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Weird Timeout Issue 1

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jfrost10

Programmer
Jun 3, 2001
2,004
CA
This is weird...it should work...but it doesn't...

I have an app that salesmen use internally to access customer information and do quotes. They complained that it would time out on them (they need it to not lose session over long periods of time). So I upped the timout in the web.config to 500 from 20. But they still complained it was timing out.

So I changed the timout on the server's machine.config to 500 from 20. Now they're calling again saying its still timing out on them...I don't *think* I'm missing anything here...thoughts?

D
 
You haven't left it in the code anywhere have you (e.g Session.Timeout = 20)?

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Nope...I only set the timeout values in the web.config and the machine.config.

D
 
In that case there doesn't appear to be anything you missed (although you should have only had to set it in the web.config). I would try doing a few tests yourself like setting it to 1 and see if it does timeout after 1 minute. If it does, increase it from there and continue testing.

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I'm also wondering if something funky might be happening on the server as well...I hear from the users that they get timeout messages, but I don't know if any maintenance is happening at the same time on the server, which could clobber session if there's a reboot or something...

Thanks,

D
 
The Session Timeout property for the web app in IIS was still set to 20...so it could be that IIS was overriding what was in the web.config.

I've changed it to be longer and am testing it now...I'll let you know if it changes anything.

D
 
Still didn't work, but I've tried one more thing: the overall web page in IIS (the node that holds all other web apps) had its timeout set to 20 minutes. This will be pretty dumb if it works, but I've increased the timout there and applied it to the underlying apps...we'll see if this works out.

D
 
K...this is getting dumb...I've now extended the timeout for the default web site and my web app at the IIS level, at the web.config level, and the machine.config level...but its STILL timing out at 20 minutes!

Is there something that I've missed?!

D
 
I had the same problem. I read somewhere that any session timeout greater than 90 minutes is very iffy if it works. I had to switch to cookies.
 
If there are is anythign running on the web server that could be touching the dlls or web.config? Any anti-virus or indexing going on? I've seen this happen before.


HTH

[pipe]
Share your knowledge! -
 
Hey guys, thanks for the posts.

It's good to know about the >90 minute thing. I actually changed the timeout to 60 before I left on my trip (I'm writing this at TechEd...1.5 hours until Ballmer!), so hopefully that works out.

I also need to check on the antivirus point, as I've read the same thing as well. I don't think that the antivirus we have on the server would be running anything more than once a day, but if its scanning the web.config and .net is seeing the alteration to the file, it could be what's resetting the app.

Thanks again!

D
 
Finally found a solution to this:

When running IIS 6.0, there's a setting in the Application Pools that limits the worker process to only 20 minutes of sitting idle. So even if you set all the session timeouts to be really high, the worker process runs in its own threshold. We unchecked the property and the sessions run fine now.

D'Arcy
 
Interesting...I'll have to check our settings as we haven't had any problems with our increased timeouts yet I'm sure I haven't had to change that setting!


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It depends on the version of IIS I think...our dev machines ar all IIS 5.0, and we've never had to set it (if app pools are in IIS 5.0, I'm not even sure where the settings are...they're different for IIS 6).

So it could be that this is a solution if running IIS 6.0, and 5.0 only requires the timeouts to be set properly.

D
 
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