Setting the Session Timeout Limit

Once a session starts, it remains active until the client application specifically issues a disconnect instruction to the server (which forces an immediate termination) or the session "times out" due to inactivity, whichever comes first.

If a session is idle for a long period of time, it usually means that the client is no longer active or that the connection between client and the server has been lost. The server constantly monitors for inactive sessions, and terminates sessions that are idle for more than the allowed period of time. If the server did not take steps to clear out such sessions, they would remain active indefinitely, wasting valuable server resources.

4. Under Session in the Session Timeout field, enter maximum number of minutes an idle session can remain active (in other words, how long you want the server to wait before terminating an idle session).

To set the Session Timeout parameter appropriately, you must be familiar with the clients that use your server. If your clients are all Java programs, you can usually reduce the timeout value to 6 or 7 minutes. You may need to experiment with this setting to find the appropriate value for your site. By default, the server uses a timeout limit of 10 minutes. This is an appropriate value for most sites. However, you may have to increase this value if your clients normally have lengthy delays (greater than 10 minutes) between successive requests.