When Mac OS X clients connect to Access Connect, they receive an encrypted reconnect credential. In the event that the connection to the server is broken, Access Connect keeps the session alive by putting it into Waiting For Reconnect mode. While in this mode, all files and volumes opened by the session remain open. When the client machine reestablishes contact with the server, the client (silently) supplies the server with the reconnect credential. Access Connect decrypts the credential and uses it to authenticate the user.
If the authentication is successful, the client is logged into the server. The computer follows up this login with a request to disconnect its old session. Access Connect finds the old session, transfers its open files and volumes to the new session, and deletes the old session. The new session has access to the old session’s assets. If the old session is no longer available because it timed out or was manually disconnected or because the Access Connect service restarted or failed over, Access Connect returns an error to the client when the client tries to disconnect the old session. In this case, the client machine tries to reopen any files and volumes that were open in the old session. Any data written to those files are lost if those data have not yet been flushed to disk.
However, the new session has access to those files automatically. In the event that the Macintosh client crashes and reboots while connected to the Access Connect server, the old session is placed in Waiting For Reconnect mode as described above. The next time the Macintosh client logs into the server, Access Connect detects that a client reboot has taken place and automatically disconnects the old session and closes any files that the session had opened. Since the client has rebooted, Access Connect does not transfer files to the new session; the reboot has wiped away knowledge of the old session from the client. This feature helps alleviate the problem of a client-side crash leaving files open on the server. Sessions remain in a Waiting For Reconnect state for five minutes; then they are automatically disconnected and their open files closed. This reconnect timeout is configurable through a registry setting. You can use the registry keys to affect the way Access Connect reconnects a session; see Appendix A: Using the Registry Keys.