Asp.net session variable timeout

asp.netsession-statesession-timeout

I'm using asp.net (.net 4.0) on iis6, and have a sessionvariable that is gone after about 20-30 mins.

I've tried everything I could find on the internet:

My web.config contains:

<sessionState mode="InProc" cookieless="false" timeout="120" />
<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" maxRequestLength="204800"
executionTimeout="3600" />
<forms loginUrl="/subsidies/inlog.aspx" name=".ASPXFORMSAUTH" timeout="120" />
<membership defaultProvider="MyMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="121">

Machine:

c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config\web.config

<system.web>
  <sessionState timeout="120" />

Application pool:

Recycle worker processes (in minutes) : 120

Shutdown worker processes after being idle for (time in minutes): 120

Website properties:

Connection timeout: 120 seconds

Home Directory > Configuration > Options > Application Configuration >

x Enable session state (enabled)
Session timeout: 120 minutes

And still, a session variable is gone in about 20-30 minutes.
Hopefully someone can help me….

Best Answer

I finally found the problem. It's fixed.

The problem was the Application Pool. On every recycle, the session was lost. So we did turn off the application pool recycling, and are scheduling the recycle once a day.

Related Solutions

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.

Session timeout in ASP.NET

Are you using Forms authentication?

Forms authentication uses it own value for timeout (30 min. by default). A forms authentication timeout will send the user to the login page with the session still active. This may look like the behavior your app gives when session times out making it easy to confuse one with the other.

<system.web>
    <authentication mode="Forms">
          <forms timeout="50"/>
    </authentication>

    <sessionState timeout="60"  />
</system.web>

Setting the forms timeout to something less than the session timeout can give the user a window in which to log back in without losing any session data.

Related Topic

Ajax – ASP.NET request timeout after 90 seconds – Service Unavailable 503