HTTP session problems

Use troubleshooting information for problems when creating or using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) sessions.

To view and update the session manager settings discussed here, use the administrative console. Select the application server that hosts the problem application, then under Additional properties, select Web Container, then Session manager.

What kind of problem are you having?
[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]If your problem is not described here, or none of these steps fixes the problem:

HTTP sessions are not getting created, or are lost between requests

By default, the session manager uses cookies to store the session ID on the client between requests. Unless you intend to avoid cookie-based session tracking, ensure that cookies are flowing between WebSphere Application Server and the browser:
  • Make sure the Enable cookies check box is checked under the Session tracking Mechanism property.
  • Make sure cookies are enabled on the browser you are testing from or from which your users are accessing the application.
  • Check the Cookie domain specified on the SessionManager (to view the or update the cookie settings, in the Session tracking mechanism > enable cookies property, click Modify).
    • For example, if the cookie domain is set as .myCom.com, resources should be accessed using that domain name. Example: https://www.myCom.com/myapp/servlet/sessionservlet.
    • If the domain property is set, make sure it begins with a dot (.). Certain versions of Netscape do not accept cookies if domain name doesn't start with a dot. Internet Explorer honors the domain with or without a dot. For example, if the domain name is set to mycom.com, change it to .mycom.com so that both Netscape and Internet Explorer honor the cookie.
      Note: When the servers are on different hosts, ensure that session cookies flow to all the servers by configuring a front-end router such as a web server with the plug-in or setting the Cookie domain.
  • Check the Cookie path specified on the SessionManager. Check whether the problem URL is hierarchically beneath the Cookie path specified. If not correct the Cookie path.
  • If the Cookie maximum age property is set, ensure that the client (browser) machine's date and time is the same as the server's, including the time zone. If the client and the server time difference is over the Cookie maximum age then every access would be a new session, since the cookie expires after the access.
  • If you have multiple web modules within an enterprise application that track sessions:
    • If you want to have different session settings among web modules in an enterprise application, ensure that each web module specifies a different cookie name or path, or
    • If web modules within an enterprise application use a common cookie name and path, ensure that the HTTP session settings, such as Cookie maximum age, are the same for all web modules. Otherwise cookie behavior is unpredictable, and depends upon which application creates the session. Note that this does not affect session data, which is maintained separately by the web module.
  • Check the cookie flow between browser and server:
    1. On the browser, enable cookie prompt. Hit the servlet and make sure cookie is being prompted.
    2. [AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]On the server, enable SessionManager trace. Enable tracing for the HTTP session manager component, by using the trace specification com.ibm.ws.session.*=all=enabled. After trace is enabled, exercise your session-using servlet or JSP, then follow the instructions for dumping and browsing the trace output .
    3. Access the session servlet from the browser.
    4. The browser prompts for the cookie; note the jsessionid.
    5. Reload the servlet, note down the cookie if a new cookie is sent.
    6. Check the session trace and look for the session ID and trace the request by the thread. Verify that the session is stable across web requests:
      • Look for getIHttpsession(...) which is start of session request.
      • Look for releaseSession(..) which is end of servlet request.
  • If you are using URL rewriting instead of cookies:
    • Ensure there are no static HTML pages on your application's navigation path.
    • [AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]Ensure that your servlets and JSP files are implementing URL rewriting correctly. For details and an example see Session tracking options.
  • Deprecated feature: Session tracking using the SSL ID is deprecated in WebSphere Application Server version 7.0. You can configure session tracking to use cookies or modify the application to use URL rewriting.
    If you are using SSL as your session tracking mechanism:
  • If you are in a clustered (multiple node) environment, ensure that you have session persistence enabled.

HTTP Sessions are not persistent

If your HTTP sessions are not persistent, that is session data is lost when the application server restarts or is not shared across the cluster:
  • Check the data source.
  • Check the session manager's persistence settings properties:
    • If you intend to take advantage of session persistence, verify that Persistence is set to Database.
    • [AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]Persistence could also be set to Memory-to-Memory Replication.
    • If you are using Database-based persistence:
      • Check the JNDI name of the data source specified correctly on SessionManager.
      • Specify correct userid and password for accessing the database.

        Note that these settings have to be checked against the properties of an existing data source in the administrative console. The session manager does not automatically create a session database for you.

