Product Documentation

Session timeout

A session timeout interval is provided to restrict the time duration for which a session (GUI, CLI, or API) remains active when not in use. For the NetScaler, the system session timeout can be configured at the following levels:

  • User level timeout. Applicable to the specific user.
Interface type Time out configuration
GUI Navigate to System > User Administration > Users, select a user, and edit the user’s timeout setting.
CLI At the command prompt, enter the following command: set system user <name> -timeout <secs>|
  • User group level timeout. Applicable to all users in the
Interface type Time out configuration
GUI Navigate to System > User Administration > Groups, select a group, and edit the group’s timeout setting.
CLI At the command prompt, enter the following command:set system group <groupName> -timeout <secs>|
  • Global system timeout. Applicable to all users and users from groups who do not have a timeout configured.
Interface type Time out configuration
GUI Navigate to System > Settings, click Change global system settings, and update the timeout value as required.
CLI At the command prompt, enter the following command: set system parameter -timeout <secs>

The timeout value specified for a user has the highest priority. If timeout is not configured for the user, the timeout configured for a member group is considered. If timeout is not specified for a group (or the user does not belong to a group), the globally configured timeout value is considered. If timeout is not configured at any level, the default value of 900 seconds is set as the system session timeout.

Additionally, you can specify timeout durations for each of the interfaces you are accessing. However, the timeout value specified for a specific interface is restricted to the timeout value configured for the user that is accessing the interface. For example, let us consider an user ”publicadmin” who has a timeout value of 20 minutes. Now, when accessing an interface, the user must specify a timeout value that is within 20 minutes.

Note: You can choose to keep a check on the minimum and maximum timeout values by specifying the timeout as restricted (in CLI by specifying the restrictedTimeout parameter). This parameter is provided to account for previous NetScaler versions where the timeout value was not restricted.

  • When enabled, the minimum configurable timeout value is 5 minutes (300 secs) and the maximum value is 1 day (86400 secs). If the timeout value is already configured to a value larger than 1 day, when this parameter is enabled, you are prompted to change it. If you do not change the value, the timeout value will automatically be reconfigured to the default timeout duration of 15 minutes (900 secs) on next reboot. The same will happen is the configured timeout value is less than 5 minutes.
  • When disabled, the configured timeout durations are considered.

To configure the timeout duration at each interface:

Interface type Time out configuration
CLI Specify the timeout value on the command prompt by using the following command: set cli mode -timeout <secs>
API Specify the timeout value in the login payload.