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Troubleshooting Series – Ep2 – Admin Center – Sessions

Troubleshooting Series – Ep2 – Admin Center – Sessions

WaldoBusiness Central7 hours ago21 Views

Just a short post in the series to get my mind off things.

Next topic in the “Troubleshoot” series – a page many people seem to forget about ..

The “Sessions” window

Back in the days, we had some kind of page we could open in the classic client which showed the active sessions. It was a page, based on the table “Active Sessions” – and we could even stop session from that page.

Later – we got some PowerShell cmdlets to manage sessions from PowerShell.

Today – in an OnPrem environment – we could even build a page against the “Active Sessions”, and even build in functionality to stop sessions.

In SaaS – at first – we pretty much didn’t have any ways to manage, see, … which “sessions” were currently working in the environment. Up until we started to have more and more functionality in the Admin Center, which is accessible by partners.

How to access it?

Simple, just open the Admin Center and navigate to one of the environments of which you would like to see the Sessions.

What can I do in this screen?

Well, it shows all sessions from possibly multiple serverinstances, including background sessions, and such. And even more, you can cancel sessions and even restart the environment from here.

That might make you wonder – when would I need it?

Why would I need it?

Just in case you didn’t know: sessions are not stopped when you close a tab or window!

So – sometimes, there are simply processes that need to be stopped, as they seem to consume lots of resources, make everything slow, run endlessly, and so on. At least, now you have a list of all sessions, and if you’re lucky, you find the one you need to “cancel” (hence – stop the process, the locking, or whatever it was doing to the environment).

Let’s just say you were able to identify the user thanks to the “Database Locks” window (who shows who is locking which resource) – you’d be able to find all sessions of that user here, and cancel it (if applicable).

Some examples:

Long-Running Reports – A user accidentally triggers a complex report that’s consuming server resources and slowing down the system. You can identify and cancel the session to restore performance.
Stuck Processes – A background task (e.g., a scheduled job) is stuck in a loop, causing delays. Use the Sessions window to locate and terminate it.
Troubleshooting User Issues: A user reports they can’t access a feature due to database locks. Cross-reference the “Database Locks” window with the Sessions list to pinpoint and stop the problematic session.

Some Best Practices on managing sessions

Be cautious! Cancelling a session abruptly can lead to incomplete transactions or data inconsistencies. So make sure you know what you’re doing.

Regularly monitor the sessions-window, especially during peak usages. It might help to identify resource-heavy processes.

Restart is a last resort. It stops all processes so reserve this for critical situations where cancelling individual sessions didn’t resolve the issue.

Document your actions! When you cancel sessions or restart, document it, include a reason for the action – it might come in handy later on when identifying recurring issues.

You need permissions to access the Sessions window: you need to be a delegated admin or have appropriate permissions in the Admin Center. If you don’t see the option, contact your partner or check your role assignments.