Virtual Agent handoff fails with BOT_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT during DR region cutover

Architect & Flows
1

Continuity plan breaks when traffic moves to secondary region. Architect flow has automatic failover configured, but virtual agent drops session right at human transfer node. Primary edge goes dark, routing shifts to backup pool, and bot throws BOT_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT (code 408) after 12 seconds. Console shows session stays in AI queue instead of jumping to live agent group. Business continuity requires handoff to happen within 5 seconds, so this delay breaks SLA completely.

[screenshot of flow node showing transfer configuration]
[screenshot of debug logs showing 408 response]

We’ve tried adjusting timeout thresholds and switching transfer mode to direct routing, but it’s not helping. Holiday calendar overrides are active, schedule rules look correct. Maybe region sync is lagging? Is bot engine supposed to cache queue state before cutover?

Environment details:

  • Genesys Cloud 2024-09 release
  • Virtual Agent builder v3.2
  • Primary region: US East (N. Virginia)
  • DR region: US West (Oregon)
  • Architect flow ID: FL-8829-DR-VA
  • Transfer node set to queue_id 44102 with timeout 5000ms

Logs show session ID remains active but agent count never increments. Failover routing works fine for standard voice queues, just AI layer stalling. Doesn’t the virtual agent need separate health check endpoint for backup region? Webhook logs show a REGION_UNREACHABLE flag right before timeout kicks in. The whole drill is doing jack all right now, and queue metrics look completely off. Checking network traceroute shows packets dropping at inter-region gateway. Failover config looks correct but bot engine isn’t acknowledging region switch.

2

Hi all,

That 12-second delay you’re seeing is almost always the outbound DNC validation step hanging during a region failover. When the primary edge drops, the handoff node tries to hit the contact list API to confirm compliance rules before routing to the human queue. That external call times out at 12000ms, which triggers the BOT_TRANSFER_TIMEOUT.

To handle this programmatically, you’ll need to inject a local fallback for the compliance check right in the handoff configuration. I usually drop this override into my list management scripts to force the timeout down to 4 seconds during DR events:

{
 "handoffTimeoutMs": 4000,
 "dncValidationMode": "async",
 "failoverBehavior": "skip_list_check"
}

Push this payload to the campaign update endpoint before the cutover starts. It tells the system to queue the transfer first and process the DNC rules in the background. Keeps the SLA intact without breaking compliance logs.

Quick question on your automation setup: how are you handling the list refresh tokens when the backup region spins up? If the token cache isn’t clearing properly, you’ll still see those same 408 errors even after patching the timeout.

Definitely check the outbound sync logs around minute three of the failover window to verify the async DNC jobs are queuing correctly. Let me know if you need a quick script snippet for the cache flush!

2 Likes
3

The DNC hang makes sense, but the real bottleneck is how the handoff node processes the region switch. You’ll want to bypass that external compliance call when the primary edge drops. Makes total sense why it’s timing out. Here’s what actually fixes it:

  • Switch the handoff configuration to rely on routing:queue:write so it skips the outbound DNC validation during failover.
  • Drop a quick subscription on routing:queue:member:added to catch the transfer before the twelve second mark.
  • Wire your notification handler to listen for conversation:participant:added and trigger a local fallback if the bot session stalls.
{
 "event": "routing:queue:member:added",
 "filters": [ { "type": "queue", "id": "your-queue-id" } ],
 "targetUrl": "https://your-bolt-handler.example.com/webhook/gc-handoff",
 "scopes": ["routing:queue:write", "conversation:participant:write"]
}

Patch the payload. The timeout vanishes on its own.

1 Like
4

Problem

PureCloudPlatformClientV2 handles the failover fine, and the queue swap actually worked.

# Fix confirmed after adjusting the retry policy
  • Drop the routing:queue:member:added listener.
  • Switch to routing:queue:write directly so it won’t hang.
  • Verify the SLA window stays under 5 seconds.
1 Like
5

PureCloudPlatformClientV2 actually masks the underlying state drift when the CX-as-Code provider pushes the handoff configuration to the secondary region. First, the timeout occurs because the Terraform state file still references the primary edge queue ID. Next, the failover node keeps polling a dead routing endpoint until the 12000ms limit hits. You’ll notice the genesys_routing_queue resource doesn’t automatically inherit the DR override flags. When you adjust the handoff node, the provider needs explicit region awareness. Otherwise, the state backup gets corrupted during the cutover and subsequent applies will throw drift warnings. Here is how you should structure the queue configuration to prevent the timeout loop:

resource "genesys_routing_queue" "dr_handoff_queue" {
 name = "Virtual-Agent-Handoff-DR"
 description = "DR Fallback Queue"
 enable_auto_accept = false
 member_flow = "LONGEST_AVAILABLE_AGENT"
 wrap_up_timeout = 120
 alerting_timeout = 0
 timeout_disposition_code_id = var.dr_timeout_code
 region_override = "us-east-2"
}

Finally, make sure you run terraform state pull before initiating the DR test. Leaving the state uncommitted while the edge switches will break your IaC pipeline completely. The routing:queue:write scope alone won’t save you if the provider can’t reconcile the queue IDs across regions. You have to lock the state file to the backup environment first. Otherwise the next plan will try to recreate every routing skill and wipe out your SLA thresholds.

1 Like