SQL Server: "CREATE DATABASE" query timeout

Question

I have a .Net application that is creating a new database. The current code is working great in development environment and in many production environments. So I am confident the code is fine.

However, we have a specific instance where the user is getting a timeout while the application is running the following SQL Command:

CREATE DATABASE NameOfDatabase

The code is pretty simple, and as you can see it uses the default timeout period for SQL commands which is 30 seconds:

using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
    string query = "CREATE DATABASE " + databaseName;

    SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(query, connection);

    connection.Open();
    command.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

Note: our log file shows the error occurs on ExecuteNonQuery which suggests that this is NOT a timeout while opening the connection, and rather during query execution.

The specific .Net error is:

Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

With a line from the stack trace to show my reasoning on it being a command timeout (not a connection timeout):

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()

Note: This error information is obtained using a try/catch around the code which was left out of the question for simplicity as it is not relevant to the problem.

Questions

1. Under any reasonable (or even uncommon) situations, should a CREATE DATABASE query take this long to run and still be successful?

2. If it shouldn't take that long, what are the common causes for a timeout? (where should I be looking to debug the problem?)

Answer 1

I do not have enough rep points to comment. To get the specific error wrap command.ExecuteNonQuery(); in a try catch. at least you can get the specific error that is occurring. Also use using with SqlCommand that will dispose that object. Connection State

using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
    string query = "CREATE DATABASE " + databaseName;

    using(SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(query, connection))
    {
        try
        {
            connection.Open();
            if (connection.State == ConnectionState.Open)
                command.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
        }
    }               
}

Maybe this TechNet article can help? Troubleshooting: Timeout Expired