# Large file upload times out, but still uploads
**URL:** https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482
**Category:** Get Help
**Created:** [August 21, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482 "2025-08-21T15:56:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bviviano](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/bviviano)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482/1 "2025-08-21T15:56:41Z")
We’re using OnDemand 3.1.14 and setup `/etc/ood/config/nginx_stage.yml` with
`nginx_file_upload_max: ‘42949680000’` and `/etc/ood/config/apps/dashboard/env` with `FILE_UPLOAD_MAX=‘42949680000`. When I upload a file larger then about 22GB (smaller then that works fine), I get an error that the file failed to upload. I can watch `/var/tmp` get the data and then have Rack start to copy it over to `/tmp` and then fail and things clean up.
I found this discussion:
> [@Fails to upload of 3G +file](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/fails-to-upload-of-3g-file/1820):
>
> I’m trying to upload a file 4g or bigger and it fails I’ve updated nginx\_file\_upload\_max: ‘12884901888’ (12g) I remapped pun\_tmp\_root to same filesystem where files will are being uploaded. pun\_tmp\_root: ‘/home/ondemand/%{user}’ Watching the upload I see tmp file grows to the size of the upload and a copy operation starts copying it to its intended target. Once filesize get around 1.7g it stops and the original temp file zeros out than starts growing again. Any thoughts suggestions to corr…
And changed `Timeout` and `ProxyTimeout` to `900` in Apache `/etc/httpd/conf.d/ood-portal.conf`, restarted `httpd`, and while I still get the failure dialog:
The file does in fact upload and show up in the directory I told it too. I’ve run `md5sum` on both the source and destination files, and they match, so it is uploading the entire file, correctly, even though OOD reports it failed.
Therefore, I am guessing there is some other timeout value I need to increase to match the Apache `Timeout` and `Proxytimeout` `900` setting, likely inside NGINX that tells it to wait longer before reporting the failed upload, but I can’t find any information on that.
Suggestions? Thanks!
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### Author:  [@travert](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/travert)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482/2 "2025-08-21T18:06:15Z")
Sorry you’re running into this.
Uploads in OOD aren’t really designed for very big files, so once the file gets to up to and beyond that 20GB size, things can get unreliable because of how Passenger/Rack and temporary storage are handled during the transer.
We recommend using a dedicated file transfer solution (like Globus) for data that big. OOD integrates with Globus and other providers for exactly this reason, since those tools are built to reliably handle very big transfers with better integrity checking of the data.
For smaller files, tweaking Apache/NGINX timeouts can help, but for \>20GB transfers the best path is very likely a tool made specifically for that.
You can find the entry for Globus integration on this page (just `ctrl-f` for globus):
> **[ondemand.d/\*.yml files — Open OnDemand 4.0.0 documentation](https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/latest/reference/files/ondemand-d-ymls.html)**
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### Author:  [@bviviano](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/bviviano)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 11:50am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482/3 "2025-08-25T11:50:32Z")
Thanks for providing that information. It’s good to have an upper size limit for the portal transfers. For anything larger then that we’ll direct our users to an alternate solution.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 11:51am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/large-file-upload-times-out-but-still-uploads/4482/4 "2026-02-21T11:51:16Z")
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