Continually SmSessionServer Failed error code 2 and 3 in smps.log

Products

• CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On SOA Security Manager (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign-On
• CA Single Sign On Agents (SiteMinder)
• SITEMINDER

Issue/Introduction

 

When running Policy Server and this one reports often the following message:

[4216/4704][Tue Mar 01 2016 14:23:38][SmSessionServer.cpp:571][ERROR][sm-Server-06007] failed. Error code : 2

[4216/4704][Tue Mar 01 2016 14:23:38][SmSSProvider.cpp:503][ERROR][sm-Server-07004] failed.Exception :

[4216/4704][Tue Mar 01 2016 14:23:38][SmSessionServer.cpp:535][ERROR][sm-Server-06007] failed. Error code : 3

• Why do the error messages show up in the smps.log?
• What is the reason for the following error messages?
• Can they be ignored?
  
  

Environment

 

Using SAML V1.0 Assertion with SiteMinder 12.52 and Federated Services 12.52 and above

 

Resolution

 

The above error means "Session not found in the Session Store". If the session is not found in the session store then the policy server will not be able to validate the session and therefore the user will be redirected for credentials. 

If this is not happening for all users, then it is most likely that the user session was already deleted from the session store due to expiry/inactivity. 

Error 2 is when failed to Get a Session from the session store (1).

See below transaction process:

1. The user logs in to a protected resource.
2. The user is granted a SMSESSION cookie.
3. The session data is written to the Session Store.
4. The User's session times out.
5. The session is removed from Session Store.
6. The user uses the same browser session to access a protected resource with the old SMSESSION cookie.
7. The session from the SMSESSION cookie is compared to the session in Session Store.
8. The session cannot be found in Session Store.
9. Error 02 "Not Found' appears in the smps.log.
10. The user is directed to an Authentication Agent to authenticate.
11. The user authenticates.
12. The user is granted access to resources again.

This is expected behavior and there should be nothing to fix.

Error 3 is when failing to update the session held in Session Store.

This is quite common when a user is logged into a URL that does not need a Session Store, and then later navigates to a URL that does.

 

Additional Information

 

(1)

    Reducing "SessionServer GetSession failed. Error code : 2" errors