How to change vCenter Operations Manager session timeout

I’ve been using vCenter Operations Manager for a while now at work for all the great information that can be found about our environment so I tend to log into vCOp at the start of the morning and then come back to as I may or may not need it thoughout the day. One thing that has kind of annoyed me is having to constantly log into the standard UI multiple times a day due to the default 30 minute timeout value.

Luckily, with a bit of SSH and a few commands we can increase this timeout to anything we like or even disable it all together!

Edit vCenter Operations Manager session timeout, or disable it altogether

1. SSH into the UI VM as root.
2. Using VI, edit the web.xml file located at /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/tomcat/webapps/vcops-vsphere/WEB-INF/web.xml by typing in the command:

   vi /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/tomcat/webapps/vcops-vsphere/WEB-INF/web.xml

   

3. Press the j key to move down until you find the line: <session-timeout>30</session-timeout>
   
4. Edit the value by pressing i (default: 30) to your desired amount in minutes, or you can use -1 to disable the timeout all together.
   
5. Save your changes in VI by typing

   :wq

6. Finally restart the service by typing

   /etc/init.d/vcopsweb restart

Edit vCOp Enterprise Custom UI timeout value

It seems the vCOp Enterprise Custom UI can be changed as well, but has a different file path and service that needs to be restarted. Simply follow the same steps from above but using the below file path and service to restart.

• File path: /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/tomcat-enterprise/webapps/vcops-custom/WEB-INF/web.xml
• Restart service: /etc/init.d/vcopswebenterprise restart

There you have it, vCOp with a longer (or shorter?) timeout value or maybe even disabled all together!

VI commands quick reference

I don’t normally use VI very often so this just serves as a quick reference guide to VI and since we’re using it in the above steps figured I’d list a few basic commands if for nothing else my own good. :)

Moving Cursor
Left – h
Right – l
Up – k
Down – j

Inserting Text
Insert text to the left of cursor – i
Exit insert mode – ESC Key

Exiting File
Save and quit VI – :wq
Quit VI and don’t save – :q!