Disconnected sessions not logging off

[Matt Sherman]

I've been struggling getting disconnected sessions to log off by themselves. Citrix support can't seem to find a solution either. I was able to recreate the issue.

It appears that if a user logs off the workspace portal without closing the applications first, the sessions hang. In a company of about 700 users, this happens A LOT. 

 

We are running VA/VD 7 1912 from the cloud

 

The situation is exactly like the one in this previous post.......... https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/397967-xenapp-sessions-not-terminating/

We found 2 process that were causing the issue and added them to the registry on all VDAs 

 

After that was done, the applications themselves (Outlook, Chrome, Excel, etc) started causing the sessions to hang. After ending the application, the sessions do successfully log off.

 

Citrix recommended the following changes to local policy, Computer Config/Windows components/remote desktop services/remote desktop session host/session time limits

 

These changes were unsuccessful.

 

If anyone has any suggestions other than the one listed that have been successful, PLEASE let me know. 

 

Manually killing up to 80 sessions every morning is started to take a toll on me :)  

 

[Terry Hogg1709159811]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:45 AM, Cary Barron said:

Do you guys have Support cases open with this ghost session issue?

I have a support case open with them. They are really of no help. They took logs and said I have to call Microsoft and get their input. I told them it's a windows update that's causing it as I did the same as some people above. However, I then said to them, "Are you working with Microsoft to fix this issue? I am sure I'm not the only person in the world who's having this issue." To which they responded with "We need to check logs again, check Citrix Scout, run CDFTrace on all VDAs, etc". I said that's not going to happen as this happens to 5-6 people a day and I hide their session with a command and people login again. Once the server gets rebooted all old sessions are gone. I told them this is not a solution and is a VERY temp workaround.

This started back since July and I kept having to revert my master image updates every month back, so I was way out of security compliance with Microsoft.

 

 

Referring to Jess above

On 10/27/2022 at 8:54 AM, Jens Strohschnitter1709152492 said:

Additional information: Which fslogix version do you use ? We've upgraded to the public preview 2.9.8308.44092 and seen black screens on logon, ghost and stuck on logoff sessions.

After rollback to the official build 2.9.8228.50276 the issues have gone.

 

I have the latest Citrix 2209 on everything, and I use 2.9.8228.50276 and I still experience these ghost sessions. I am also on Windows Server 2019.

 

*UPDATE*

I have applied Windows Update KB5020438 which is an out of band windows update to fix October Updates. There's a handshake fix with TLS and some other things so I'm going to see if that fixes it. Not holding my breath though.

[Jens Strohschnitter1709152492]

Did you have disabled "HDX adaptive transport" for testing ? In some cases, disable this setting solved the issue.

[Terry Hogg1709159811]

4 hours ago, Jens Strohschnitter1709152492 said:

Did you have disabled "HDX adaptive transport" for testing ? In some cases, disable this setting solved the issue.

 

I have not done that yet as I have to go through a process to add my admx to the GPO store. I will get that added and see what happens. I can do it from Citrix Policies too, so might try there.

[Terry Hogg1709159811]

On 11/3/2022 at 8:54 AM, Terry Hogg1709159811 said:

 

I have not done that yet as I have to go through a process to add my admx to the GPO store. I will get that added and see what happens. I can do it from Citrix Policies too, so might try there.

This did not fix the issue. I am going to rebuild my master image and see if it's a windows server issue.

[Mike S]

Did any of you find a fix by any chance? We recently updated to 2203 and had the ghost issue so we moved to 2203 CU2 and still have it. Was hoping their might be a fix or i might have to go back to 1912 LTSR. Thank you.

[Jens Strohschnitter1709152492]

@mike
Since 2203 we do not have this issue any more. Did you checked out the WSUS updates ? We've facing this issue on a new golden master where none WSUS updates were installed.

[Jan Bonne Eringa1709162566]

We are facing this same issue after updating the VDA to version 2212.

 

It seems that the proces of the virus scanner is staying active, when the users closed the (last) published application. This makes the users session stay active, until the time limit for idle\disconnected session kicks in. This is set for us (on both settings) to 3 hours, and Citrix recommended to set this to a lower value, but that is not what we want.

 

Even after the update the icon for the virus scanner is showing in the system tray, that is also a behavior we have never seen before...

 

The option for Gracefull logoff (https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX891671/graceful-logoff-from-a-published-application-renders-the-session-in-active-state) has been set for the virus scanner process, but that doesn't help.

[Josh steiner1709160356]

4 hours ago, Jan Bonne Eringa1709162566 said:

We are facing this same issue after updating the VDA to version 2212.

 

It seems that the proces of the virus scanner is staying active, when the users closed the (last) published application. This makes the users session stay active, until the time limit for idle\disconnected session kicks in. This is set for us (on both settings) to 3 hours, and Citrix recommended to set this to a lower value, but that is not what we want.

 

Even after the update the icon for the virus scanner is showing in the system tray, that is also a behavior we have never seen before...

 

The option for Gracefull logoff (https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX891671/graceful-logoff-from-a-published-application-renders-the-session-in-active-state) has been set for the virus scanner process, but that doesn't help.

What you're seeing is not related to this issue but typical behavior for some AV software and one that comes to mind is SEP - ccSvcHst.exe will hang around and prevent sessions from logging off. Logoffchecksysmodules registry key won't help in that scenario either but instead change the 'LaunchSMCGui' registry key from 1 to 0 will correct that issue. Check with your AV vendor a solution.

[Trey Morton]

I was having the exact same issue.  What resolved it was disabling enhanced security in Adobe Acrobat.  Adobe was causing the sessions to hang for me.  They are no longer hanging on my servers.  There was a posting I found somewhere but cant find it now.  Ill update this post when I do.

[PAVLO PEDAN1709163495]

In my case I had TeamViewer Host installed on the server.

 

With Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Citrix\wfshell\TWI

adding TeamViewer.exe to LogoffCheckSysModules resolved the issue.