SQL server 2022 remote query timeout

It sounds like the application is experiencing a timeout issue when there is inactivity, even though the network connection remains intact. Here are a few potential causes and solutions you can explore:

1. Connection Timeout Settings: Check the connection timeout settings in your application. If the timeout is set too low, it may disconnect after a period of inactivity. You can increase the connection timeout parameter in your application settings to allow for longer periods of inactivity.
2. Keep-Alive Settings: Ensure that Keep-Alive packets are being sent to maintain the connection. If the connection is idle for too long, some network devices may drop it. You might need to configure your application to send periodic Keep-Alive messages.
3. Network Configuration: Investigate any network devices (like routers or switches) that may be configured to drop idle connections. Sometimes, these devices have settings that can be adjusted to prevent them from closing connections that are still active.
4. ODBC Driver Settings: Since you are using ODBC Version 18, check if there are any specific settings related to timeout or connection persistence that can be adjusted in the ODBC driver configuration.
5. SQL Server Configuration: Review the SQL Server settings to ensure that there are no restrictions or configurations that may lead to disconnections after a period of inactivity.
6. Antivirus/Firewall Settings: Sometimes, security software can interfere with network connections. Ensure that your antivirus or firewall settings are not causing the disconnections.

By addressing these areas, you may be able to resolve the communication loss issue when the user returns to the application after a period of absence.

References:

• Timeout expired messages when connecting to SQL Server
• Troubleshoot intermittent or periodic issues with connecting to SQL Server

With no knowledge about your environment or this application, I can only speculate.

• The most likely reason is that there is a network glitch at some point. Maybe in conjunction with DNS renewal or similar.
• But it could also be that the application itself closes the connection after some time of inactivity and then is not able to recover.

Possibly, you could use Profiler to track logouts for this user, to see if you can get some more clues. You would start Profiler when the user leaves his desk.