HTTP 401 error "Login failed: session limit reached"

Symptom

A REST request or Web UI login attempt returns response code 401 and the response body contains the following text string:

Login failed: session limit reached

Cause

A user attempted to log into the REST API or the Web UI, but that user already has the maximum number of concurrent sessions running.

Action
  1. Log out from one of the existing sessions.

    Browsers share a single session cookie across multiple tabs or even windows. However, scripts that POST to the login resource and later do not POST to the logout resource can easily create the maximum number of concurrent sessions.

  2. If the session cookie is lost and it is not possible to log out of the session, then wait for the session idle time limit to expire.

    When the session idle timeout expires, the session is terminated automatically.

  3. If it is required to stop all HTTPS sessions on the switch instead of waiting for the session idle time limit to expire, you can stop all HTTPS sessions using the https-server session close all command.

    This command stops and starts the hpe-restd service, so using this command affects all existing REST sessions, Web UI sessions, and real-time notification subscriptions.