Governing Concurrent Users

When a user logs in to a MicroStrategy system, a user session is established. This user session remains open until the user logs out of the system or the system logs the user out. Users that are logged in but are not doing anything still consume some resources on Intelligence Server. The more user sessions that are allowed on Intelligence Server, the more load those users can put on the system because each session can run multiple jobs.

To help control the load that user sessions can put on the system, you can limit the number of concurrent user sessions allowed for each project and for Intelligence Server. Also, both Developer and MicroStrategy Web have session timeouts so that when users forget to log out, the system logs them out and their sessions do not unnecessarily use up Intelligence Server resources.

For example, a user logs in, runs a report, then leaves for lunch without logging out of the system. If Intelligence Server is serving the maximum number of user sessions and another user attempts to log in to the system, that user is not allowed to log in. You can set a time limit for the total duration of a user session, and you can limit how long a session remains open if it is inactive or not being used. In this case, if you set the inactive time limit to 15 minutes, the person who left for lunch has their session ended by Intelligence Server. After that, another user can log in.

Intelligence Server does not end a user session until all the jobs submitted by that user have completed or timed out. This includes reports that are waiting for autoprompt answers. For example, if a MicroStrategy Web user runs a report with an autoprompt and, instead of answering the prompt, clicks the browser's Back button, an open job is created. If the user then closes thier browser or logs out without canceling the job, the user session remains open until the open job "Waiting for Autoprompt" times out.

These user session limits are discussed below as they relate to software features and products.

Limit the Number of User Sessions on Intelligence Server

This setting limits the number of user sessions that can be connected to an Intelligence Server. This includes connections made from MicroStrategy Web products, Developer, Distribution Services, Scheduler, or other applications that you may have created with the SDK. A single user account can establish multiple sessions on an Intelligence Server. Each session connects once to Intelligence Server and once to each project that the user accesses. In the User Connection Monitor, the connections made to Intelligence Server display as <Server> in the Project column. Project sessions are governed separately with a project level setting, User sessions per project, which is discussed below. When the maximum number of user sessions on Intelligence Server is reached, users cannot log in, except for the administrator, who can disconnect current users by means of the User Connection Monitor or increase this governing setting.

To specify this setting, in the Intelligence Server Configuration Editor, select the Governing Rules: Default: General category and type the number in the Maximum number of user sessions field.

Limit User Sessions Per Project

When a user accesses a project, a connection (called a user session) is established for the project and Intelligence Server. In the User Connection Monitor, the connections made to the project display the project name in the Project column. If you sort the list of connections by the Project column, you can see the total number of user sessions for each project.

You can limit the number of sessions that are allowed for each project. When the maximum number of user sessions for a project is reached, users cannot log in to the system. An exception is made for the system administrator, who can log in to disconnect current users by means of the User Connection Monitor or increase this governing setting.

To specify this setting, in the Project Configuration Editor for the project, select the Governing Rules: Default: User sessions category and type the number in the User sessions per project field.

You can also limit the number of concurrent sessions per user. This can be useful if one user account, such as "Guest," is used for multiple connections. To specify this setting, in the Project Configuration Editor for the project, select the Governing Rules: Default: User sessions category and type the number in the Concurrent interactive project sessions per user field.

Limit User Session Idle Times

When a user logs in to Developer (in a three-tier configuration) or MicroStrategy Web, a user session is established. As long as the user logged into that session is using the project, creating or executing reports, and so on, the session is considered active. When the user stops actively using the session, this is considered idle time. You can specify the maximum amount of time a session can remain idle before Intelligence Server disconnects that session. This frees up the system resources that the idle session was using and allows other users to log in to the system if the maximum number of user sessions has been reached.

To specify this setting for Developer, in the Intelligence Server Configuration Editor, select the Governing Rules: Default: General category and, in the User session idle time (sec) field, type the number of seconds of idle time that you want to allow.

To specify this setting for MicroStrategy Web, in the Intelligence Server Configuration Editor, select the Governing Rules: Default: General category and, in the Web user session idle time (sec) field, type the number of seconds of idle time that you want to allow.

If designers are building Report Services documents and dashboards in MicroStrategy Web, set the Web user session idle time (sec) to 3600 to avoid a project source timeout.