Idle connections freeze or lock RDP and MySQL

[#1]

We have a problem with a HA FortiGate-300 cluster. The cluster is in transparant mode. We have found that if we leave a command line mysql client open and idle, it will become locked out after a couple of minutes. It doesn' t disconnect, it just hangs on the next query as the tcp connection has gone away. We see something similar with Remote Desktop connections through the FortiGate. If left idle for a while, the connection will go away. RDP will recover, but the desktop will be frozen for about a minute. As the FG is in transparant mode, I assume session time-outs don' t come into play, or do they?

[abelio]

As the FG is in transparant mode, I assume session time-outs don' t come into play, or do they?

Timeouts play even in TP mode, but you' re talking about couple of minutes, a very short timeout. Defaults are higher (3600 sec), so it seems to be another issue. Check table sessions in dashboard and play with ' config system session-ttl' CLI command for your protocols, i.e, for rdp standard 3389/tcp port:

 config system session-ttl
         config port
             edit 3389
                 set timeout 7200
             next
         end
 end
 

[#3]

Abel, You did however hit the nail on the head. Either the default changed or the previous admin (I inherited this setup from a takeover) had some interesting ideas...

 config system session-ttl
     set default 300
         config port
             edit 22
                 set timeout 3600
             next
         end
 end
 

[abelio]

interesting, maybe your previous admin tried to react to ' The system has entered conserve mode' message for a overloaded box; there' s an kc' s article (http://kc.forticare.com/default.asp?id=1076) where one of the emergency settings was set default timeout to 300 sec. Or the emergency became permanent or you' ve inherited the box meanwhile; maybe the cluster was the way to solve the overload, or maybe earlier admin ' had some interesting ideas... ' best regards,