Exception thrown while creating Smart Docs using JSON

[#1]

If the following error is thrown while creating Smart Docs there are several steps to try

PDOException: SQLSTATE[08S01]: Communication link failure: 1153 Got a
packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes: INSERT INTO
{batch} (bid, timestamp, token, batch) VALUES (:db_insert_placeholder_0,
:db_insert_placeholder_1...

Firstly you should update /etc/my.cnf by increasing max_allowed_packet to 100MB then restart mysql db.

If it still happens you should clear the cache with drush and truncate cache_update table.

A last option is to disable the update.module entirely.

If anyone has any other tips for resolving this issue please add to the comments.

[#2]

When you update /etc/my.cnf, make sure that the max_allowed_packet directive is placed under the [mysqld] section at the top, rather than under [mysqld_safe] at the bottom, then restart mysqld. You can verify that mysqld is using the correct value by running the following query:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_allowed_packet';