PeopleSoft Timeout Settings

Appendix: PeopleSoft Timeout Settings

This appendix discusses:

Web server timeouts.
Application server timeouts.
Process Scheduler timeouts.
PIA timeouts.

Web Server Timeouts

You specify web server timeouts using the Web Profile Configuration component (WEB_PROFILE). To access these settings in PIA, select PeopleTools, Web Profile, Web Profile Configuration, then select the appropriate page.

The following table provides basic information about the web server timeout settings, which are more completely documented in the Internet Technology PeopleBook.

Page Element	Page Name	Description	Default
Inactivity Warning	Security	Specify how long the portal should wait before warning users that their browser session is about to expire. They can continue with their current session by clicking the OK button in the message. If a user doesn't respond, the session ends and the expired connection page appears. Suppress this warning by setting this value to be greater than the sessionTimeout value.	1080 seconds (18 minutes)
Inactivity Logout	Security	Specify the inactivity timeout interval of the PeopleSoft application for which the user is currently authenticated. When the interval passes with no user activity, the user's browser displays the page specified by the Expire Page - Page field on the Web Profile Configuration - Look and Feel page. Note. Depending on the application implementation, authenticated users might also experience an HTTP session inactivity timeout.	1200 seconds (20 minutes)
Authenticated Users - HTTP Session Inactivity	Security	Specify the HTTP session inactivity timeout interval that applies to authenticated users. When the interval passes with no user activity, the web server discards all session information, including cached page states. The next time the user submits a request, the web server creates a new HTTP session. If not set, the HTTP interval for an authenticated user is the same value as the inactivity logout.	0 seconds for all profile types.
Public Users - HTTP Session Inactivity	Security	Specify in seconds the inactivity timeout interval that applies to public users. When the interval passes with no user activity, the web server discards all session information, including cached page states. The next time the user submits a request, the web server creates a new HTTP session. Unlike authenticated users, public users are not signed out of their PeopleSoft application when this interval expires. However, PIA releases their application states from memory. If users click a link, they regain access to the application at the search dialog. This setting prevents an overload of web server resources for inactive public users.	DEV, KIOSK profile: 1200 seconds (20 minutes). TEST, PROD profile: not set.
Disconnect Timeout	Security	Specify the amount of time to wait before disconnecting the BEA Jolt connection. A value of 0 seconds (the default) means no limit. This means that the client connection must be retained throughout the session. If the connection becomes invalid (due to one one of the other timeouts) the session will be expired. Note. If you specify 0 seconds, the Jolt client attempts to connect the Jolt Server Handler (JSH) in RETAINED mode. If any positive value is specified, the Jolt client attempts to connect the JSH in RECONNECT mode.	0 seconds
Send Timeout	Security	Specify the maximum time permitted between the sending of the Jolt Request by the client servlet and its full receipt on the application server. Note. You might need to increase this value where a large amount of data is being sent to the application server, or the network is slow.	50 seconds
Receive Timeout	Security	Specify how long the client servlet should wait after issuing a Jolt Request for a response from the application server. This value should be considerably larger than the Send Timeout. Make sure that this value is also greater than your application server online service timeouts, such as the Service Timeout setting for PSAPPSRV that appears in the PSAPPSRV.CFG configuration file on the application server. Note. Ideally this timeout should also be greater than the Tuxedo SANITY_SCAN setting (BLOCKTIME * SCANUNIT).	600 seconds (10 minutes)

Session-Timeout

You specify the web server session-timeout setting in the web.xml file for the web server on which you're running your PeopleSoft system.

This setting (in minutes) determines the interval that elapses before the web server terminates the HttpSession. This is similar to an abandoned session cleanup timeout.

If you specify a value less than Inactivity Logout in the current web profile, it doesn't terminate the user's online session. The HttpSession is removed, but the user's session remains valid because cookies are present in the user's browser. Adjusting this setting affects users by causing their states (stored in the HttpSession) to be lost. If this setting is too high, it affects resource utilization on the web server.

Ideally, the value of this setting should be the same as the Inactivity Logout setting. This prevents both state loss and dangling HttpSessions on the web server. The default value of this setting is 20 minutes.

