> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sonarsource.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/2026.4/server-installation/pre-installation/jwt-token.md).

# Defining a JWT token

Optional pre-installation step to keep user sessions alive during startup in SonarQube Server 2026.4.

By default, users are logged out and sessions closed when server is restarted. If you prefer keeping user sessions open, a secret should be defined. Value is HS256 key encoded with base64. It must be unique for each installation of SonarQube Server.

The following examples illustrate how to generate a HS256 key encoded with base64, where `your_secret` and `your_key` are arbitrary strings that can be modified.

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="WINDOWS SYSTEM WITH POWERSHELL" %}

```powershell
$message = 'your_secret'
$secret = 'your_key'

$hmacsha = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.HMACSHA256
$hmacsha.key = [Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($secret)
$signature = $hmacsha.ComputeHash([Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($message))
$signature = [Convert]::ToBase64String($signature)

echo $signature
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="UNIX SYSTEM" %}

```sh
echo -n "your_secret" | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "your_key" -binary | base64
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}


---

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