Session history

Session history shows past connections to your MQTT broker. Use it to analyze patterns, debug intermittent disconnects, and audit connection activity.

Accessing session history

Log into the CloudSignal dashboard
Click Sessions in the sidebar
Select History tab

Understanding history records

Each history entry shows:

Field	Description
Client ID	The MQTT client identifier
Username	The authenticated user
Connected At	When the connection was established
Disconnected At	When the connection ended
Duration	How long the session lasted
Disconnect reason	Why the connection ended

Disconnect reasons

Reason	Description
Normal	Client disconnected gracefully
Keep-alive timeout	Client stopped responding to pings
Client disconnect	Client sent DISCONNECT packet
Server disconnect	Broker closed the connection
Takeover	New connection with same client ID
Auth failure	Authentication rejected
Protocol error	Invalid MQTT packets

Filtering history

By time range

Select a time period:

Last hour
Last 24 hours
Last 7 days
Custom range

By client

Search for specific clients:

Search: agent-001
-> Shows all historical sessions for agent-001

By disconnect reason

Filter to see only certain types of disconnections:

All disconnects
Normal only
Errors only
Timeouts only

Analyzing patterns

Connection frequency

Review how often clients connect and disconnect:

agent-001 history (last 24h):
  Connected: 08:00 -> Disconnected: 20:00 (12h)
  Connected: 08:00 -> Disconnected: 20:00 (12h)

Pattern: client connects during working hours only

Short-lived connections

Identify unstable connections:

mobile-app history (last hour):
  Connected: 10:00:00 -> 10:00:05 (5s)
  Connected: 10:00:10 -> 10:00:15 (5s)
  Connected: 10:00:20 -> 10:00:25 (5s)

Problem: client is in a reconnection loop

Keep-alive timeouts

Clients that stop responding:

gateway-001 history:
  Disconnect reason: Keep-alive timeout
  Duration: 45 minutes

Possible causes:
  - Network dropped without clean disconnect
  - Client process crashed
  - Firewall closed connection

Common investigations

"Why did my client disconnect?"

Find the session in history
Check the Disconnect reason
Review the Duration (was it expected?)
Look for patterns (same time each day?)

"Is my client reliably connected?"

Filter history for the specific client
Count disconnections in a time period
Check if disconnects are normal or errors

Last 7 days for agent-001:
  Total sessions: 7
  Normal disconnects: 7
  Error disconnects: 0
  Average duration: 24h

Status: Healthy - one clean reconnect per day

"What happened at 3am?"

Set time filter to the period in question
Review all disconnections
Look for mass disconnects (server issue) vs individual (client issue)

2024-01-15 03:00-03:05:
  50 clients disconnected
  Reason: Server restart (planned maintenance)

Click on a client to see a visual timeline (rendered in the dashboard, not as text). The dashboard shows per-day connection bars across the selected time range so you can spot gaps and short reconnects at a glance.

Exporting history

Export session history for external analysis:

Set your filters
Click Export
Choose format (CSV, JSON)
Download

Use case	Why export helps
Compliance audits	Record connection activity for review
Capacity planning	Long-range trends beyond dashboard view
Custom analytics	Combine with your own data sources