Question Re: Terminate an User Session. in Technology Q&A

Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:20:11 GMT

I am trying to terminate a User Session that is several months old. I have tried searching SDN and have not found anything that applies or works. I have also tried using SM04, SM50, and also SM66 to cancel the process, but have been unsuccessful in my attempts. The other problem I have encountered when canceling the process is that a new process is started, going from 2 processes to now 4. We do not have a Basis person as well, and it's been learn as you go and using whatever information I can find. I am using version 4.7. Thanks in advance. If this is not in the correct forum, I ask the moderators to move this post to the appropriate forum as well. I apologize if I have not been more active in the forums, but due to the economy and downsizing I am the only remaining SAP person here and don't have much time to use the forum as in the past.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:32:38 GMT

If you log on under that userid, it should ask you if you want to terminate the existing sessions.

Rob

Re: Terminate an User Session.

_IvanFemia_ — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:33:35 GMT

Hi,

seems really strange... Without any knowledge of you system I'll in the following order:

1 - SM04 close session

2 - Change user password or disable the user ID

3 - From SM50 delete the process with core

4 - Check on SM37 if any job is scheduled / released / running

Regards,

Ivan

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:38:38 GMT

The user has been selecting to terminate any open sessions each time she logs on, but the sessions still do appear in SM66 and SM50. I have deleted the entry from the USR41 table so the user is no longer prompted, since she has been prompted the past several months.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:41:58 GMT

Does it appear in SM04?

Rob

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:42:19 GMT

I have tried SM04 and SM50 already as noted above. When I cancel with a Core Dump, it opens and adds another session. I have checked SM37 and there are no scheduled/released/running jobs for this user for the date range and Program Name.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

_IvanFemia_ — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:43:56 GMT

Disable USERID and check again

Ivan

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:44:50 GMT

Yes, it appears in SM04 and I am unable to end the session from there as well.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:52:58 GMT

I have tried locking the account and the processes are still running.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:53:25 GMT

Have you tried sending this to OSS?

However, I suspect they woud lsay either "consulting issue" or "do a restart".

But it doesn't hurt to ask.

Rob

Re: Terminate an User Session.

kesavadas_thekkillath — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:54:42 GMT

Ignore

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:02:54 GMT

Thanks Rob, I will try OSS first and feel you may be right. Are you familiar with Keshav's post above using kill.sap?

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:07:00 GMT

No, but Google might help.

Rob

Re: Terminate an User Session.

kesavadas_thekkillath — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:13:29 GMT

Ignore

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:14:36 GMT

Silly comment: One of the things I'd do immediately is to check where the connection originates (i.e. check originating IP address in SM04 for the user) and what is currently running. Per your comment you have canceled a process in SM50, so it sounds it's not just an open session, something is actually running under that user id. So when you look at the program that is being executed for this user, does this give you any clue? I'm assuming that connection type is GUI and the process you've terminated is a dialog process?! It's highly unlikely (based on what you describe), but in theory there could be another person (ab)using the given user id.

The other part that I don't fully understand is the forking you've mentioned: The other problem I have encountered when canceling the process is that a new process is started, going from 2 processes to now 4. So there's two active processes (dialog?) and when you cancel one you get four? What happens then if you cancel again one of the four, do you now get eight? Sounds a bit odd... (admittedly the whole thing sounds quite odd)

Do you get any feedback when you try to terminate the session from SM04? Have you checked the system log (SM21) to see if there's anything unusual (or for that matter the security audit log in SM20 if your company uses it)? Without any further details I suspect it's more a case for OSS as suggested by Rob (unless somebody else has encountered that phenomenon before).

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:45:17 GMT

Hi Harold,

I have checked the IP Address from SM04 and it is the correct address for this user. This would lead me to believe the user id is not being abused by someone else.

The process has been running since August 5th, from an ABAP program. The user noticed that the program was running longer than usual so she used the 'Stop Program' from Session Window. The connection type is GUI.

To explain the forking better, I started out with 2 processes running. I tried to kill the process in SM66 and it started another process, giving me 3. I then tried to cancel the process in SM50, and now have 4 process currently running. By trying to kill it again, it should give me 5.

When trying to terminate from SM04, I do not receive any messages. I refreshed the screen and see the processes are still active. I have also looked at the log in SM20 and it is empty, the log in SM21 for the dialog process shows an error message that says 'Assurance in Too may DB-rows in Program $Id: //b001 ??????????? Location ???.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:19:41 GMT

Hhmm, weird. I'd probably try to take a peek at what the processes are actually doing, but that probably doesn't really help. The odd part is that re-spawning aspect that I haven't heard of yet for GUI connections. It would be interesting to know if your spawned processes (after your kill attempts in SM50/SM66) correspond to an increase in user sessions (seen in SM04 on the corresponding app server). If not, then maybe you actually have a user "master" process, that simply spawns off some RFC's (so by killing the right process you'd be able to stop this). But even if that would be true, why is it impossible to end the user session via SM04?

To me there's two straws left:

<li>Apart from the mentioned OSS message you might want to look into moving this problem into a different forum. It's really more of a basis question and thus the general ABAP forum most likely doesn't give you good results. Forum might be more suitable? I'd try to search for some appropriate forum and then possibly ask a moderator to move the thread.</li>

<li>Try to restart the application server and see if that helps (hopefully you can either do that on an emergency basis or have some scheduled maintenance coming up)</li>

</ol>

Good luck with your problem and I'm curious to see a resolution (hopefully somebody has a good answer how to fix this).

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:28:57 GMT

Thanks Harold. I am going to try restarting the APP server later today or tomorrow. I tried OSS and see that we no longer have a Maintenance Agreement with them, since down sizing and cutting back on expenses, it was decided several years ago that the Maintenance Agreement was not needed as our system has been stable for quite sometime. I will also ask the Mods to move this to a different forum and keep you posted. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:40:19 GMT

Do you want me to move it to ?

Rob

Re: Terminate an User Session.

Former Member — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:52:25 GMT

Yes, that would be greatly appreciated. I have already hit the Abuse button to ask for it to be moved. Thanks for your help Rob.