Web Server Default System Timeout

PeopleSoft portal technology normally depends on a content reference timeout setting to determine how long to wait for a pagelet to load before it considers the pagelet to be unavailable. However, if the remote server is unavailable, the content reference timeout setting is ignored. If the portal can’t establish a connection to the remote host, it uses the default system timeout.

The default system timeout defaults to 20 seconds. If you expect the remote server to be slow or down for longer than 20 seconds, you should specify a longer default system timeout, by configuring your web server to set the defaultConnectTimeout JVM environment variable to an appropriate value using one of the following procedures.

For example,

SET JAVA_OPTIONS_WIN32=-server -Xms32m -Xmx200m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -Dsun.net.client.defaultConnectTimeout=default_timeout

Where default_timeout is the number of milliseconds that the portal should wait to establish the connection to the host.

See Your web server documentation for instructions on modifying this JVM environment variable.

Application Server Timeouts

All configurable settings for the application server require modification in PSADMIN:

Name	In This File	Description	Default
JOLT Listener/Client CleanupTimeout	psappsrv.cfg	Specify the inactivity interval permitted for the server-side JoltSession. Specifying too low a value can cause unnecessary reinstantiation of resources for clients who surpass this inactivity interval. However, specifying too high a value can keep unnecessary server-side resources allocated. Note. This setting doesn't affect the user experience, but it has an impact on server-side performance.	10 minutes
JOLT Listener/Init Timeout	psappsrv.cfg	Specify the amount of time that's allowed for the JSL process to start. Note. It's not necessary to adjust this setting.	5 minutes
Workstation Listener/Client Cleanup Timeout	psappsrv.cfg	Specify the inactivity interval permitted for the server-side Workstation Listener Session. Specifying too low a value can cause unnecessary reinstantiation of resources for clients who surpass this inactivity interval. However, specifying too high a value can keep unnecessary server-side resources allocated. Note. This value is required only for three-tier connections.	60 minutes
Workstation Listener/init Timeout	psappsrv.cfg	Specify the amount of time that's allowed for the WSL process to start. Note. It's not necessary to adjust this setting. This value is required only for three-tier connections.	5 minutes
Spawn Threshold	psappsrv.cfg	Specify the rates at which PSAPPSRV processes spawn and decay. The spawn rate is determined by the last two numbers, and the decay rate is determined by the first two numbers. Using the default value as an example, for the spawn rate of 1,1 an extra PSAPPSRV process is spawned if there is at least 1 oustanding service request on the application server request queue for 1 second or more. This spawning will continue until the PSAPPSRV Max Instances value is reached. For the decay rate of 1,600 a server process is decayed if less than 1 service request is in the application server request queue for 600 seconds (ten minutes) or more. Note. This parameter applies only if, for PSAPPSRV, the value of Max Instances is greater than that of Min Instances.	1,600:1,1
Service Timeout	psappsrv.cfg	Each server process has its own instance of this setting in its section of the psappsrv.cfg file. Specify the maximum interval for services to run in a given process. If a service has not completed within the specified interval, BEA Tuxedo terminates the server processing and restarts the server process. For each server process, specify the longest time that any service is expected to take. Note. A value of 0 produces an indefinite timeout for any service.	PSAPPSRV: 300 seconds (5 minutes) PSSAMSRV: 300 seconds PSQCKSRV: 300 seconds PSQRYSRV: 1200 seconds (20 minutes) PSBRKHND_dflt: 1200 seconds PSSUBHND_dflt: 1200 seconds PSPUBHND_dflt: 1200 seconds
Restart Period (PSBRKDSP_dflt, PSSUBDSP_dflt, PSPUBDSP_dflt)	psappsrv.cfg	Specify how long each dispatcher should wait before redispatching a message if the associated handler has not started processing it.	120 seconds
TM_RESTARTSRV TIMEOUT	psappsrv.ubx (which is the template for psappsrv.env)	Specify the time period that a domain server process (for example, PSAPPSRV, PSWATCHSRV, PSSAMSRV) is permitted to remain in REStarting mode before it is killed by Tuxedo. This setting resolves processes hanging during restart. Note. To modify this setting, you must change the value in the .UBX template file, then recreate your domain.	60 seconds (one minute)

Process Scheduler Timeouts

All configurable settings for PeopleSoft Process Scheduler require modification through domain configuration within PSADMIN:

