AX 2012 Session Types and Settings

This article contains information on AX 2012 session types, how AX uses them and how to change the settings on some of them to fit your preferences.

User Session Type: 

This relates to the client (Ax32.exe) running. You can see multiple user sessions if your user uses RDS/Citrix session to connect to the client and they don’t logoff a session properly. This will keep the session open in a disconnected state once the user launches the client again this can open a second user session. This can also happen if a user launches multiple AX32.exe client sessions at the same time. You can restrict this from happening through code. You can find example of this code at below link. Always test this in your test environment first. Always backup before applying any code changes.  

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/faisalfareedaxlibrary/archive/2014/05/28/restrict-non-admin-users-to-open-multiple-sessions-in-ax 

Business Connector Session Type:  

.NET Business Connector is a component of the Microsoft Dynamics AX development environment. .NET Business Connector enables you to build software applications that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can access data or start business logic. The advantage of using .NET Business Connector over other types of integration is that you use the same X++ code and business logic available to clients. You will also be able to use the Microsoft Dynamics AX security model. Two example of application that would use a .Net business connector to integrate with AX would be Globsoft Atlas and Enterprise Portal.  

Worker Session Type:  

Batch process, SSRS reports or a business connector process generates this session type. For Example, when a BC process is used to connect to an AOS, you will see at least two sessions created one for the BC and one for the worker. The Worker session will remain open as long as the BC process is active. Note: most of the time multiple Worker sessions are open so that data is processed faster. These processes then will remain open and can be reused by AX for another task you might run. If it is unused for 30min, which is the default session timeout, the session will automatically be closed.  

You can change the default timeout and lower it by logging onto the AOS server, go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Server\<AOS NAME>\bin Right click AX32Serv.exe config file and open with Notepad or Notepadd ++. In the <app Settings> section, add or copy and paste this      <add key="SessionPoolFlushSeconds" value="180" />. Value is in seconds, so 180 is 3min, click save.  

Now restart AOS for the settings to take effect. Making this setting to low can result in poor performance, because instead of the AOS being able to use a session already active, it will always have to lunch a new one, which is time consuming in itself. AX 2012 is set to allow a maximum of 2000 concurrent sessions. Once this session limit has been reached, AOS will refuse any new connections.  

This setting can be changed in AX by going to System administration > Setup > System > Server configuration and change Max concurrent sessions from 2000 to a higher number.  

Note: its 2000 per AOS, not total. Always test any changes in your test environment and properly tested, before apply them into Production.  

Web user Session Type:  

This type of session is related to Enterprise Portal. As I mentioned above in the BC section. EP also uses BC to integrate with AX. When you open up the EP Web site. It is normal to see multiple Web User session types and a Business Connector Type. The multiple Web User session are used to speed up the process of pulling data. If AX sees that it doesn’t need all these sessions it will close them once they reach the default inactive time.