Touchpaper Support
Email:
Tel: +44 (0) 1483 744449 Fax: +44 (0) 1483 744252
Address: Dukes Court, Duke Street, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5RT
Technical Note: HDCS6203
Title: Locked Licences and Invalid Logins
Product : HelpDesk and SupportCenter
Version : 6.0.2+
Environ : Client and Internet
Date : 7th June 2004
An issue can occur where licences are being used up even though there are not many analysts logged into the HelpDesk/SupportCenter. It can reach the point where an analyst will no longer be able to log into the system because there are no available licences. This can be caused by various reasons. An analyst staying logged in even though they will not be using the system for a long time, the database crashes whilst analysts are logged in, or analysts not logging out of the database correctly.
Please find 3 registry keys below. Invalid Login Age, SuperOperator Disconnect and Exit Confirmation. There are instructions below on how to input the registry keys. If you use these keys it will greatly reduce the above occurring.
Please note that I will be referring to a folder in the registry called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and will be asking you to add the new registry keys within the folders found under here. It could be that the folders will be located under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder, depending on how HelpDesk/SupportCenter where installed, but the process is exactly the same.
Invalid Login Age and SuperOperator Disconnect
The following pages describe the underlying processes behind the automated disconnection of HelpDesk and SupportCenter clients, and the removal of defunct login sessions by Monitor. I am including both registry settings together because they work hand in hand.
Overview of functionality
There is no function within HelpDesk or SupportCenter to detect when a client-session has sat without mouse or keyboard activity for a period of time, and then disconnect that session. All HelpDesk and SupportCenter sessions are continually active, polling and updating the database with a keep-alive update every minute.
NOTE: It is possible to use Login Clearance to manually remove currently logged-in clients. This can be achieved by manually removing their central login-record.
Diagram of timestamp message sending (even if no activity on client)
However, there is a function within Monitor to automatically review the current login sessions and check their latest keepalive timestamps. If a login session shows an ‘old’ keepalive timestamp, the session is removed by Monitor. This maintains the number of available licenses, ensuring that any interrupted sessions do not permanently tie up valuable licenses. This applies equally to Client Server and Internet product versions.
Diagram of timestamp message sending (client has experienced power failure)
If a HelpDesk or SupportCenter client attempts to update its keepalive timestamp, but finds that its login-record has been removed, then the application reports that the session has been terminated ‘by a superoperator’, and the application will then closes down after one minute.
New Registry setting: Invalid Login Age
Monitor will log out users that have not sent a timestamp back to it for 4 X the poll period. The Monitor poll period is the period by which Monitor processes any updates and this is set under Options – System – Default Behaviour. Therefore a 5-minute poll period will give a 20-minute acceptable inactivity time for defunct logins.
A registry setting called Invalid Login Age can be set up on the Monitor PC to override this:
1) You will need to access your registry setting, which can be done by going Start – Run and typing in REGEDIT into the command line. This will bring back your registry settings
2) You then need the go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|Software|Touchpaper Software|HelpDesk (Support Centre)|Monitor.
3) Right mouse click on the Monitor folder and select New – String value. (See below).
4) Type in Invalid Login Age and then click away from the box.
5) Double click on the Invalid Login Age registry key and input a value of 10 for example.
6) Click on OK.
7) The default logout will now be increased from 4 times the poll period to 10 times the poll period.
I.e. If the Poll Period = 5 minutes you would increase the Invalid Login Age from 20 to 50 minutes.
New Registry setting: SuperOperator Disconnect
As mentioned previously this will not disconnect sessions where there has been no recent keyboard or mouse activity, only ‘old’ login records. This will then cause the application to shut down on an ‘out-of-time’ PC.
1) You will need to access your registry setting, which can be done by going Start – Run and typing in REGEDIT into the command line. This will bring back your registry settings
2) You then need the go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|Software|Touchpaper Software|HelpDesk (Support Centre)|Monitor.
3) Right mouse click on the Monitor folder and select New – String value. (See below).
4) Type in SuperOperator Disconnect and then click away from the box.
5) Double click on the SuperOperator Disconnect registry key and enter a value of 1.
6) Click on OK.
7) You can switch this registry setting on or off. Setting the registry key to a value of 0 turns this off, and similarly setting the value to 1 turns it back on. The default is off.
Exit Confirmation
The following registry key is useful if you have an issue with analysts not correctly logging out of the Helpdesk. This can be a problem because if the analyst does not log out correctly the database will still believe the licence is in use and not make it available for the next analyst who wants to log in. This only works on client machines, not the Internet. Please find the following instructions below:
1) You will need to access your registry setting, which can be done by going Start – Run and typing in REGEDIT into the command line. This will bring back your registry settings
2) You then need the go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|Software|Touchpaper Software|HelpDesk|HelpDesk.
3)
Right mouse click on the second HelpDesk folder and select New – String value. (See below).
4) Type in Exit Confirmation and then click away from the box.
5) Double click on the registry and put a value of 1.
6) Press OK.
7) Now when an analyst logs out of a HelpDesk using the File - Exit or the X it will come up with the following pop up box.
8) Just click on Yes and the person will be logged out and the licence released.
9) This registry needs to be entered onto all the clients where you would like to see this setting.
Trouble-shooting
1) Clients keep getting disconnected ‘by superoperator’. This is likely to be due to the Monitor PC having a date and / or time that is ahead of the Client date and time. Thus every time monitor checks the keepalive timestamp, it appears to be ‘old’ and is removed. Refer to KnowledgeBase Entry 970526-01 for advice on resolving this issue.
2) Licenses keep being ‘used up’ and appear to not be released after logging out. Ensure that Monitor is running and that the correct settings are on the Monitor PC.
3) Active client sessions are not automatically removed when left unattended. There is no function to identify when a client has been untouched for a while, and accordingly disconnect it.
4) Internet Editions may encounter automatic Internet Session disconnection. This is a function of the web-server (not Touchpaper Softtware applications). This can be adjusted. See KnowledgeBase ref: 981126-02.
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Touchpaper Support– Tel: +44 (0) 1483 744449 : Email:
Dukes Court, Duke Street, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5RT