Failed to update site content type - Column Order due to aborted thread

I encountered error when updating Column Ordering of a site content type on a root web with 6000 sub-webs via web browser:

http://SharePoint2010.intranet.abc.com/_layouts/ChangeFieldOrder.aspx?ctype=0x01007654335D3BA08148A3410EAA36350F99

I then checked the ULS log on the Web Front End server and found the following error:

System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted. 
 at SNIReadSync(SNI_Conn* , SNI_Packet** , Int32 ) 
 at SNINativeMethodWrapper.SNIReadSync(SafeHandle pConn, IntPtr& packet, Int32 timeout) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadSni(DbAsyncResult asyncResult, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadNetworkPacket() 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadBuffer() 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.ReadByte() 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ConsumeMetaData() 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData() 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method) 
 at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) 
 at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SqlSession.ExecuteReader(SqlCommand command, CommandBehavior behavior, SqlQueryData monitoringData, Boolean retryForDeadLock) 
 at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSqlClient.ExecuteQueryInternal(Boolean retryfordeadlock) 
 at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSqlClient.ExecuteQuery(Boolean retryfordeadlock

Apparently the thread was aborted due to HTTP execution timeout.

To fix this error, I edited C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\web.config file as follows and it took effect immediately without restart:

executionTimeout was increased from 360 to 1080 to fix the error

I hope this article will help any SharePoint developer or administrator out there who encounters similar error when working with a large site collection.