title: Behaviour of default_search_timeout on elasticsearch
body: <p>I am trying to understand how the following elastic-search setting works:</p>
  
  <pre><code>search.default_search_timeout
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to configure this value on a cluster but I couldn't actually limit down to a desired level the time a query takes. The timeout occurs and a query gets stopped but still lasts longer than expected. It seems that there is some relation of <code>default_search_timeout</code> value to the actual occurring timeout but it doesn't feel like a linear relation, or anyway I don't understand how it works. I got <code>2m</code> lasting queries for a <code>15s</code> <code>default_search_timeout</code> configuration.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas on how to understand better this topic?</p>
  
  <p><strong>All I need is to restrict a long-lasting kibana query from overloading my elastic-search cluster.</strong></p>
  
  <p>Other ideas would be much appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Note: Using elasticsearch version <code>2.2.0</code> and applied the setting via REST api (in the transient group)</p>