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Terminal Server User Logged Off Automatically After 20 - 30 Mins Of inactivity, How Do I Stop This Happening?
We have a Windows 2003 Terminal Server, which services about 30 users at any one time. and a seperate Windows 2003 Domain controller on a network. All of the users have dumb terminals which just allow the use of a remote desktop session to the terminal server except one user who uses a standard pc not Joined to the domain to connect to Terminal services. This user is also the manager of the company and uses his pc for personal use etc.
The problem is this user when he leaves his remote desktop session open and walks away from his computer for about 20 - 30 mins gets logged off from his terminal server session, and he has to reconnect and log in and then reopen his applications.
He appears to be the only user with this issue but all users at this company have the same GPO, i have also checked on the terminal server configuration properties that auto log off is switched off, and i have checked the users AD terminal server settings which all appear to be correct.
could someone please tell me where i can find settings in the gpo or anywhere else that might cause this user to be logged off.
Is it possible that his PC is closeing the TS Session if it opens a screen saver or something similar? or could there be an issue because his pc is not joined to the domain?
please could someone detail where this setting could be found in a gpo so i can re go over everything from the begining and try to trace the issue.
Thank you.
The problem is this user when he leaves his remote desktop session open and walks away from his computer for about 20 - 30 mins gets logged off from his terminal server session, and he has to reconnect and log in and then reopen his applications.
He appears to be the only user with this issue but all users at this company have the same GPO, i have also checked on the terminal server configuration properties that auto log off is switched off, and i have checked the users AD terminal server settings which all appear to be correct.
could someone please tell me where i can find settings in the gpo or anywhere else that might cause this user to be logged off.
Is it possible that his PC is closeing the TS Session if it opens a screen saver or something similar? or could there be an issue because his pc is not joined to the domain?
please could someone detail where this setting could be found in a gpo so i can re go over everything from the begining and try to trace the issue.
Thank you.
ormerodrutter
Check if the NIC is set to be turned off by the computer to save power - under the Power Management tab. Also, is his machine a laptop and the Power Management (laptop) been set to go standby or hibernate after a while?
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ASKER
The Pc is a desktop pc, so i dont think the NIC settings will be at fault as i dont think they will have power save.
however the Standby and Hibernate point is a good one as im not physically at their office i had not thought to check that, and will contact him now.
cj, i have already checked the settings on the terminal services configuration, and i dont use a gpo to configure these settings
also in all the settings i can find anywhere on the server they are all setup to never log out and or disconnect user, and keep alive current session, also have it set to alow only one active session per user
thanks
however the Standby and Hibernate point is a good one as im not physically at their office i had not thought to check that, and will contact him now.
cj, i have already checked the settings on the terminal services configuration, and i dont use a gpo to configure these settings
also in all the settings i can find anywhere on the server they are all setup to never log out and or disconnect user, and keep alive current session, also have it set to alow only one active session per user
thanks
ASKER
the user says the computer does not go into standby or hibernate so looks like its not as easy as that unfortunately
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ASKER
hi swartz, that all sounds correct, however i have just logged onto the terminal server to tripple check the settings and the terminal servers RDP configuration was not set to override user settings, so i have reset that up, this could resolve the issue. (its possible someone set this setting on the domain controller by accident lol)
i checked the GPO and all settings regarding auto logging off or disconnecting are set to not configured. so i decided to set them all to disabled so now all settings like log off user after period of inactivity are set to disabled and the terminal server settings are set to never.
also the terminal server session is active / disconnected and not logged off.
the user is on the same physical lan upstairs from the server, not far away at all, however i will definately keep the connection idea in mind, he doesnt appear to ever loose a connection while working, only when idle so i would imagine its most likely a setting
hopefully the changes ive made may sort it i will let you knwo how it goes
i checked the GPO and all settings regarding auto logging off or disconnecting are set to not configured. so i decided to set them all to disabled so now all settings like log off user after period of inactivity are set to disabled and the terminal server settings are set to never.
also the terminal server session is active / disconnected and not logged off.
the user is on the same physical lan upstairs from the server, not far away at all, however i will definately keep the connection idea in mind, he doesnt appear to ever loose a connection while working, only when idle so i would imagine its most likely a setting
hopefully the changes ive made may sort it i will let you knwo how it goes
Good, let us know how it works out. That user could have had those ts connection setting specified differently within their user account.
ASKER
hi, after setting all those settings yesterday afternoon, he called me this morning to say the problem was not fixed and it was still logging him off after a period of time, apparently this is happenin to another user also but only one other user.
also there desktops are getting locked after about 10 mins of inactivity is there a way of extending this time to say 30 mins or so through group policy ?
any ideas im confused!
also there desktops are getting locked after about 10 mins of inactivity is there a way of extending this time to say 30 mins or so through group policy ?
any ideas im confused!
Desktops getting locked: I think there is a default screensaver timeout that is probably affecting you on the desktops. There is a group policy that can set this longer or disable entirely should you choose to. You would also want to disable this policy on your term server most likely as you don't want screensavers running on a ts if you don't absolutely need it. The screensaver policy is a user setting, user config/administrative templates/control panel/display. Under that there is the screen saver setting and the screen saver timeout, and the password protect the screen saver. You need to define all of these to affect your desktop timout settings. To keep this from affecting these users when they are on the term server, you will need a separate policy for the ts and merge policies. I'll remember the rest of this and post back.
ASKER
to be honest the group policy on this server setup even tho new has never worked quite right since day one. had to turn the gpo off for a week and then back on again baefore alot of the users got the updated settings.
is there a way to force everyones gpo setting back to not configured and clear out any cash of the gpo on the terminal server, then re aplly the settings as if it was the first time ?
it would be useful to know if the problem went away when everything was reset back to standard
is there a way to force everyones gpo setting back to not configured and clear out any cash of the gpo on the terminal server, then re aplly the settings as if it was the first time ?
it would be useful to know if the problem went away when everything was reset back to standard
Not sure about clearing out GPO settings like you describe. For computer setting to take effect, you must restart the computer. It may take a few restarts (i've seen it take three reboots before some computer policies take effect). For user settings, running gpupate/ force on the client machines will update user settings.
To force a reset of the GPO on the workstations, force the running of grpupdate in the login script.
This should force all the machines to pull all of the current settings as they are logging in.
This should force all the machines to pull all of the current settings as they are logging in.
ASKER
Thanks for the advice on this, eventually found an additional setting in the user configuration on the gpo which i had missed.