[systemd-devel] Many user slices created and user managers spawned on boot

[Steve Bergman]

Hi,

I have a Debian 9 server, fully updated (systemd 240-4) which acts as an 
X2Go desktop server hosting remote X sessions for about 150 users.  I've 
made no special customizations to the systemd configuration.  On boot, 
immediately after systemd-user-sessions.service starts, systemd 
immediately creates slices for most of my users, starts a user manager 
for each, and mounts a run directory for each.  Users which have not 
logged in for a very long time (possibly since before the upgrade from 
Debian 7 with sysvinit to Debian 9 with systemd) are not included.  But 
if I log in as one of these users then, starting with the next reboot, 
those accounts are included, as well.

Is this normal?  This server is certainly acting quite differently than 
any of my others, where the slices and management processes get created 
on login and destroyed on logout.

I've googled and googled, and I can't seem to find any reports of anyone 
else mentioning this.

Here is a sample of the syslog output during boot:

Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Started Permit User Sessions.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of ap3.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of billing9.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dallas10.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dallas12.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of hagar5.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dalparts1.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of mark.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1068...
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of okcship3.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dallas14.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 648...
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of epparts2.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dalparts6.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1058...
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 1077...
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dalsvc11.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of kathy.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of operator1.
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Starting User Manager for UID 612...
Jan 26 08:22:44 hagar systemd[1]: Created slice User Slice of dalparts11.
...

Thanks for any feedback,
Steve Bergman