Timeout While Upgrading Network in Multi-site

Question

I updated from 3.8 to 3.8.1 on a Multi-site setup. The initial upgrade was fine.

When I clicked "Upgrade Network" ... It fails after some time and prompts me with:

Your server may not be able to connect to sites running on it. Error message: Operation timed out after 120000 milliseconds with 0 bytes received.

or

Your server may not be able to connect to sites running on it. Error message: connect() timed out!

The upgrade to 3.8 went just fine. However, the upgrade from 3.8 to 3.8.1 doesn't let me "Upgrade Network".

Any idea why that would happen? I tried deactivating all plugins just in-case they might be interfering with the network upgrade. The problem still exists.

Answer 1

I was using WordPress Multisite for multiple TLDs.

Example:

• domain.com
• another-domain.org
• sample-domain.net

The primary site was domain.com which was a valid registered domain name with proper DNS resolution.

another-domain.org and sample-domain.net had both expired domain name registrations. A/K/A - The DNS wasn't resolving properly.

If you've got a WordPress Multisite setup similarly to mine, where you have multiple TLD's in your network. Consider firstly verifying that all of the domains in your network are indeed still valid and registered.

ping domain.com or whois domain.com

If all of the domain names in your network are indeed registered, double check your DNS records to insure proper configuration.

Please also remember that in most cases, altering DNS records can sometimes takes upwards of 72 hours to fully propagate world-wide.

Solution for me was: Validate DNS records.

P.S. Another idea may include checking your firewall configuration(s).