Running Two Server Instances on the Same Hostname Using Different Ports

Description

If you run two instances of the Alpha Anywhere Application Server on the same machine with the same hostname but different ports, you may encounter a problem of the sessions conflicting between the two instances. The way to fix this is to use different cookie names on the two instances.

For example, suppose you have server instances at http://www.server1.com:80 and http://www.server1.com:81. Unless you change the configuration for one server, they will use the same session cookie name, "A5WSessionId". If both servers use the same cookie name, you cannot log into both servers simultaneously in the same web browser. This is because the first server will consider you logged out when you log into the second server.

To fix this, open the Advanced tab in the Application Server Settings for one instance and change the Session Cookie Name. Each instance must have a unique cookie name in order to support logging into each site in the same browser.

images/edit_cookie_name.png
The Session Cookie Name is used when determining whether or not you are logged in to the server.
This issue is not present if two instances uses different hostnames or if you are using the Alpha Anywhere Application Server for IIS.

See Also