Kevin, we have run into this problem with VPN/Firewall connections before. For whatever reason, the firewall nazis will not change the way the firewall times out for our interface connections over VPNs. So, we worked with the vendor and created a heartbeat message that is sent with a cronjob every 5 minutes.
I’ll paste our code below, but keep in mind you’ll have to modify it for your own needs.
################################################################################
#
# Name: heartbeat
# Purpose: Send a heartbeat to keep vpn/firewall connections alive
#
################################################################################
# Note: The heartbeat message needs to be in $HCISITEDIR/iig/files/ directory.
global HciRoot
# Set the date (used for debugging and logging if needed)
set date [clock format [clock seconds] -format %Y%m%d]
# Example cron:
#00,05,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * . ~/.profile.cron;/hci/bin/heartbeat.tcl testbno bno31 bno31bblab_out heartbeat_bb.hl7 heartbeat_bb.log > /dev/null 2>&1
# Get args
set scriptName $argv0
set site [lindex $argv 0]
set process [lindex $argv 1]
set thread [lindex $argv 2]
set heartbeat [lindex $argv 3]
set log [lindex $argv 4]
# Set up the environment for Cloverleaf commands
eval [exec $HciRoot/sbin/hcisetenv -root tcl $HciRoot $site]
# Send the heartbeat
#catch {exec hcicmd -p $process [code]#!/hci/quovadx/qdx5.6/integrator/bin/tcl
################################################################################
#
# Name: heartbeat
# Purpose: Send a heartbeat to keep vpn/firewall connections alive
#
################################################################################
# Note: The heartbeat message needs to be in $HCISITEDIR/iig/files/ directory.
global HciRoot
# Set the date (used for debugging and logging if needed)
set date [clock format [clock seconds] -format %Y%m%d]
# Example cron:
#00,05,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * . ~/.profile.cron;/hci/bin/heartbeat.tcl testbno bno31 bno31bblab_out heartbeat_bb.hl7 heartbeat_bb.log > /dev/null 2>&1
# Get args
set scriptName $argv0
set site [lindex $argv 0]
set process [lindex $argv 1]
set thread [lindex $argv 2]
set heartbeat [lindex $argv 3]
set log [lindex $argv 4]
# Set up the environment for Cloverleaf commands
eval [exec $HciRoot/sbin/hcisetenv -root tcl $HciRoot $site]
# Send the heartbeat
#catch {exec hcicmd -p $process
.
