Subject: Flow Error: Transaction Cancelled - Maximum Execution Time Exceeded After Bulk Record Updat

[jamesboding]

Hi ServiceNow Community,

I'm currently experiencing an issue with a flow that I’ve built to update a large number of hardware asset records using a REST API call to fetch warranty information. The flow works well, but after about 800 records are updated, I receive the following error: Internal Server Error

When I look at the execution and iterate through the records to the one that it cancelled on, I found the error: 

Error: Transaction cancelled: maximum execution time exceeded

Background:

• I’m using a REST step within a flow action to call an external API and retrieve warranty information.
• The flow successfully updates the warranty expiration dates on hardware asset records in the alm_hardware table using the serial number and warranty end date from the API response.
• The flow completes successfully for smaller data sets, but when processing a larger volume (around 800+ records), it throws the "maximum execution time exceeded" error and the flow eventually cancels.

What I’ve Tried:

• I've reviewed my scripts and API response handling. Everything works well in smaller batches, and warranty dates are updated correctly in the system.
• I checked if the error is due to long-running scripts or flows, but I couldn't find the glide.script.timeout system property, which I’ve seen suggested for similar issues.
• I'm wondering if there's a different sys_property related to REST or flow execution limits, or if there's a different approach to avoid hitting the execution timeout limit.

Key Questions:

1. Is there a property I can adjust to extend the execution time for flows?
2. Would breaking this flow into smaller batches or triggering it differently be a better solution?
3. Has anyone else encountered similar "maximum execution time exceeded" errors in bulk record updates, and how did you resolve them?

Additional Info:

• The flow runs with no issues for smaller record sets.
• I’d appreciate any insight or guidance on how to troubleshoot and prevent the flow from timing out when processing larger volumes.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Danish Bhairag2]

Hi @jamesboding ,

Can u try below link n see if it helps

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-forum/rest-execution-time-exceeded-error/m-p/2435441#....

Thanks,

Danish

[jamesboding]

Thanks Danish, unfortunately increasing the REST Attachment API request timeout has not resolved the issue.

[Amit Verma]

Hi @jamesboding 

Refer below links and give this a try :

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-forum/rest-execution-time-exceeded-error/m-p/2435441#....

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0866547

Thanks and Regards

Amit Verma

[jamesboding]

Thanks Amit, unfortunately increasing the REST Attachment API request timeout has not resolved the issue.