Session Reliability

Session Reliability keeps sessions active and keeps on the user’s screen display when network connectivity is interrupted. Users continue to see the application they are using until network connectivity resumes.

The user continues to access the display during the interruption and can resume interacting with the application when the network connection is restored. Session Reliability reconnects users without re-authentication prompts. Citrix Receiver users cannot override the controller setting. By default, Session Reliability is enabled through policy settings. The Session Reliability timeout policy setting has a default of 180 seconds, or 3 minutes and uses port 2598.

Auto Client Reconnect

Users can be disconnected from their sessions because of unreliable networks, highly variable network latency, or range limitations of wireless devices. With the Auto Client Reconnect feature, Receiver can detect unintended disconnections of ICA sessions and reconnect users to the affected sessions automatically. When Auto Client Reconnect feature is enabled on the server, users do not have to reconnect the interrupted sessions manually to continue working without having to re-authenticate.

By default, Auto Client Reconnect is enabled through policy settings at site level. User re-authentication is not required. However, if a server’s ICA-TCP connection is configured to reset sessions with a broken communication link, automatic reconnection does not occur. Auto Client Reconnect works only if the server disconnects sessions when there is a broken or timed out connection.

ICA Keep-Alive

Enabling the ICA Keep-Alive feature prevents broken connections from being disconnected. When enabled, if the server detects no activity (i.e., no mouse movement and no screen updates), this feature prevents Remote Desktop Services from disconnecting that session. The server sends keep-alive packets every few seconds to detect if the session is active. If the session is no longer active, the server marks the session as disconnected.

The ICA Keep-Alive feature works only if you are not using Session Reliability. Session Reliability has its own mechanisms to prevent broken connections from being disconnected. Configure ICA Keep-Alive only for connections that do not use Session Reliability. ICA Keep-Alive settings override keep-alive settings that are configured in Microsoft Windows Group Policy.