Viewing connected users in ArcGIS for Desktop

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

As a geodatabase administrator, you can use the Connections tab on the Geodatabase Administration dialog box in ArcGIS for Desktop to see who is connected to your ArcSDE geodatabase. The Geodatabase Administration dialog box is opened from database connections in the Catalog tree.

The following properties are displayed on the Connections tab of the Geodatabase Administration dialog box:

• User Name: The login of the connected user
• Session ID: The unique identifier assigned to a user connection by the geodatabase
• Connection Type: The type of connection being made by the client to the geodatabase; either a direct connection (Direct Connect) or an ArcSDE service (Application Server)
  Note:

  Connection type information is not available when connecting to geodatabase releases prior to 10.

• Client Machine: The name of the computer from which the connection is being made
• Date: The date and time the client connected to the geodatabase
  Note:

  Date information is not available when connecting to geodatabase releases prior to 10.1.

The total number of connections and the time the information was last refreshed are displayed at the bottom of the Connections tab. Click Refresh to update the display with the latest connection information.

The information provided on the Connections tab of the Geodatabase Administration dialog box helps you monitor which users and client machines are connecting to your geodatabase and how long each session has been open. This is helpful if you have a limited number of shared licenses and need to know who is using them. You can also use the list of connected users to detect orphaned sessions that need to be removed from the geodatabase and identify the users who must be contacted and asked to log out before you start a maintenance operation, such as a geodatabase upgrade, or before you restart the service or the database.

The following steps explain how you access the list of connected user sessions from ArcGIS for Desktop:

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap or ArcCatalog and create a database connection to your geodatabase.

   You must connect as the geodatabase administrator.

2. Right-click the database connection in the Catalog tree, point to Administration, then click Administer Geodatabase.
3. Click the Connections tab.

   A list of all user sessions that are currently connected to the geodatabase is displayed. Your session is displayed in gray, italic text.

If necessary, you can disconnect user sessions from this dialog box by right-clicking a session and clicking Disconnect User. See "Related Topics" for the topic appropriate to your database management system for guidelines on disconnecting users and information about required permissions.