Sign Out and Session Timeout
After you complete your tasks, you can sign out of your application. However, sometimes you might get automatically signed out due to session timeouts.
Let's understand how session timeouts work. When you sign in using your credentials, you're authenticated to use the application, and a session is established. During this session, you don't need to re-authenticate. But, for security purposes, your session is configured to be active for a predefined duration, which is called session timeout period. Your sessions can expire due to various reasons such as, leaving your application idle for a period longer than the timeout period. In such cases, you're automatically signed out of the application. Your timeout periods may vary on certain pages. For example, you may observe a longer timeout period on pages that automatically refresh, or UIs that open up in separate windows or tabs.
This table lists the various types of session timeouts you may experience. After the specified duration, your session expires, and you need to sign in again to continue your work.
Session timeouts are predefined and can't be edited.
Timeout Type |
Description |
Timeout Duration |
---|---|---|
Session Lifetime Timeout |
Once you're authenticated in the application, if you're actively working on it, your session remains active for a predefined duration, referred to as the session lifetime timeout period. Your session ends after this period, even if you're using the application. |
8 hours |
Session Inactivity Timeout |
This type of timeout considers the time elapsed since you last sent a request, for example responded to a poll or submitted a form, to the application server. After this duration, you get a message and an option to extend the session. If you don't extend the session, you're signed out of it. |
10 minutes |
Idle Session Timeout |
This type of timeout considers the duration you leave your application idle for. After this duration, you get a message and an option to restart the session.
|
30 minutes |
Browser Inactivity Timeout |
This type of timeout considers the duration you leave your browser idle for. After this duration, your session ends. |
30 minutes |
How Different Session Timeouts Work
If you're actively working on your application, your session remains active until the session lifetime timeout period, which is eight hours. However, session inactivity timeout considers the time elapsed since you last sent a request to the application server. For example, responded to a poll or submitted a form. These requests are sent to the server at regular intervals and the session inactivity timeout will not happen. But here are a few scenarios when the poll or active data service requests will be stopped, and the browser inactivity timeout happens.
-
If you leave your browser idle for more than 30 minutes.
A warning appears informing you that the session has ended and you're signed out of the session. You need to sign in again and the home page is displayed.
-
If you don't use the keyboard or mouse for more than 10 minutes. For example, if the server-side session timeout is 30 minutes, and the polling timeout parameter is set to 10 minutes, then the timeout events take place in the following sequence:
- The session inactivity timeout starts during the polling time of 10 minutes.
- In the next 30 minutes, the idle session timeout begins.
- During the idle session timeout period, a session expiration warning message is displayed at the 28th minute. You’ll be given 2 mins to reset the session timeout. If you reset the session, the current page will be displayed. At the end of the 30th minute, if you’re still inactive, the session expires and you’ll be signed out. You need to sign in again and the home page is displayed.
Best Practices for Minimizing Timeouts
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
-
Sign in to only one active application instance.
-
Don't sign in to the application in multiple browsers simultaneously.
-
Don't sign in to the application in multiple tabs of the same browser simultaneously.
Sign Out
When you're done working in your application, you can sign out using the Settings and Actions menu. Click your user image or name in the global header to open this menu, and select Sign Out and then click Confirm to sign out of the application.