what is the prefect timeout feature

Question

< Marvin> what is the prefect timeout feature

Marvin · Answer

I ve done some research and it looks like the timeout feature is a setting that allows Prefect to set a limit on how long a flow task and database connection can run before timing out It s specified using the `timeout seconds` keyword argument and is measured in seconds If a task exceeds the duration a timeout exception will be raised and it will be marked as failed so this is a useful feature to keep your flows running efficiently The timeout feature is deprecated as of February 2023 and users should use the `PREFECT API DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` instead You can find more information about this feature in the Prefect Docs and the prefect settings Prefect Docs

Marvin · Answer

It looks like Prefect officially deprecated the timeout feature due to a set of outdated problems it presented Mainly the timeout was not an effective way of determining when a task had hung because there may be cases where the task is legitimately taking a long time to complete but is within the timeout limit This can lead to some false positives when determining if a task has failed The `PREFECT API DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` feature is a better way to determine if a task is hung or not so it is the recommended approach going forward That said I understand if you are familiar with the timeout feature and would like to stick with that since it may still work in some cases But I would recommend looking into the `PREFECT API DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` to get the most out of Prefect

Taylor Curran · Answer

< Marvin> what is the `PREFECT API DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` feature from Prefect

Marvin · Answer

Ah yes I understand the question now The `PREFECT API DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` feature from Prefect is a setting that determines if the database should be upgraded upon application creation If set to `True` the database will be upgraded on application creation and if set to `False` the database will need to be upgraded manually It s important to note that this feature is the replacement for the previously deprecated `PREFECT ORION DATABASE MIGRATE ON START` setting It is also a module attribute setting and the CLI interface has been updated to include new commands and revise an existing command to leverage these migrations The commands are as follows `prefect orion reset db` is now `prefect orion database reset` `prefect orion database upgrade` runs upgrade migrations and `prefect orion database downgrade` runs downgrade migrations For more information about this feature and the other features from Prefect you can refer to the Prefect Docs and the prefect settings Prefect Docs You can also check out the release notes for the various Prefect versions in their GitHub repository I hope this answers your question Let me know if you need any more information