While deveoping a site (using Forms authentication and InProc sessionstate) a frequently run into a scenario where I lose the variables stored in Session (such as Session["myVar"]), but my auth-session remains valid.
This results in some wierd behavior on my site.
Why is this happening and what can I do to prevent diffrent lifecycles for my auth and my session variables?
In Asp.Net a Session and "Being logged in" are not the same thing.
Both are (usually) controlled by cookies, but the cookies are separate.
To control how long a Session is kept alive, please see answer by Jonas T.
To control how long a user remains logged in, you can use the timeOut on the <forms ... /> element:
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="~/Account/Login.aspx" timeout="120" slidingExpiration="true"/>
</authentication>
...
</system.web>
To get rid of your problem you should make sure that the session timeout is at least as long as the forms authentication timeout.
If you are allowing persisted cookies in forms authentication ("Remember me"), then there are no gurantees. In that case you just have to set the session timeout to "long enough" according to some criteria/specification.
Edit: Also check the settings on your application pool (under IIS) where the site is deployed. And specifically check what the "Idle Time-out" is. If this is set low (default value is 20 minutes I think), then IIS will shut down the application pool if no request have come in during that time. That (of course) terminates whatever in-proc sessions existed.
Forms Authentication stores its ticket in Cookie at client side or URL(if cookie is disabled).
Session variables are stored at server side with expired time. If you want your variable to be more persistent use cookie.
You can extend your session time out in web config. This is for 20 minutes.
<configuration>
<system.web>
<sessionState timeout="20"></sessionState>
</system.web>
</configuration>
You said that you are working with ASP.NET Form authentication/authorization then I'd suggest you to use Profile instead of Session state.
In ASP.NET you can set the session timeout in several places:
web.config:
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="Login" defaultUrl="Index" timeout="480"/>
</authentication>
<sessionState timeout="480" />
And in IIS.
When is which session timeout used?
<forms loginUrl="Login" defaultUrl="Index" timeout="480"/>
is the timeout for the authentication cookie, this means that after login you have 480 minutes till you get redirected to the login page again (if you use sliding expiration it changes a bit).
<sessionState timeout="480" />
is the timeout for the Session object, so if you have something stored into Session["object"], this will become unavailable after 480 minutes of inactivity.
if the session timeout is smaller than the login timeout, you could get a NullReferenceException when accessing Session["object"].
As you haven't stated what version of IIS you're using but assuming this is IIS7 or above.
Essentially if you define an explicit value in your config this is what will be used. In IIS 7 or above setting this value through the IIS console will also update your config file, in IIS 6 it uses the metabase.
Setting the value explictly in your own websites config file will always override that set in IIS unless delegation has been disabled on the feature within applicationHost.config which will throw an error if you set it locally.
You can test this by creating an empty ASP.NET website and deploy to IIS. You'll see there is no setting for session timeout in it's config file so you'll be using the server setting. Update the session timeout to a value other than the default in IIS and you'll now see a the specific section has been added to your web.config file so this now the used value.
More info on settings and config management in IIS7+ here
Dear All
I have a website hosted on the cloud server and I have added
sessionState mode ="InProc" timeout="1440" />
in the web.config file. But the session gets timed out in 1-2 minutes.
I think the web.config settings should override the IIS settings.But it's not working. Is there solution for this?
thanks in advance
Anoop George Thomas
With InProc (in-memory) session state, you will lose session if any of the following conditions occur:
IIS worker process restarts
User is transferred to another worker process on the same webserver, or another webserver
IIS restarts
I would verify that you are not seeing any strange restart behavior on IIS, or if you are bouncing around in your cloud environment.
If your using Forms authentication this has a timeout as well.
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms timeout="20"/>
</authentication>
I have user log in logic in my web app. after successful log in, i set the user id in Session, so i can keep track of the user. and in my master file page load event, i do
Session.timeout = 60
so session should timeout after an hour. but my session times out at around 10 - 20 minutes. What am i doing wrong? i bet it's obvious.
It is probably due to your IIS settings. In IIS the default timeout for a session is 20 min.
Use the IIS manager to change it.
Have you tried setting it in your web.config instead of server side code?
<configuration>
<system.web>
<sessionState
mode="InProc"
cookieless="true"
timeout="60" />
</system.web>
</configuration>
If your app is crashing and re-starting at all, your sessions will be lost.
I'd setup some Health Monitoring and setup a notification for your app re-starting. If it happen more often than your 20 minutes then something is crashing your app.
I am running an ASP.NET 2.0 application in IIS 6.0. I want session timeout to be 60 minutes rather than the default 20 minutes. I have done the following
Set <sessionState timeout="60"></sessionState>
in web.config.
