How to Configure Administrative Sessions

During administrative tasks, it can happen that an activity is paused, and the firewall gets into an idle state from a user-interactive point of view. The following settings let you configure different options for how the firewall will behave during idle states and while a session is currently running.

Configure Auto Logout Setup

1. Go to CONFIGURATION > Full Configuration > Box >  Infrastructure Services > Control.
2. In the left menu, select Administrative Sessions.
3. Click Lock.
4. In the section Auto Logout Setup, configure how the firewall must handle a session in an idle state:
   1. Firewall Admin Max. Idle [m] – Enter the maximum number of minutes that a Barracuda Firewall Admin session can be idle before it is automatically closed without user interaction. After a session is closed, the user must log back in. The default value is 60 minutes.
   2. Console Max. Idle [m] – Enter the maximum number of minutes that a shell/SSH session can be idle before it is automatically closed without user interaction. After a session is closed, the user must log back in. The default value is 15 minutes.
5. 
6. Click Send Changes.
7. Click Activate.

Session Password Setup

Every connection from Barracuda Firewall Admin to a certain firewall requires a session password. Due to the complexity of the firewall, the managed information is split into parts where each represents a certain context in the user interface of Firewall Admin. This information is displayed at one of the highest levels in the user interface in tabs, where each tab requires a dedicated session from Barracuda Firewall Admin. In order to avoid re-entering the password for each new tab/session, the firewall is pre-configured to store an invisible token for the first valid authentication to the firewall and can therefore re-use this token instead of requiring you to re-enter the session password for a new tab.

If you want to disable using this token for every new tab to be opened, you can force Firewall Admin to require you to re-enter the session password each time you click a new tab. For this, perform the following steps:

1. Go to CONFIGURATION > Full Configuration > Box >  Infrastructure Services > Control.
2. In the left menu, select Administrative Sessions.
3. Click Lock.
4. In the Session Password Setup section, select yes from the menu list for Disable Session Passwords.
   
5. After changing the value from no to yes, the firewall will require you to re-enter your password for each new tab that is handled under a new session.