Knowledge Base

Website or webmail shows 500 internal server error on Plesk: mod_fcgid: read data timeout

Symptoms

A website or webmail page is not loading and 500 internal server error or 504 Gateway Time-out error is shown after ~30-60 seconds.
The following errors can be found in Domains > example.com > Logs:

[warn] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 45 seconds
[error] Premature end of script headers
[core:error] End of script output before headers
The following error can be found in /var/log/apache2/error.log:

[warn] mod_fcgid: process XXX graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL

Cause

The FcgidIOTimeout value - the maximum period of time the module will wait while trying to read from or write to a FastCGI application - has been exceeded.

Resolution

Increase the parameter value or optimize FastCGI application.

Domain-wide solution. FcgidIOTimeout parameter for a domain is set to the same value as max_execution_time PHP parameter.

Log into Plesk UI.
Increase max_execution_time (e.g. to 300) in Domains > example.com > PHP settings
Add the following to Domains > example.com > Apache & Nginx settings > Additional directives for HTTP and Additional directives for HTTPS:

<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
FcgidIOTimeout 300
</IfModule>
If it does not help, increase the parameter to higher value.

Optionally, switch the domain to FPM handler at Domains > example.com > PHP Settings.

Server-wide solution:

Connect to the server using SSH.
Open the /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fcgid.conffile (on Debian/Ubuntu) or the /etc/httpd/conf.d/fcgid.conf file (on RedHat/CentOS/CloudLinux), edit it with text editor and increase "FcgidIdleTimeout" and "FcgidProcessLifeTime" parameters to "300" or more:
FcgidIdleTimeout 300
FcgidProcessLifeTime 300
Reload Apache service configuration:

On RedHat/CentOS/CloudLinux systems:

# service httpd reload

On Debian/Ubuntu systems:

# service apache2 reload
If it does not help, increase the value of both parameters to higher values and reload Apache service configuration.