Changing the User Session Timeout

Published: 27 Dec 2013
Last Modified Date: 28 Oct 2018

How to change the timeout value for Tableau Server user session.

On the computer running Tableau Server, open a command prompt and navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder, located by default at:

C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin

Option 1
Adjust the idle timeout, where <minutes> is the number of minutes after which the user session will time out.

tabadmin stop 
tabadmin set wgserver.session.idle_limit <minutes> 
tabadmin configure 
tabadmin start

Notes:

The default setting for wgserver.session.idle_limit is 240 minutes.
Closing the web browser will end the current session regardless of the timeout period, and require signing-in again to access Tableau Server.

Option 2
Adjust the maximum age for sessions, where <minutes> is the number of minutes after which the user session will time out.

tabadmin stop 
wgserver.session.lifetime_limit <minutes> 
tabadmin set wgserver.session.apply_lifetime_limit true 
tabadmin configure 
tabadmin start

Notes:

The setting wgserver.session.appy_lifetime_limit must also be set to "True" for the wgserver.session.lifetime_limit value to take effect.
When wgserver .session.appy_lifetime_limit is set to "True" the session will time out if:
- Session is idle and the wgserver.session.idle_limit is reached, OR
- Session is not idle, but has reached wgserver.session.lifetime_limit