How do I resolve query timeout errors in Quick Suite?

2 minute read

I tried to use direct query mode to import data into Amazon Quick Suite, but I get a query timeout error.

Short description

Timeout errors in Amazon QuickSight direct query mode can occur for the following reasons:

Data preparation takes more than 45 seconds.
Visual generation takes more than 2 minutes.
The query runtime exceeds the data source timeout quota for the AWS service that you imported from. To see the data source timeout quota for your AWS service, see AWS service quotas.
The custom SQL dataset uses unsupported syntax, such as Apache Iceberg time travel queries (FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF or FOR VERSION AS OF). These queries return a DATA_SOURCE_TIMEOUT error instead of a syntax error.

Note: You can't increase the 2-minute visual generation timeout quota.

Resolution

Limit the data that you import

To limit the amount of data that you import into Amazon QuickSight, complete the following:

Deselect columns that you don't need.
Add filters to your dataset in Amazon QuickSight.
Use predicates in your custom SQL query, such as WHERE and HAVING.

Note: Amazon QuickSight doesn't support Apache Iceberg time travel syntax in custom SQL datasets. This includes FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF and FOR VERSION AS OF queries, even when Athena executes the same query successfully. In DIRECT_QUERY mode, these queries fail with a DATA_SOURCE_TIMEOUT error instead of a syntax error. To work around this limitation, create a separate Athena view that includes the time travel query. Then, use that view as the data source in Amazon QuickSight.

Import the data into SPICE

When you import your data into SPICE, queries process faster. For more information, see How do I resolve "query timeout" errors when I import data from Athena to Amazon QuickSight SPICE?

Note: The 45-second timeout quota for data preparation and the 2-minute timeout to generate visuals still apply when you use SPICE. However, if you use Amazon Athena to import data into Amazon QuickSight, then the query timeout is 30 minutes.

For more information about SPICE quotas for imported data and quotas for direct SQL queries, see Data source quotas.