Aruba Logon Lifetime Parameter

Aruba wireless controllers have a preset logon lifetime parameter that controls the amount of time the user remains authenticated on the controller after the client stops communicating, such as when the user disconnects from the network. The default setting for this parameter is 5 minutes.

The Logon Lifetime parameter is configurable. Results in FortiNAC will vary depending on the length of time set. You may want to change this setting depending on how you are using FortiNAC. For example, if you are doing testing you may want to set this to 0 minutes but for everyday use you may want to leave the default setting of 5 minutes.

If the time is set to the default of 5 minutes and a user disconnects and reconnects to the network in less than five minutes, the controller allows that user to go back on the network without re-authenticating. FortiNAC will not be aware that this has occurred and will not show the disconnect and subsequent reconnect. If the host has been manually deleted or aged out of the database for testing purposes, the host displays as an unmanaged rogue in FortiNAC. FortiNAC is not aware of that the host has reconnected because no authentication request was received.

If the time is set to 0 minutes, when users disconnect and reconnect to the network or stop communicating, they may need to re-authenticate. The need to re-authenticate frequently may cause a poor user experience. Additional authentication requests will be sent to FortiNAC resulting in more traffic. On a large network with many controllers additional traffic could cause a degradation of service.