Idle time limits on the Hosted Application Service

Idle time limits on the Hosted Application Service for SIMS disconnecting users

Updated December 2015

This article covers the Idle session limits on the hosted application service” which is the length of time a session will receive no input from the user by either the keyboard or the mouse before a session is logged off.

You may also be interested in our article covering the screensaver timeout, that is the length of time a session will receive no input from the user by either the keyboard or the mouse before a password is required to unlock the session: http://faq.scomis.org/kb8433/

Problem

You will be logged out of the service and possibly lose unsaved work if your session is IDLE for over 2 1/2 hours.

Reason:

This behaviour is intended and by design

Explanation:

These policies have been set through customer feedback and our efforts to strike a balance between delivering the best experience to users using the service, easy access to the service & keeping the prices down.

Both Idle and Disconnected users on the service are still using server resources that could be used by active users so we want to ensure that active users get as much of the Server processing power as possible whilst providing a reliable and smooth service for everyone.

We still have the problem of users who rather than disconnecting in the correct manner through Focus & “Exit” in SIMS then choosing “Yes” when prompted either close the Remote Desktop Windows or log out of their local computer leaving idle disconnected sessions on the Scomis servers.

To manage this we apply the following policies:

• Users who are Logged into the service and idle will be disconnected after 2 hours of inactivity.
• Users who are Disconnected will be logged out after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Therefore if a session is IDLE for 2 hours it will be disconnected.  A user wishing to resume an IDLE session before the 2 hour policy takes effect with only have to enter their password to resume working.

Once an IDLE session has become DISCONNECTED it remains in that state for 30 minutes before being logged off.

To resume a DISCONNECTED session a user will need to log back into the service as normal where they should find their programs and any unsaved work remain available.

Once a DISCONNECTED session has been logged off any unsaved work will be lost. There is a total of 2 1/2 hours idle time before this happens.

For example if you login the service at 9am but do not use the service, your session will automatically disconnect at 11am, you will receive a message 2 minutes before you are about to be disconnected.  If you do not re-login to the service during 11am until 11:30am all programs that you had opened will be closed and your session will be logged off.

Definitions:

Idle User – a user who is logged onto the Hosted Application Service but is not using their session, i.e. no keyboard or mouse input is being sent..

Disconnected User – a user who is logged onto the Hosted Application Service but they are no longer actively connected, their programs remain open and if they log back into the service they can resume working.  A session may become disconnected for any of the following reasons:

• The idle time limit of 2 hours discussed in this article reached.
• The users manually ends their session instead of logging out properly through “Focus > Exit” in SIMS.
• The users own computer crashed/restarts
• The users internet connection fails during their session
• Scomis’ internet connection fails during their session

Last Reviewed: 16/12/2015