Set session timeout to 60 minutes in IIS manager/Web site properties/ASP.NET configuration settings.
Set idle timeout to 60 minutes in application pool properties/performance.
I am still getting a session timeout at 20 minutes. Is there anything else I need to do?
Are you using Forms authentication?
Forms authentication uses it own value for timeout (30 min. by default). A forms authentication timeout will send the user to the login page with the session still active. This may look like the behavior your app gives when session times out making it easy to confuse one with the other.
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms timeout="50"/>
</authentication>
<sessionState timeout="60" />
</system.web>
Setting the forms timeout to something less than the session timeout can give the user a window in which to log back in without losing any session data.
I don't know about web.config or IIS.
But I believe that from C# code you can do it like
Session.Timeout = 60; // 60 is number of minutes
Use the following code block in your web.config file.
Here default session time out is 80 mins.
<system.web>
<sessionState mode="InProc" cookieless="false" timeout="80" />
</system.web>
Use the following link for Session Timeout with popup alert message.
Session Timeout Example
FYI:The above examples is done with devexpress popup control so you need to customize/replace devexpress popup control with normal popup control. If your using devexpress no need to customize
In my situation, it was Application Pool. It is set to restart when idle for xx mins. When I set it to not restart, it seems to use value from Web Config.
Do you have anything in machine.config that might be taking effect? Setting the session timeout in web.config should override any settings in IIS or machine.config, however, if you have a web.config file somewhere in a subfolder in your application, that setting will override the one in the root of your application.
Also, if I remember correctly, the timeout in IIS only affects .asp pages, not .aspx. Are you sure your session code in web.config is correct? It should look something like:
<sessionState
mode="InProc"
stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
stateNetworkTimeout="60"
sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1;Integrated Security=SSPI"
cookieless="false"
timeout="60"
/>
That is usually all that you need to do...
Are you sure that after 20 minutes, the reason that the session is being lost is from being idle though...
There are many reasons as to why the session might be cleared. You can enable event logging for IIS and can then use the event viewer to see reasons why the session was cleared...you might find that it is for other reasons perhaps?
You can also read the documentation for event messages and the associated table of events.
https://usefulaspandcsharp.wordpress.com/tag/session-timeout/
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="Login.aspx" name=".ASPXFORMSAUTH" timeout="60" slidingExpiration="true" />
</authentication>
<sessionState mode="InProc" timeout="60" />
If you are using Authentication, I recommend adding the following in web.config file.
In my case, users are redirected to the login page upon timing out:
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms defaultUrl="Login.aspx" timeout="120"/>
</authentication>
Since ASP.Net core 1.0 (vNext or whatever name is used for it) sessions are implemented differently.
I changed the session timeout value in Startup.cs, void ConfigureServices using:
services.AddSession(options => options.IdleTimeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(42));
Or if you want to use the appsettings.json file, you can do something like:
// Appsettings.json
"SessionOptions": {
"IdleTimeout": "00:30:00"
}
// Startup.cs
services.AddSession(options => options.IdleTimeout = TimeSpan.Parse(Config.GetSection("SessionOptions")["IdleTimeout"]));
You can find the setting here in IIS:
It can be found at the server level, web site level, or app level under "ASP".
I think you can set it at the web.config level here. Please confirm this for yourself.
<configuration>
<system.web>
<!-- Session Timeout in Minutes (Also in Global.asax) -->
<sessionState timeout="1440"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>
The default session timeout is defined into IIS to 20 minutes
Follow the procedures below for each site hosted on the IIS 8.5 web
Open the IIS 8.5 Manager.
Click the site name.
Select "Configuration Editor" under the "Management" section.
From the "Section:" drop-down list at the top of the configuration
editor, locate "system.web/sessionState".
Set the "timeout" to "00:20:00 or less”, using the lowest value
possible depending upon the application. Acceptable values are 5
minutes for high-value applications, 10 minutes for medium-value
applications, and 20 minutes for low-value applications.
In the "Actions" pane, click "Apply".
IIS sessions timeout value is for classic .asp applications only, this is controlled on IIS configuration.
In your case For ASP.NET apps, only the web.config-specified timeout value applies.
if you are want session timeout for website than remove
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms timeout="50"/>
</authentication>
tag from web.config file.
The Timeout property specifies the time-out period assigned to the Session object for the application, in minutes. If the user does not refresh or request a page within the time-out period, the session ends.
IIS 6.0: The minimum allowed value is 1 minute and the maximum is
1440 minutes.
Session.Timeout = 600;
After changing the session timeout value in IIS, Kindly restart the IIS.
To achieve this go to command prompt. Type IISRESET and press enter.