Changing the CGI Timout in IIS 6 on Windows Server 2003

by on May.10, 2005, under Tech Tips

IIS 6 has a default cgi timeout of 5 minutes or 300 seconds, this is fine for most web applications, however I had need of a longer timeout for quite a large complicated php script that outputted to a web browser.

Having aquick look in IIS manager there is no obvious options to change this timeout, a quick google returned guides for other versions of IIS but not our version.

After a little more effort and some help, we found that the setting is stored in the IIS Metabase.xml file

Microsfts guide

This information is pretty much meaningless unless you understand the Metabase.
I’ll try and simplify things,
Open IIS manager select your server, right click and select properties.
From this window tick the checkbox at the top, its to allow run time changing of the Metabase, ok this window.
Find the Metabase.xml file and open it in notepad. this will probably be located in “C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\”

Find the line(s) that say CGITimeout = “300” and change this to the value you require.

You will not need to restart your server to apply your changes, as it picks them up automatically.


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