Rally - Difference between Last Active Date and Last Login Date

Products

• Rally On-Premise
• Rally SaaS

Issue/Introduction

What is the difference between Last Active Date and Last Login Date?

Resolution

Last Login Date is the last date the user authenticated with a username and password to Rally via the application or the API. Both the date and time are recorded.  Using an API key will not update this field.

Last Active Date is the last date that a user was active in the application, via the API, or via notifications sent. Only the date is recorded, not the time. This value is leveraged by the application to determine whether a user session is eligible for timeout based on the session timeout settings.  

 

For example, a user whose session is set to timeout after two weeks could potentially have a Last Login Date that is almost two weeks old, while the Last Active Date could be today’s date.

 

Alternatively, if a user has SSO set up, the Last Login Date could show a failed SSO login attempt as an actual login and record the date and time. However, the Last Active Date would not be updated.   

 

The following scenarios are known to cause unusual patterns between Last Login Date and Last Active Date:
Last Login Date populated, Last Active Date empty
This can occur if the user was not granted access to any projects prior to logging in.

Last Login date empty, Last Active Date populated
This can occur when the user has not ever logged in and the account has been in place for over a year.  Examining the Account Locked Until date will likely show a value of 3000-01-01 indicating no logins in over a year

Last Active Date precedes Last Login Date
There was a defect fixed in January 2019 where if a user account was copied, the Last Active Date was copied from the account that was used as a template.

Additional Information

• Login dates are available from June 1, 2010 forward. Users that have never logged in will have an empty value.
• The Last Active Date may differ from the Last Login Date under a couple of circumstances
  • If a user chooses to extend their session time
  • The Last Active Date is updated nightly via a task that runs at midnight the following night after logging in.
  • The last active date is also affected by Web Services API usage, watches, and notification rules.