Max remote sessions for login:admin is 2

http://community.brocade.com/t5/Fibre-Channel-SAN/Unable-to-login-maximum-number-of-remote-sessions-reached/td-p/11011

I ran into this problem while logging into a DCX switch today.

Sorry! Max remote sessions for login:admin is 2

The "killtelnet" command could not resolve the problem.  Also a "kill" on the "telnetd" or in my case a "sshd" was not possible.

To resolve the problem, I had to login as root and truncate the /var/run/utmp file. (Note: do not delete this file)  
I specifically issued the following: cat /dev/null  >/var/run/utmp  .

 

What seemed to be the cause is an abnormally terminated telnet or ssh session. It left remnants of a session that can be seen using the "who" command but was no longer visible in the output of "i" or "killtelnet" commands. 

 

I am pasting the putty session log for clarification.

user33@sanmgmt-host42:$ ssh admin@DCX001-A
admin@DCX001-A's password:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry! Max remote sessions for login:admin is 2
Connection to DCX001-A closed.

user33@sanmgmt-host42:$ ssh root@DCX001-A
root@DCX001-A's password:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer for Root and Factory Accounts Usage!

DCX001-A:root> who
root     pts/0    Nov 19 20:33
admin    pts/2    Mar  9 21:04

DCX001-A:root> i |grep pts
4 S     0  5684  5665  0  75   0 -   734 -      pts/0    00:00:00 sh
4 S     0  7096  5684  0  78   0 -  3440 -      pts/0    00:00:00 i
0 S     0  7097  5684  0  75   0 -   436 -      pts/0    00:00:00 grep
0 R     0  7100  7096  0  80   0 -   557 -      pts/0    00:00:00 ps

DCX001-A:root> killtelnet

Collecting login information....

                   List of sessions (1 found)
______________________________________________________________________________
 Session No   USER     TTY      IDLE     LOGIN@ FROM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     0        root     pts/0    0.00s    20:26  10.44.44.40
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enter Session Number to terminate (q to quit) q

 

DCX001-A:root> cat /dev/null >/var/run/utmp

DCX001-A:root> who

DCX001-A:root> logout
Connection to DCX001-A closed.

user33@sanmgmt-host42:$ ssh root@DCX001-A
root@DCX001-A's password:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer for Root and Factory Accounts Usage!

DCX001-A:root> who
root     pts/0    Nov 19 21:39

DCX001-A:root> logout
Connection to DCX001-A closed.

user33@sanmgmt-host42:$ ssh admin@DCX001-A
admin@DCX001-A's password:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

DCX001-A:admin> uptime
 22:14:23 up 662 days, 22:26,  1 user,  load average: 0.28, 0.10, 0.02

DCX001-A:admin> logout
Connection to DCX001-A closed.