Server configuration: remote login timeout

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

This article describes how to configure the remote login timeout server configuration option in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL. The remote login timeout option specifies the number of seconds to wait before returning from a failed attempt to log in to a remote server. For example, if you're trying to log in to a remote server and that server is down, remote login timeout helps make sure that you don't have to wait indefinitely before your computer stops trying to log in. The default value for this option is 10 seconds. A value of 0 allows for an infinite wait.

Note

The default value for this option is 20 seconds in SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x).

Limitations

The remote login timeout option affects connections to OLE DB providers made for heterogeneous queries.

Permissions

Execute permissions on sp_configure with no parameters or with only the first parameter are granted to all users by default. To execute sp_configure with both parameters to change a configuration option or to run the RECONFIGURE statement, a user must be granted the ALTER SETTINGS server-level permission. The ALTER SETTINGS permission is implicitly held by the sysadmin and serveradmin fixed server roles.

Use SQL Server Management Studio

  1. In Object Explorer, right-click a server and select Properties.

  2. Select the Advanced node.

  3. Under Network, select a value for the Remote Login Timeout box.

    Use the remote login timeout option to specify the number of seconds to wait before returning from a failed remote login attempt.

Use Transact-SQL

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, select New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and select Execute. This example shows how to use sp_configure to set the value of the remote login timeout option to 35 seconds.

    USE master;
GO

EXECUTE sp_configure 'remote login timeout', 35;
GO

RECONFIGURE;
GO

For more information, see Server configuration options.

Follow up: After you configure the remote login timeout option

The setting takes effect immediately without restarting the server.

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