PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 3600 seconds exceeded in XXX

Error Type: 
PHP
Severity: 
Critical
Description: 

This error tells us that the server was asked to undertake a task that did not complete within the expected timeframe. Therefore, to avoid  killing the server's performance for an extended period of time the request was killed in order to free up resources.

Cause: 

Our favourite places to start looking for the cause of this error message are:

  • Pages that are driven by Views that have a very large number of rows being output per page.
  • Cron initiated tasks that take of manipulating large datasets

Expedite

Our aim is to add enough detailed information to each of the Drupal error messages that Drupal developers will be able to fix their own problems. This exercise will take some time to complete, at the last count we had almost 700 error messages in the system.

If your site is suffering from this error message please contact us and ask us to expedite the solution to this error and we will do our best to add a solution as soon as possible.