Question

What are the cases when timeout occurs in SqlConnection.Open()?

On one of our IIS boxes 10 seconds after AppProcess was recycled the following exception appeared:

Type : System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
    Message : Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
    Source : .Net SqlClient Data Provider
    Help link : 
    Errors : System.Data.SqlClient.SqlErrorCollection
    Class : 11
    LineNumber : 0
    Number : -2
    Procedure : 
    Server : XXX
    State : 0
    ErrorCode : -2146232060
    Data : System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
    TargetSite : Void OnError(System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Boolean)
    Stack Trace :    at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadSniError(TdsParserStateObject stateObj, UInt32 error)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadSni(DbAsyncResult asyncResult, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadNetworkPacket()
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ConsumePreLoginHandshake(Boolean encrypt, Boolean trustServerCert, Boolean& marsCapable)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Connect(ServerInfo serverInfo, SqlInternalConnectionTds connHandler, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int64 timerExpire, Boolean encrypt, Boolean trustServerCert, Boolean integratedSecurity, SqlConnection owningObject)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.AttemptOneLogin(ServerInfo serverInfo, String newPassword, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int64 timerExpire, SqlConnection owningObject)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.LoginWithFailover(Boolean useFailoverHost, String primaryHost, String failoverHost, String newPassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance, SqlConnection owningObject, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, Int64 timerStart)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.OpenLoginEnlist(SqlConnection owningObject, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, String newPassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds..ctor(DbConnectionPoolIdentity identity, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, Object providerInfo, String newPassword, SqlConnection owningObject, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningConnection)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreatePooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnectionOptions options)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.CreateObject(DbConnection owningObject)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.UserCreateRequest(DbConnection owningObject)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
       at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open()
       at NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider.GetConnection()
       at NHibernate.Impl.SessionFactoryImpl.OpenConnection()

According to MSDN Number property contains SQL Engine Error. But I was not able to find error -2 in master.dbo.sysmessages.
The interval between operation that tried to open the connection was about 3.5 seconds. The connection timeout has not been explicitly changed.

After 2 seconds similar exception appeared for the same thread, but in the different place. The call stack was much shorter:

    Type : System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Message : Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
Source : .Net SqlClient Data Provider
Help link : 
Errors : System.Data.SqlClient.SqlErrorCollection
Class : 11
LineNumber : 0
Number : -2
Procedure : 
Server : XXX
State : 0
ErrorCode : -2146232060
Data : System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
TargetSite : Void OnError(System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Boolean)
Stack Trace :    at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open()
   at NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider.GetConnection()
   at NHibernate.Impl.SessionFactoryImpl.OpenConnection()

The interval between operation that tries to communicate to DB and the error is less than second.

Questions:
1. How to reproduce such errors?
2. Why call stack is shorter in the second case?

Answer 1

Seems like issue was caused by mirroring. The same situation is described here