Manage active and scheduled sessions
The Active tile lists sessions that are provisioning, available, or in progress. The Scheduled tile lists sessions set to start later. From these tables you can create, end, lock, unlock, and inspect sessions.
To open them, select Dashboard in the left navigation, then select the Active or Scheduled tile. For an overview of all tiles, see Dashboard.
Active tab
Tabs and filters
The Active tile has two tabs:
- All Active (the default) shows sessions for all users.
- Mine shows sessions for the signed-in user.
The filters are Search, Resource name, User name, and Recording data. The Mine tab has no User name filter. The Recording data filter works on keystroke data and, when the Remote Desktop Monitor is installed on the target hosts, on Windows event activity from RDP sessions. See Install the Remote Desktop Monitor on target hosts.
Toolbar
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Create Session | Opens the Activity Request dialog. See Request a session. |
| End Session | Cancels the selected sessions. You need the Terminate Session permission. |
| View Logs | Opens the session logs for the selected session. See View session logs. |
| Lock Activity | Opens the lock dialog for the selected session. You need the Lock Session permission. |
| Unlock Activity | Unlocks the selected session. Administrators can unlock any session. Auditors and read-only users need the Lock Session permission. |
All buttons except Create Session stay disabled until you select a row. Refresh reloads the table.
Columns
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| Checkbox | Selects the row. |
| STATUS | The state of the session. See Session statuses. |
| REQUESTED | When the session was created. |
| REQUESTED BY | The user who requested the session. Select the name to open the user's details. |
| HOST | The resource the activity runs on. Select the name to open the resource's details. |
| LOGIN ACCOUNT | The account used to sign in to the resource. |
| ACTIVITY | The name of the activity. Select the name to see its details. |
| START | When the activity's actions began running. This isn't the time the user signed in to the resource. |
| END | When the session is scheduled to end: the start time plus the maximum session duration set in the access policy's connection profile. |
| NOTES | Notes the requester entered. |
| TICKET NUMBER | The ticket number the requester entered. |
Select the expand icon on a row to show more about the session. The expanded row has the live session viewer for a session in progress, and a replay viewer when a recording is available. If the user signed in more than once, the row lists one recording for each sign-in. See Watch, lock, or terminate a live session and Replay a recorded session.
Scheduled tab
The Scheduled tile has no tabs and one filter, Search. The toolbar has only Create Session and End Session. The columns are the same as on the Active tab. A scheduled session has the status Pending until its start time.
Session statuses
The Status column uses these values on both tiles:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Provisioning | Privilege Secure is assigning permissions to the login account before the session. |
| Pending | The scheduled start time is still in the future. Scheduled tab only. |
| Waiting for Approval | The session needs approval before it can begin. |
| Available | The session is ready. The user can start it or sign in through a client. |
| Failed | The provisioning stage encountered an error. |
| Logged In | The user is signed in to the resource, either directly or through the proxy. Privilege Secure detects a direct sign-in by polling the resource at regular intervals, so the status can lag. |
| Canceling | The session expired, or the user or an administrator canceled it. |
| Locked | An administrator locked the session. |
End a session
End a session to cancel it before its scheduled end time.
- Open the Active or Scheduled tile.
- Select the checkbox for each session to end.
- Select End Session.
The status of each selected session changes to Canceling. When the session ends, it moves to the Historical tile.
For example, to stop a contractor's session that is still running after the change window, select its row on the Active tile and select End Session. The status changes to Canceling.
If you don't have the Terminate Session permission, the console shows "You need 'Terminate Session' permission to end sessions".
If the session has a ServiceNow ticket, the console asks "End Session - How should the ServiceNow ticket be updated?" Choose Keep In Progress, On Hold, or Resolved. The prompt links to the ticket. For setup, see Use ServiceNow tickets with sessions.
Lock a session
Lock a session when you see suspicious or unauthorized activity. A locked session stays active, but the user can't work on the host.
- Open the Active tile.
- Select the session.
- Select Lock Activity.
- Enter a lock title and message. The user sees them in their RDP or SSH client.
- Choose what to prevent the user from doing, and select Okay.
The status of the session changes to Locked. For the dialog options, see Watch, lock, or terminate a live session.
To unlock a session, select it, and then select Unlock Activity. Administrators can unlock any session. Auditors and read-only users need the Lock Session permission. The console shows "Session successfully unlocked.", the lock icon leaves the status column, and the row shows its normal status again, for example Logged In.
If you selected Any further activity with this account (Unlock via Users & Groups), the account stays locked after you unlock the session. Unlock it on the user's details page. See User and group details.
Inspect a session
- Select a session, and then select View Logs to see what happened while the session was provisioned.
- Select the expand icon on the row to watch the session live.