For new services, set the request timeout by running the gcloud run deploy command with the --timeout parameter:

    gcloud run deploy SERVICE --image=IMAGE_URL --timeout TIMEOUT

    Replace:

    • SERVICE with the name of your service.
    • IMAGE_URL with a reference to the container image, for example, gcr.io/cloudrun/hello.
    • TIMEOUT with the desired time, using an integer value in seconds, or an absolute duration value, for example 1m20s which is 1 minute, 20 seconds. The value you specify must be less than the timeout limit for the cluster's GKE version. Specify 0 to set the timeout to the default value.

YAML

You can download the configuration of an existing service into a YAML file with the gcloud run services describe command by using the --format=export flag. You can then modify that YAML file and deploy those changes with the gcloud run services replace command. You must ensure that you modify only the specified attributes.

  1. Download the configuration of your service into a file named service.yaml on local workspace:

    gcloud run services describe SERVICE --format export > service.yaml

    Replace SERVICE with the name of your Knative serving service.

  2. In your local file, update the timeoutSeconds attribute:

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: SERVICE
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: IMAGE
      timeoutSeconds: TIMEOUT

    Replace:

    • SERVICE with the name of your Knative serving service
    • IMAGE_URL with a reference to the container image, for example, gcr.io/cloudrun/hello.
    • TIMEOUT with the desired timeout, in seconds.

  3. Replace the service with its new configuration using the following command:

    gcloud run services replace service.yaml