"The wait operation timed out" when running SQL Server in Hyper-V

I'm running SQL Server (2012) on a Hyper-V instance. It has plenty of resources and 25% reserved of the total resources, the VHD is placed on a very fast SSD drive for quick response times.

Every now and then when the applications that use the SQL Server haven't been accessed for a while they get the error "The wait operation timed out". When reloading or retrying to access the database it seems to have been "waken up" and is as fast as ever.

Is there any way to ensure that this soft sleep mode doesn't occur on this kind of environment?

Added

Exception Details: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The wait operation timed out


Try to execute this command:

exec sp_updatestats

It, incredibly, resolved the problem.

The code above its the error before the command has been executed.

[Win32Exception (0x80004005): The wait operation timed out]

[SqlException (0x80131904): Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.]
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action`1 wrapCloseInAction) +1742110
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action`1 wrapCloseInAction) +5279619
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj, Boolean callerHasConnectionLock, Boolean asyncClose) +242
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.TryRun(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj, Boolean& dataReady) +1434
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.TryConsumeMetaData() +61
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData() +90
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString) +365
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async, Int32 timeout, Task& task, Boolean asyncWrite) +1355
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, TaskCompletionSource`1 completion, Int32 timeout, Task& task, Boolean asyncWrite) +175
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method) +53
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method) +134
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +41
   System.Data.Common.DbCommand.System.Data.IDbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +10
   System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.FillInternal(DataSet dataset, DataTable[] datatables, Int32 startRecord, Int32 maxRecords, String srcTable, IDbCommand command, CommandBehavior behavior) +140
   System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.Fill(DataSet dataSet, Int32 startRecord, Int32 maxRecords, String srcTable, IDbCommand command, CommandBehavior behavior) +316
   System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter.Fill(DataSet dataSet, String srcTable) +86
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SqlDataSourceView.ExecuteSelect(DataSourceSelectArguments arguments) +1482
   System.Web.UI.DataSourceView.Select(DataSourceSelectArguments arguments, DataSourceViewSelectCallback callback) +21
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataBoundControl.PerformSelect() +138
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.BaseDataBoundControl.DataBind() +30
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.BaseDataBoundControl.EnsureDataBound() +79
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.BaseDataBoundControl.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +22
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +83
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +155
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +155
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +155
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +155
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +974

I had the same issue. Running exec sp_updatestats did work sometimes, but not always. I decided to use the NOLOCK statement in my queries to speed up the queries. Just add NOLOCK after your FROM clause, e.g.:

SELECT clicks.entryURL, clicks.entryTime, sessions.userID
FROM sessions, clicks WITH (NOLOCK)
WHERE sessions.sessionID = clicks.sessionID AND clicks.entryTime > DATEADD(day, -1, GETDATE())

Read the full article here.