Setting timeout in nova.conf for all operations related to nova

I have a specific scenario, where the nova-conductor service is down and therefore on the dashboard a vm deploy request shows "scheduling" state forever.
I also checked that the "timeout" property in nova.conf was set to 300( could that mean seconds?). Therefore, the request should have timed out rather than being hung forever.

What is the best way to set timeout for all operations related to nova?