Name	In This File	Description	Default
Process Scheduler/Reconnection Interval	psprcs.cfg	Specify the interval between attempts to reconnect to the database when the connection is lost.	300 seconds (5 minutes)
Process Scheduler/Authentication Timeout	psprcs.cfg	Specify how long PeopleSoft Security has to authenticate a process that's released by PeopleSoft Process Scheduler The timer starts when Process Scheduler initiates the request.	5 minutes
RemoteCall/RCCBL Timeout	psprcs.cfg	Specify the maximum interval for a remote call from an Application Engine program to run before it's terminated. This is similar to a general BEA Tuxedo service timeout.	300 seconds (5 minutes)

For Spawn Threshold, see the application server timeout settings.

Search Server Timeouts

The following are the configurable timeout settings for the search server.

Name	File	Description	Default
Domain Settings / Spawn Threshold	pssrchsrv.cfg	This is the rate at which PSSRCHSRV processes will spawn and decay. The spawn ratio is determined by the last two digits. The decay ratio is determined by the first two digits. Using the default value as an example, we see that an extra PSSRCHSRV process will be spawned if there is at least 1 outstanding service request on the request queue for one second or more. This spawning will continue until Max Instances is reached. For the decay rate of 1, 600, if less than 1 service request is on the request queue for ten minutes (600 seconds), a server process is decayed.Note: This value is only relevant if PSSRCHSRV / Max instances > PSSRCHSRV / Min Instances.	1,600:1,1
PSSRCHSRV / Service Timeout	pssrchsrv.cfg	This parameter indicates the duration in seconds to run a Search service within a Search domain.	300 secs
TM_RESTARTSRVTIMEOUT	pssrchsrv.ubx (and then UBBGENned into pssrchsrv.env)	The time period that a domain server process PSSRCHSRV, is allowed to remain in Restarting mode before it is killed by the BBL. This resolves processes hanging during restart. This setting is defaulted in the $PS_HOME/appserv/Search/*.UBX files. If this value needs to changed, you must change the value in the UBX template file and then recreate your domain.	60 secs

PIA Timeouts

A number of additional timeouts may be set through PIA. These settings reflect changes at the database level that may pertain to different groups of users.

Note. The timeout settings in PIA are optional and are not required to run PIA. However, an understanding of how these settings can contribute to a user's session duration is important in the context of other timeout values that appear in this appendix.

Name	Navigation Path	Description	Default
Authentication Token expiration time	PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon	Specify the interval during which the system can trust a single signon token (PS_TOKEN) from the same or another content provider. Note. As long as users remain signed in, the expiration of PS_TOKEN does not affect them. This setting is relevant only for the GetCertificate request during single signon.	720 minutes (12 hours)
Permission List - Time-out Minutes	PeopleTools, Security, Permissions & Roles, Permission Lists	Specify an interval during which a given permission list applies. The interval starts for a user to which the permission list is assigned when that user signs in. When the timeout period elapses, the user's online session is terminated. If a user belongs to multiple permission lists, the largest timeout value from among those permission lists is applied to the user's session during signon. The permission list timeout is effective only if its value is less than the web server session-timeout. This means that all of the permission list timeouts for a given user must be less than the web server session-timeout to be effective. However, the Inactivity Warning timeout still applies. Note. A value of 0 produces an indefinite timeout.	0 minutes

Name

Navigation Path

Description

Default

Authentication Token expiration time

PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon

Specify the interval during which the system can trust a single signon token (PS_TOKEN) from the same or another content provider.

Note. As long as users remain signed in, the expiration of PS_TOKEN does not affect them. This setting is relevant only for the GetCertificate request during single signon.

720 minutes (12 hours)

Permission List - Time-out Minutes

PeopleTools, Security, Permissions & Roles, Permission Lists

Specify an interval during which a given permission list applies. The interval starts for a user to which the permission list is assigned when that user signs in. When the timeout period elapses, the user's online session is terminated.

If a user belongs to multiple permission lists, the largest timeout value from among those permission lists is applied to the user's session during signon. The permission list timeout is effective only if its value is less than the web server session-timeout. This means that all of the permission list timeouts for a given user must be less than the web server session-timeout to be effective. However, the Inactivity Warning timeout still applies.

Note. A value of 0 produces an indefinite timeout.

0 minutes