      • The data source should be non-JTA, for example, non XA enabled.
      • [AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]Check the JVM logs for appropriate database error messages.
      • [z/OS]Check the logs for appropriate database error messages.
      • With DB2®, for row sizes other than 4k make sure specified row size matches the DB2 page size. Make sure tablespace name is specified correctly.
    • If you are using memory-based persistence (available only in a network deployment environment):

Session is shared across multiple browsers on same client machine

This behavior is browser-dependent. It varies between browser vendors, and also may change according to whether a browser is launched as a new process or as a subprocess of an existing browser session (for example by hitting Ctl-N on Windows).

The Cookie maximum age property of the session manager also affects this behavior, if cookies are used as the session-tracking mechanism. If the maximum age is set to some positive value, all browser instances share the cookies, which are persisted to file on the client for the specified maximum age time.

Session is not getting invalidated immediately after specified session timeout interval

The SessionManager invalidation process thread runs every x seconds to invalidate any invalid sessions, where x is determined based on the session timeout interval specified in the session manager properties. For the default value of 30 minutes , x is around 300 seconds. In this case, it could take up to 5 minutes (300 seconds) beyond the timeout threshold of 30 minutes for a particular session to become invalidated.

Unwanted sessions are being created by JavaServer Pages

As required by the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specification, JSP pages by default perform a request.getSession(true), so that a session is created if none exists for the client. To prevent JSP pages from creating a new session, set the session scope to false in the .jsp file using the page directive as follows:
<% @page session=false %>
[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]

Session data intended for one client is seen by another client

In rare situations, usually due to application errors, session data intended for one client might be seen by another client. This situation is referred to as session data crossover. When the DebugSessionCrossover custom property is set to true, code is enabled to detect and log instances of session data crossover. Checks are performed to verify that only the session associated with the request is accessed or referenced. Messages are logged if any discrepancies are detected. These messages provide a starting point for debugging this problem. This additional checking is only performed when running on the WebSphere-managed dispatch thread, not on any user-created threads.

For additional information on how to set this property, see article, Web container custom properties.

In addition, if you are using the Java Proxy or Java On Demand Router, you can consider testing with either http.cache.nocache.headers="Set-Cookie,Set-Cookie2" and cache.query.string=true (see HTTP proxy server custom properties for more information) - OR - uncheck Enable caching to disable caching completely (See Proxy server settings for more details). Either of these changes can have a performance impact and should be tested beforehand.

Users are not logged out after the HTTP session timer expires

If users of WebSphere Application Server log onto an application and sit idle longer than the specified HTTP session timeout value, the user information is not invalidated and user credentials stay active until LTPA token timeout occurs.

Complete the following steps to log out users from the application after the HTTP session has expired.
Attention: The com.ibm.ws.security.web.logoutOnHTTPSessionExpire property only applies to applications using form login.
  1. In the administrative console, click Security > Global security.
  2. Under Custom properties, click New.
  3. In the Name field, enter com.ibm.ws.security.web.logoutOnHTTPSessionExpire.
  4. In the Values field, enter true.
  5. Click Apply and Save to save the changes to your configuration.
  6. Resynchronize and restart the server.
Unexpected re-authentications: When you set the com.ibm.ws.security.web.logoutOnHTTPSessionExpire custom property to true, unexpected re-authentications might occur when you are working with multiple web applications. By default, each web application has its own unique HTTP session, but the web browser has one session cookie. To address this issue, you can change the HTTP session configuration by giving each application a unique session cookie name or path setting. As a result, each application gets its own session cookie. Alternatively, you can configure multiple web applications with the same enterprise application to share the same HTTP session. For more information, see the Assembling so that session data can be shared topic.

Exceptions can occur during run time when updating applications where session persistence is enabled

Users who have session persistence enabled and run application updates during run time might experience unexpected exceptions after the application is restarted.

If updates have been made that change the attributes saved, then all the sessions created by the associated application might have to be invalidated prior to the application update if the application can not handle these changes. In this situation, all session objects must be removed from the back-end as well. See the HTTP session invalidation information to learn more about how to remove these sessions properly.

IBM Support has documents and tools that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve problems. Before opening a problem report, see the product Support page: https://www.ibm.com/mysupport/s/topic/0TO500000001DQQGA2/websphere-application-server.