diff --git a/config/config.yaml b/config/config.yaml
index 3b259c76bf..7d8d71120d 100644
--- a/config/config.yaml
+++ b/config/config.yaml
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ preprocessorConfig:
   serverConfig:
     serverPort: ${KALDB_PREPROCESSOR_SERVER_PORT:-8086}
     serverAddress: ${KALDB_PREPROCESSOR_SERVER_ADDRESS:-localhost}
-    requestTimeoutMs: ${KALDB_PREPROCESSOR_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS:-5000}
+    requestTimeoutMs: ${KALDB_PREPROCESSOR_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS:-30000}
   upstreamTopics: [${KAKFA_UPSTREAM_TOPICS:-test-topic-in}]
   downstreamTopic: ${KAKFA_DOWNSTREAM_TOPIC:-test-topic}
   preprocessorInstanceCount: ${PREPROCESSOR_INSTANCE_COUNT:-1}
diff --git a/kaldb/src/main/java/com/slack/kaldb/server/OpenSearchBulkIngestApi.java b/kaldb/src/main/java/com/slack/kaldb/server/OpenSearchBulkIngestApi.java
index 7d81997f1c..15c7de67fd 100644
--- a/kaldb/src/main/java/com/slack/kaldb/server/OpenSearchBulkIngestApi.java
+++ b/kaldb/src/main/java/com/slack/kaldb/server/OpenSearchBulkIngestApi.java
@@ -11,8 +11,15 @@
 import static com.slack.kaldb.preprocessor.PreprocessorService.filterValidDatasetMetadata;
 import static com.slack.kaldb.preprocessor.PreprocessorService.sortDatasetsOnThroughput;
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonInclude;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.MapperFeature;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.json.JsonMapper;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.AbstractService;
 import com.linecorp.armeria.common.HttpResponse;
+import com.linecorp.armeria.common.HttpStatus;
+import com.linecorp.armeria.common.MediaType;
 import com.linecorp.armeria.server.annotation.Blocking;
 import com.linecorp.armeria.server.annotation.Post;
 import com.slack.kaldb.elasticsearchApi.BulkIngestResponse;
@@ -39,6 +46,7 @@
 import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.AuthorizationException;
 import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.OutOfOrderSequenceException;
 import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.ProducerFencedException;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.errors.TimeoutException;
 import org.opensearch.action.index.IndexRequest;
 import org.opensearch.common.Strings;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
@@ -69,6 +77,14 @@ public class OpenSearchBulkIngestApi extends AbstractService {
 
   private final ReentrantLock lockTransactionalProducer = new ReentrantLock();
 
+  private static final ObjectMapper objectMapper =
+      JsonMapper.builder()
+          // sort alphabetically for easier test asserts
+          .configure(MapperFeature.SORT_PROPERTIES_ALPHABETICALLY, true)
+          // don't serialize null values or empty maps
+          .serializationInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_EMPTY)
+          .build();
+
   @Override
   protected void doStart() {
     try {
@@ -186,11 +202,22 @@ public HttpResponse addDocument(String bulkRequest) {
         }
       }
       BulkIngestResponse response = produceDocuments(docs);
-      return HttpResponse.ofJson(response);
+      LOG.info("Return response ");
+      return HttpResponse.of(
+          HttpStatus.OK, MediaType.JSON_UTF_8, objectMapper.writeValueAsString(response));
+      /// return HttpResponse.ofJson(response);
     } catch (Exception e) {
       LOG.error("Request failed ", e);
-      BulkIngestResponse response = new BulkIngestResponse(0, 0, e.getMessage());
-      return HttpResponse.ofJson(INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, response);
+      try {
+        BulkIngestResponse response = new BulkIngestResponse(0, 0, e.getMessage());
+        return HttpResponse.of(
+            HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR,
+            MediaType.JSON_UTF_8,
+            objectMapper.writeValueAsString(response));
+      } catch (JsonProcessingException ex) {
+        return HttpResponse.of(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, MediaType.JSON_UTF_8, "{}");
+      }
+      // return HttpResponse.ofJson(INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, response);
     }
   }
 
@@ -219,14 +246,23 @@ public BulkIngestResponse produceDocuments(Map<String, List<Trace.Span>> indexDo
       lockTransactionalProducer.lock();
       try {
         kafkaProducer.beginTransaction();
+        LOG.info("calling beginTransaction()");
         for (Trace.Span doc : indexDoc.getValue()) {
-
           ProducerRecord<String, byte[]> producerRecord =
               new ProducerRecord<>(
                   preprocessorConfig.getDownstreamTopic(), partition, index, doc.toByteArray());
           kafkaProducer.send(producerRecord);
         }
+        LOG.info("begin commitTransaction()");
         kafkaProducer.commitTransaction();
+        LOG.info("end commitTransaction()");
+      } catch (TimeoutException te) {
+        LOG.error("Commit transaction timeout", te);
+        // the commitTransaction waits till "max.block.ms" after which it will timeout
+        // in that case we cannot cause abort exception because that throws the following error
+        // "Cannot attempt operation `abortTransaction` because the previous
+        // call to `commitTransaction` timed out and must be retried"
+        //
       } catch (ProducerFencedException | OutOfOrderSequenceException | AuthorizationException e) {
         // We can't recover from these exceptions, so our only option is to close the producer and
         // exit.
@@ -268,6 +304,8 @@ private KafkaProducer<String, byte[]> createKafkaTransactionProducer(String tran
     props.put("key.serializer", "org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringSerializer");
     props.put("value.serializer", "org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer");
     props.put("transactional.id", transactionId);
+    props.put("max.block.ms", "25000");
+    props.put("compression.type", "snappy");
     props.put("linger.ms", 250);
     return new KafkaProducer<>(props);
   }