https://github.com/request/request - request timed out before configured timeout time

[Roth Jianping]

I use https://github.com/request/request ("request": "^2.46.0") for outgoing HTTP requests and I specified a timeout as an option (in 20seconds):

var options = {
    uri : xxx
    followRedirect : true,
    maxRedirects : 10,
    method : xxx,
    encoding : 'utf8',
    body : xxx,
    timeout : 20000
};

However, the TCP connection times out in 7 second. This happens only when the server is under load.

I am attaching an image of the TCP dump; my IP is 10.26.97.20. 

I need help to figure out what's going on.

Thank you,

Jianping Roth