"ERROR 401: Invalid Session Cookie Virtualization is Disabled" in App Volumes

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

How AppVolumes Manager uses Session Cookies:

• App Volumes Manager assigns and stores a single session key to each App Volumes agent computer at startup.
• The session key is returned as a cookie to the agent, and the agent also stores it for future requests. The App Volumes manager will reject connections if these cookies do not match. 
• False rejections happen when the startup invalidates cookies issued from a startup on one of the VMs on another VM.
• The session cookie feature is intended for performance and has no impact on the user if it is disabled. 

Example errors from the production.log on the App Volumes Manager: 

Invalid session cookie: Session key 248 does not match active computer session 241 on Computer <domain\computername> 
Request is missing session cookie 
Invalid session cookie: Session key does not match requesting computer 

Example errors from the svservice.log on the App Volumes agent: 

ERROR 401 Invalid Session Cookie Virtualization Disabled

 

Environment

VMware App Volumes 2.15.x
VMware App Volumes 2.18.x
VMware App Volumes 2.17.x
VMware App Volumes 2.14.x
VMware App Volumes 2.16.x
VMware App Volumes 4.x

Resolution

Avoid the Invalid Session Cookie issue by utilizing additional authentication calls for Agent-Manager communications.

 This can be done by disabling the optional  Agent Session Cookie feature. 
 
Note: The agent session cookie feature only improves efficiency by reducing the connection traffic between the App Volumes Manager and App Volumes agents and disabling it will not lessen the security of the connections. 
 
For App Volumes 4 manager servers: 

1. In the App Volumes Manager UI, navigate to Configuration  Settings. 
2. Disable the Agent Session Cookie setting by toggling the slider under Advanced Settings. 

For App Volumes 2.x manager servers: 

Earlier versions of App Volumes do not have an advanced setting in the App Volumes Manager UI, and the following steps can be taken to similarly disable the feature:

1. Connect to the App Volumes database using SQL Management Studio. 
2. Take a backup of the App Volumes database.
3. Run the following query against the App Volumes database: 

INSERT INTO [settings] ([key], [value], [changed_at], [created_at], [updated_at]) VALUES ('disable_agent_session_cookie', '1', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP) 

Note: This query is also attached to the knowledge base article.

4. Resync all Users and Computers from the App Volumes Manager UI.

Additional Information