[Koha] Patron import bug or expectations too high?

[Chris Hobbs]

We've about 13,000 students that we want to refresh regularly from our
student information system. We've done so using import_borrowers.pl, but
since upgrading from 3.0 to a released 3.2 up through a very recent git
build (3.05.00.008) we've been unable to update our patrons using this tool.
We always get Apache's Gateway Timeout error after 10 minutes.

If we import only new patrons (the "Ignore this one, keep the existing one"
is selected), then the import succeeds even though the import file is still
13,000 records long. It's only when we choose the "Overwrite the existing
one with this" option that it stalls out. If I break it up into smaller
chunks (~1000 student patrons) it works.

So am I asking too much? Should I just figure out how to split my import
file up into smaller batches?

Are there adjustments to Apache's config I could safely make to try to
increase the timeout? I tried making some changes to Apache to resolve this
in the past that seemed to make it very unstable, so I reverted those. It's
been months, and I do not recall what I changed - bad sysadmin!.

Or is there something wrong with import_borrowers.pl that could be causing
it to take too long?

Thanks for your suggestions!

-- 
Chris Hobbs
Director, Technology
New Haven Unified School District
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