Configuring the Jamf Pro Server Session Timeout

Updated: 01 July 2021
Product: Jamf Pro

This article explains how to increase or decrease the amount of time before the session times out and prompts you to re-authenticate to Jamf Pro. Depending on your version of Jamf Pro, you can configure the maximum inactivity interval (previously called "session-timeout" variable) by doing one of the following:

  • (Jamf Pro 10.21.0 or later) Configure the variable in the session.properties file, which allows multiple Jamf Pro web applications to have different maximum inactive interval variables, but requires you to re-configure the changes each time Jamf Pro is upgraded.

  • (Jamf Pro 8.2—10.20.0) Configure the variable in the Jamf web.xml file, which allows multiple Jamf Pro web applications to have different session-timeout variables, but requires you to re-configure the changes each time Jamf Pro is upgraded.

  • (Jamf Pro 8.2—10.20.0) Configure the variable in the Tomcat web.xml file, which applies universal changes to the variable that will carry over each time Jamf Pro is upgraded, without the option to have different session-timeout variable settings on each Jamf Pro web application.

Note: The paths to the web.xml file and session.properties file provided in this article are for instances of Jamf Pro installed using the Jamf Pro installers. If you performed a manual installation, the paths may be different.

General Requirements

Admin access to the Jamf Pro host server is required to modify the Jamf Pro server session timeout.

(Jamf Pro 10.21.0 or later) Configuring the Variable in the Jamf session.properties File

  1. Back up the database. For instructions, see the following articles:
  2. Stop Tomcat. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.
    Warning: It is recommended that you stop Tomcat while modifying the session.properties file because the Spring framework will not notice the modification without restarting the application.
  3. On the Jamf Pro host server, open the session.properties file:
    • If you are using macOS, the session.properties file is located at the following filepath: 
      /Library/JSS/Tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/
    • If you are using Windows, the session.properties file is located at the following filepath:
      C:\Program Files\JSS\Tomcat\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\
    • If you are using Linux, the session.properties file is located at the following filepath:
      /usr/local/jss/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/
  4. Locate the following setting: 
    session.maxInactiveIntervalInSeconds=1800
  5. Modify the maximum inactive interval.
    Note: The maximum inactive interval is in seconds. The default is 1800 seconds which is equal to 30 minutes. A negative value (e.g., -1) may be used if you do not want sessions to expire.
  6. Start (or restart, if you left it running) Tomcat after modifying the session.properties file. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.

(Jamf Pro 8.2—10.20.0) Configuring the Variable in the Jamf web.xml File

  1. Back up the database. For instructions, see the following articles:
  2. Stop Tomcat. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.
    Warning: It is recommended that you stop Tomcat while modifying the web.xml file because the Spring framework will notice the modification and reload. You may be able to leave Tomcat running (to minimize downtime) if Jamf Pro is in normal operating mode. However, if a process like a Jamf Pro upgrade is in progress, the Spring framework reload could cause database corruption.
  3. On the Jamf Pro host server, open the web.xml file:
    • If you are using macOS, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath:
      /Library/JSS/Tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/
    • If you are using Windows, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath: 
      C:\Program Files\JSS\Tomcat\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\
    • If you are using Linux, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath: 
      /usr/local/jss/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/
  4. Locate the following setting:
    <session-config>
    <session-timeout>1</session-timeout> 
</session-config>
  5. Ensure that the code is not commented out. If the code is commented out, remove the comment tags <!-- --> that encase the code.
  6. Modify the session timeout to desired timeout.
    Note: Session timeout is in minutes.
  7. Start (or restart, if you left it running) Tomcat after modifying the web.xml file. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.

(Jamf Pro 8.2—10.20.0) Configuring the Variable in the Tomcat web.xml File

  1. Back up the database. For instructions, see the following articles:
  2. Stop Tomcat. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.
    Warning: It is recommended that you stop Tomcat while modifying the web.xml file because the Spring framework will notice the modification and reload. You may be able to leave Tomcat running (to minimize downtime) if Jamf Pro is in normal operating mode. However, if a process like a Jamf Pro upgrade occurs, the Spring framework reload could cause database corruption.
  3. On the Jamf Pro host server, open the web.xml file:
    • If you are using macOS, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath:
      /Library/JSS/Tomcat/conf/
    • If you are using Windows, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath:
      C:\Program Files\JSS\Tomcat\conf\
    • If you are using Linux, the web.xml file is located at the following filepath: 
      /usr/local/jss/tomcat/conf/
  4. Locate the following setting:
    <session-config>
    <session-timeout>1</session-timeout> 
</session-config>
  5. Modify the session timeout to desired timeout.
    Note: Session timeout is in minutes.
  6. Start (or restart, if you left it running) Tomcat after modifying the web.xml file. For instructions, see Starting and Stopping Tomcat.