27728: Step download timeout

Step Download Timeout means that the step needed to performed for the subsequent step to be performed have reached its timeout limit (default is 120 secs) in LoadRunner. A more detailed explanation can be found in Document ID 15370 – Error: “-27751: Step download timeout (120 seconds) has expired when downloading resource(s)…” even though timeout is set.

Having mentioned the above, there are situations we must take note when this error occur. If the error occurs during the generation of the script (replay in Vugen), it could mean that the application is really taking time of more than 120 secs to complete the download of the resources. You may want to configure the timing to suit your application needs.

If the error occurs during a scenario execution and happens in the middle of the scenario (usually with a large amount of load), the application is handling a lot of load and unable to attend to all the vuser request, thus (maybe) taking more than the configured download timing. For this,it will be better advisable to look at the system utilization of the server to seeth out any performance problems.

To determine the initial problem, we can ask the following questions, that is similar to a previous article, “Why are my scripts/vusers failing?“.

1. Does the error occur in Vugen? 2. Does the error occur in Controller? 3. If yes for (2), does it occur in the start of the scenario run or in the middle of the scenario run? 4. If yes for (2), what is the amount of running users when the error occur?

The above, can scope down to the area of problem and allow you to determine your next course of action.

If you have decided that the Step Download Timeout needs to be configured, you can configure that in the Runtime Settings of the script. There are other articles that you may find useful should you required to configure the Step Download Timeout:

Document ID 11299 – How to increase the connect , receive and step timeout value for Web Vusers Document ID 15450 – How to increase the timeout settings in a Web script Document ID 22864 – How to resubmit a Web request if “Page downloads timeout” is received

To access the above articles, please ensure that you have a valid user login into the Support Website.

Final note, its best to determine the characteristics of your application before applying the configuration. (Do not configure to suit the load test but rather let the load test determine the configuration).