VMware Cloud Community
bravo0916
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

How to change the session timeout for VCSA 6.7?

Hi,

I have finished setting up VCSA 6.7.  However, login session is timeout soon.  So I want to change the timeout session time.

I know how to do this on ESXi host, but I have not found where I can change the parameters on VCSA 6.7.

Do you have any ideas?

Regards,

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Alex_Romeo
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Hi,

Follow the settings for the vCenter Server Appliance

Procedure

  1. On the computer where the vSphere Web Client is installed, locate the webclient.properties file.

    The location of this file depends on the operating system on which the vSphere Web Client is installed.

    Operating SystemFile path
    Windows 2008C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client
    vCenter Server Appliance/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/

  1. Edit the file to include the line session.timeout = value where value is the timeout value in minutes. Uncomment the line, if necessary.

    To set the client to never timeout, specify a negative or 0 value for the timeout.

    For example, to set the timeout value to 60 minutes, include the line session.timeout = 60.

  2. Restart the vSphere Web Client service.
    • On Windows operating systems, restart the VMware vSphere Web Client service.
    • On the vCenter Server Appliance, restart the vSphere-client service.

Configure the vSphere Web Client Timeout Value

ARomeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/

View solution in original post

10 Replies
Alex_Romeo
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Hi,

Follow the settings for the vCenter Server Appliance

Procedure

  1. On the computer where the vSphere Web Client is installed, locate the webclient.properties file.

    The location of this file depends on the operating system on which the vSphere Web Client is installed.

    Operating SystemFile path
    Windows 2008C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client
    vCenter Server Appliance/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/

  1. Edit the file to include the line session.timeout = value where value is the timeout value in minutes. Uncomment the line, if necessary.

    To set the client to never timeout, specify a negative or 0 value for the timeout.

    For example, to set the timeout value to 60 minutes, include the line session.timeout = 60.

  2. Restart the vSphere Web Client service.
    • On Windows operating systems, restart the VMware vSphere Web Client service.
    • On the vCenter Server Appliance, restart the vSphere-client service.

Configure the vSphere Web Client Timeout Value

ARomeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/
bravo0916
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Hi, Romeo68

Thank you so much for your answer!  It works!

Regards,

Reply
0 Kudos
DaveMitchell201
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

It seems like you can do this in the html5 UI since the latest update under  vCenter general settings > Timeout settings.  Though i'm not sure it's working for me.  Can anyone confirm?

Reply
0 Kudos
A13xxx
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

thats something totally different to web session timeout.

also the information above only applies to the flash client, you will need to edit the html5 file for session timeout

Reply
0 Kudos
DaveMitchell201
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

OK thanks, what does that vCenter timeout refer to then?

Reply
0 Kudos
DaveMitchell201
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

no woriries, I found it  Configure Timeout Settings

Reply
0 Kudos
Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I'm having the same problem.  I can open the file and view it using vi, but the setting doesn't exist.  Where in the file do you add it?  I have this issue on both of the settings below in the webclient.properties file.

refresh.rate = -1

and

session.timeout = 10

If it doesn't exist, can you put it anywhere or does it need to be in a certain location?  We're running 6.7 U3

Does the CLI requirement get bypassed using the configure timeout settings through the gui?

Reply
0 Kudos
BlackMoonWolf
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Just because I kept looking for the answer to the same question for vCenter 7 and kept landing here... Here is a quick update on what I figured out for VCSA 7.

They seem to have changed file name and path. The old ones (previous comments) no longer exist.

me@mylocal:/mnt/c/Users/me$ ssh root@vcenter1.my.domain

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.0.10400

Type: vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller

root@vcenter1.my.domain's password:

Last login: Thu Jul 23 12:22:28 2020 from <IP>

Connected to service

    * List APIs: "help api list"

    * List Plugins: "help pi list"

    * Launch BASH: "shell"

Command> shell

Shell access is granted to root

root@vcenter1 [ ~ ]# cd /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/

bash: cd: /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/: No such file or directory

The new config path/file is:

root@vcenter1 [ ~ ]# cat /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/webclient.properties | grep session.timeout

# Web client session timeout in minutes, default is 120, i.e. 2 hours

session.timeout = 120


Don't forget to restart the Vsphere UI service after saving the config. (Takes about 30-45 seconds to restart.)

root@vcenter1 [ ~ ]# service-control --restart vsphere-ui

Successfully restarted service vsphere-ui

I used vim and changed it to zero - like before.

Hope this saves time for others.

SimRacerSeymour
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

@BlackMoonWolf 
that seems to work for 6.7 too 
thanks for the clear writeup and steps 👍

BlackMoonWolf
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Any time! Glad to help where I can! And thanks for your feedback as well!

(Pst... Mind dropping a "Kudo" for me if you get a moment? Might come in handy some time I guess. 😁 )

Reply
0 Kudos