Managing user sessions

Updated in 2022.1

Every time a technician logs in to the Web App, Mobile App, Network Inventory application,or the Desktop App, a new user session starts. When the technician logs off or signs out, their user session ends.

The Accounts and Roles > User Sessions section displays the list of user sessions currently opened by technicians and allows you manage user sessions as follows:

• Viewing license usage statistics

• License usage chart

• Viewing active user sessions

• Terminating user sessions

• Terminating idle sessions automatically

NOTE: When a technician logs in to both the Web App and Desktop App under the same named or concurrent account, their sessions are considered a single user connection. When a technician logs in to both the Alloy Navigator Express Desktop App and Network Inventory application under the same account, these sessions are considered a single user connection as well. For details, see Licensing models.

Viewing license usage statistics

The Accounts and Roles > User Sessions > License Usage section at the top displays the your licensing model (for details, see Licensing models) and license usage statistics:

	Licensed	Used	Available	Accounts	Connected
Named Users	The total number of licensed named users. N/A value indicates that the license does not support the Named Users model.	The number of existing named accounts. (Same as Accounts.)	The number of available named accounts you can create. (The difference between Licensed and Used).	The number of existing named accounts. (Same as Used.)	The number of currently active user connections established under named accounts.
Concurrent Users	The total number of licensed concurrent sessions. N/A value indicates that the license does not support the Concurrent Users model.	The number of active user connections established under concurrent accounts. (Same as Connected.)	The number of available concurrent sessions. (The difference between Licensed and Used).	The number of created concurrent accounts.	The number of active user connections established under concurrent accounts. (Same as Used.)

License usage chart

For visual representation of license usage statistics, the Accounts and Roles > User Sessions > License Usage section includes a line chart showing license usage trends over time. This chart can help you to understand your actual license usage and reduce you licensing costs.

The vertical axis displays the number of user connections open in Alloy Navigator Express (in the Desktop App or Network Inventory application, Web App, and Mobile App). The horizontal axis is the timeline with an interval depending on the period chosen. You can customize the chart by choosing a license type and a period from the lists at its top.

If your license limits the number of named or concurrent users, the maximum available named or concurrent connections are shown as the dotted lines at the top of the chart.

TIP: Depending on the gap between the maximum available and actual number of sessions over a period of time, you may want to review you licensing costs.

Viewing active user sessions

The Accounts and Roles > User Sessions > Logged Users section allows you to view all user sessions currently open in Alloy Navigator Express (in the Desktop App or Network Inventory application, Web App, and Mobile App).

To view user sessions:

• View the currently open user sessions in the grid.

  Each row in the grid contains the details about a particular user session.

  • Login - the user name of the technician currently logged in to the Desktop App or Network Inventory application or signed in to the Web App or the Mobile App.

  • User IP - the IP address of the client computer.

  • For Web App users - the value depends on the configuration of the customer's network, and may display the IP address of the technician’s computer running the Internet browser or the IP address of the proxy server (including transparent proxy) between the technician's computer and the Internet.

  • For Mobile App users - the value depends on the network configuration, and may display the IP address of the wireless router.

  • For Desktop App users - the IP address of the technician's computer running the Desktop App or Network Inventory application.

  • Session Type - the type or the Technician account under which the session is running: Concurrent or Named.

    NOTE: This column is available only if you have a combined product license that supports both Concurrent Users and Named Users models. For details, see Licensing models.

  • User Full Name - the technician’s Full Name.

  • Module Name - the Alloy Navigator Express module where the technician is logged in: Web App, Mobile App, Desktop App , Network Inventory.

  • Last Activity - the timestamp of the most recent technician's activity on the app, with one-minute accuracy.

  • Logon Time - the last time that the technician logged on to the Alloy Navigator Express module.

  • Duration - the session duration (the difference between the Logon Time and Last Activity values).

The system automatically checks every ten seconds if new sessions have been started or active sessions have been ended, which practically makes the displayed list of active sessions always actual. You can also refresh the Last Activity and Duration values of currently open sessions manually by clicking Refresh (or pressing F5 on the keyboard).

Terminating user sessions

You may need to force users to log off (for example, to apply the permission changes you have made) or to close sessions that have a long period passed since the most recent user activity. The Accounts and Roles > User Sessions > Logged Users section allows you to terminate one or more user session.

To terminate one or more user sessions:

• Select one or more user sessions and click Terminate. Alloy Navigator Express will notify the technician that the session has been terminated by the administrator.

IMPORTANT: If the user has any unsaved changes, they will be lost.

Terminating idle sessions automatically

When your product license supports the Concurrent Users licensing model that limits the number of active connections under concurrent accounts, terminating idle sessions may help guarantee that no inactive connections are eating away your license resource. Your security policy may also require to terminate idle user sessions after a specified idle timeout period (the time period since the last activity) has passed.

The Accounts and Roles > User Sessions > Logged Users section allows you to configure automatic termination of idle concurrent sessions.

NOTE: Automatic termination does not affect user sessions established under named accounts. If you want to close named sessions, terminate them manually.

To configure automatic termination of idle concurrent sessions:

1. Select the Automatically terminate idle sessions for concurrent users check box and specify the idle timeout period in minutes.

   To disable the automatic timeout feature, clear the check box.

2. Click Save.

When the specified idle timeout period has passed, Alloy Navigator Express terminates the user session. The user experience depends on the Alloy Navigator Express app:

• In the Web App: Alloy Navigator Express first prompts the user to keep their session. If there is no response, Alloy Navigator Express terminates the session, informing the user that their session has expired due to inactivity.

• In all other apps: Alloy Navigator Express terminates the user session, informing the user that their session has expired due to inactivity.

Related Information:

User Session Log

Licensing models

Managing Alloy Navigator Express accounts