Why does my WorkSpace frequently disconnect and reconnect?

Resolution

Prerequisites: Make sure that you're using the latest WorkSpaces client version.

Troubleshoot RTT issues

High round-trip time (RTT) or an unstable internet connection typically cause intermittent WorkSpaces disconnection issues.

For a healthy connection from your network to the AWS Region that your WorkSpace is in, use the following guidelines:

• For PCoIP WorkSpaces, the RTT must be less than 100 ms.
• For DCV WorkSpaces, the RTT must be less than 250 ms.

To check the network health of the machine that the WorkSpaces client is running on and your WorkSpace, complete the following steps:

1. Open the WorkSpaces Personal client.
2. Select your WorkSpace registration code, and then choose Continue.
3. Choose Network.
4. Check the internet connectivity, and TCP and UDP port connectivity to the WorkSpaces endpoints.

You can also monitor the InSessionLatency and UDPPacketLossRate Amazon CloudWatch metrics to check the network health.

Note: Connection issues can occur when you're connected through a VPN, and then connect to your WorkSpace. Check whether the issue occurs only when you use the VPN or proxy.

Make sure that WorkSpaces is configured correctly

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the WorkSpaces Personal client.
2. In the navigation bar, choose Settings, and then choose Manage connection settings.
3. Make sure that your proxy server and port details are accurate. Also, make sure that your local device network configuration, such as local and network firewalls, allow the required ports. You must add the required domains and IP addresses to the allowlist.

(DCV WorkSpaces only) Troubleshoot streaming issues

For slow networks, use the UDP protocol to reduce the TCP overhead. PCoIP WorkSpaces can only stream over UDP, but DCV WorkSpaces can stream over both TCP and UDP.

To make sure that your DCV WorkSpace uses only the UDP protocol, complete the following steps:

1. Open the Workspaces Personal client application.
2. Choose Settings.
3. Select Connection settings from the dropdown list.
4. Under DCV streaming settings, clear the Use TCP transport protocol only checkbox.
   Note: If you configured a proxy server, then you must select Use proxy setting when using TCP connection.
5. Choose Save, and then connect to your WorkSpace to monitor its performance.

Troubleshoot sessions that disconnect mid-session

A session randomly disconnects

Monitor the MemoryUsage, RootVolumeDiskUsage and CPUUsage CloudWatch metrics.

To troubleshoot high resource usage, see the following AWS Knowledge Center articles:

• How do I diagnose high CPU utilization on my EC2 Windows instance when my CPU is not being throttled?
• Why is my EC2 Linux instance becoming unresponsive due to over-utilization of resources?

Also, make sure that that antivirus software excludes the required WorkSpaces service components.

WorkSpaces Personal shuts down automatically

For WorkSpaces Personal, the High performance power plan is turned on by default. However, a Group Policy for a power plan can cause a WorkSpace to automatically shut down. For example, you use the Set time limit for active but idle Remote Desktop Services Sessions Group Policy. For more information about how Group Policy settings can affect your WorkSpaces, see Manage your Windows WorkSpaces in WorkSpaces Personal.

To set a Group Policy to block an automatic shutdown, open the file path, Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options. Choose Shutdown, and then set Allow system to be shut down without having to log on to Disabled.

(SAML 2.0 WorkSpaces only) A session disconnects after a specific duration

With SAML 2.0 authentication, you use the SessionDuration attribute to set the session duration. If your WorkSpaces disconnect mid-session at specific intervals, then increase the value of this attribute.

For more information, see My users are getting disconnected from their WorkSpaces session every 60 minutes.

Reboot the affected WorkSpace

To resolve temporary operating system (OS) issues that cause connection issues, use the WorkSpaces console to reboot the WorkSpace.

Related information

Monitor your WorkSpaces using CloudWatch metrics

Troubleshoot issues for WorkSpaces Personal

Troubleshoot WorkSpaces client issues

Why is my WorkSpaces performance slow?

Bandwidth recommendations