To increase the timeout value for the vSphere Web Client:

1. In the computer where the vSphere Web Client is installed, open the webclient.properties file using a text editor.
   
   Note: This file is located at:
   
   vCenter Server 5.x
    
   • Windows 2003 – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\vSphere Web Client
   • Windows 2008/2012 – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\vSphere Web Client
   • VMware vCenter Server Appliance – /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client
   
   vCenter Server 6.x
    
   • Windows:
      
     • For Flash-based Web Client - %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client
        

     • For HTML5 vSphere Client in vSphere 6.5 - %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-ui
        

   • vCenter Server Appliance:
      

     • For Flash-based Web Client - /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/

     • For HTML5 vSphere Client in vSphere 6.5 - /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/

2. Add this line to the webclient.properties file:
   
   Note: If the line already exists, verify that the line does not contain a hash (#).
   
   session.timeout = value
   
   where value is the timeout value in minutes.
   
   For example, to set the timeout value to 150 minutes, add the line:
   
   session.timeout = 150
   
   Note: To set the client to never time out, specify a negative value or 0.
   
    
3. Restart the vSphere Web Client service.
    
   • In Windows vCenter Server 5.x, use services.msc to restart the VMware web client service.

      

   • In vCenter Server Appliance 5.x, run this command:
     
     /etc/init.d/vsphere-client restart
      
   • In Windows vCenter Server 6.x:
      
     • To restart Flash-based Web Client service, run these commands using Command-Prompt:
       
       C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\service-control --stop vspherewebclientsvc
       C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\service-control --start vspherewebclientsvc
        
     • To restart HTML5 vSphere Client service in vSphere 6.5, run these commands using Command-Prompt:
       
       C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\service-control --stop vsphere-ui
       C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\service-control --start vsphere-ui
        
   • In vCenter Server Appliance 6.x:
      
     • To restart Flash-based Web Client service, run these commands:
       
       service-control --stop vsphere-client
       service-control --start vsphere-client
        
     • To restart HTML5 vSphere Client service in vSphere 6.5, run these commands:
       
       service-control --stop vsphere-ui
       service-control --start vsphere-ui