Configuring the vSphere Web (HTML5) Client Session Timeout for VCSA 6.7

WHAT:

By default, a VMware vSphere Web Client 6.7 session terminates after 120 minutes of idle time. You may want to configure/edit the vSpehre Client idle sessions to:

• Improve the login security of productions environments and reduce resources consumption on VCSA. Ensuring that the sessions automatically logout after a certain period of time.
• Avoid the session to constantly logout. Probably you are just starting a new deployment that may require a bit of time to configure or due to the use of a testing lab.

In my case, I want to set the web client to never time out.

HOW:

In the past, this could be done directly from the c# client. In the current HTML5 client GUI, this option is not available, it is only available on the Flex client, but even if you attempt to change this value from the Flex client from the UI, is not going to work.

Note: I am happy that later this year vSphere 6.7 will release its first update, it is supposed to fully support the new and sexy HTML5 client.

For HTML5 client

1. Open an SSH session on your VCSA
2. Type the following commands and hit enter in this order:

shell.set --enabled True
shell
cd /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/
vi webclient.properties

@ vi Editor:

3. Navigate to “session.timeout = 120”. Where 120 is the default value in minutes.

4. Hit insert key to edit.
5. Delete the default value and enter 0 to never log out the sessions. Or enter the desired value in minutes.
6. Press Esc key.
7. Type :wq to write and quit the vi Editor. The new timeout is now set to 0 (in my case)
8. Stop and start the vSphere Web Client service:

service-control --stop vsphere-ui
service-control --start vsphere-ui

Resources: