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Configure every PHP worker with the same session handler, the same Memcached server pool, compatible cookie settings, and consistent hashing. For the memcached extension, enable session locking and use a configuration like session.save_path = "sess-a:11211,sess-b:11211,sess-c:11211". Requests can then reach any application server and still find the session by its key, without load-balancer stickiness.
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The configuration that makes sessions shared
PHP sessions are shared when all web and PHP workers address the same logical Memcached pool. The session ID remains in the client’s cookie; each worker uses that ID to calculate the session key and retrieve the corresponding value. A request routed to a different worker therefore reads the same session instead of creating a second, unrelated session.
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For the actively maintained memcached PHP extension, a practical baseline is:
session.save_handler = memcached
session.save_path = "sess-a:11211,sess-b:11211,sess-c:11211"
memcached.sess_consistent_hash = On
memcached.sess_locking = Onsession.save_path is a comma-separated list of hostname:port entries for Memcached sessions. Put the equivalent settings on every PHP worker, not just on the server that receives most traffic.
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This arrangement removes the need for sticky sessions at the load balancer. Stickiness can still be useful for other reasons, but it should not be the mechanism that makes PHP sessions work.
What must match on every PHP worker
A shared pool cannot correct differences in the way workers name, encode, or expire sessions. Before adding a second application server, make the following values and extension versions compatible:
- Session handler: use the same extension family and the same
session.save_handlervalue everywhere. - Server list: use the same Memcached hostnames, ports, and ordering unless you have deliberately designed different weighted pools.
- Cookie behavior: keep the session cookie name and its path, domain, secure, HTTP-only, and SameSite choices consistent. A browser that sends different cookie names to different hosts is not sharing one session.
- Serialization and protocol options: use compatible extension settings, including binary-protocol mode and any proxy requirements.
- Session lifetime: set
session.gc_maxlifetimedeliberately and make sure the cache can retain active entries for at least that period.
Deploy configuration as one versioned change. A worker with memcache and another with memcached may both be able to talk to the cluster, but their directive names, hashing controls, and failover behavior are different.
Configure the php-memcached extension
Set the handler and pool
The memcached extension uses the configuration shown above. Each entry is a host and port, separated by commas. For example:
session.save_handler = memcached
session.save_path = "cache-1.internal:11211,cache-2.internal:11211,cache-3.internal:11211"Do not add a tcp:// prefix to this syntax unless your installed extension documentation specifically requires it. The PHP memcached session reference defines the pool as comma-separated hostname:port entries.
Use consistent hashing
Set memcached.sess_consistent_hash = On. The PHP documentation describes this as libketama consistent hashing: when a node is added or removed, only a smaller portion of keys is remapped than with a simple modulo calculation.
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Consistent hashing limits remapping; it does not copy data. If a session existed only on a node that was permanently removed, or if Memcached evicted it, hashing cannot reconstruct that session.
Leave session locking enabled
Set memcached.sess_locking = On, which is also the documented default in current references. Locking matters when two requests use the same session ID at the same time, such as parallel AJAX calls. One request obtains the lock, reads and updates the session, writes it back, and releases the lock before another request proceeds. Without coordination, the later write can overwrite changes made by the earlier request.
The extension exposes these lock controls:
memcached.sess_lock_wait_minmemcached.sess_lock_wait_maxmemcached.sess_lock_retriesmemcached.sess_lock_expire
Do not tune them by guesswork. Measure the longest normal session-writing request and the amount of parallel traffic sharing one session, then adjust waits, retry count, and lock expiry. A lock expiry that is shorter than a legitimate request can permit a second writer to enter while the first is still running; an excessively long expiry can make abandoned locks block users.
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The older memcache extension has a different handler name and save-path grammar:
session.save_handler = memcache
session.save_path = "tcp://cache-1.internal:11211, tcp://cache-2.internal:11211, tcp://cache-3.internal:11211"The PHP memcache reference documents comma-separated server URLs such as tcp://host1:11211, tcp://host2:11211. Do not copy memcached.* directives into a memcache configuration; they belong to a different extension.
| Area | memcached extension |
memcache extension |
|---|---|---|
| Handler value | session.save_handler = memcached |
session.save_handler = memcache |
| Pool syntax | Comma-separated host:port entries |
Comma-separated URLs such as tcp://host:11211 |
| Consistent hashing | memcached.sess_consistent_hash; type can be ketama or ketama_weighted where available |
The extension exposes a consistent hash strategy |
| Locking controls | Session locking and wait, retry, and expiry directives are documented | Directive set and defaults differ; use the installed extension’s reference |
| Failover controls | Session replicas and failed-server removal are available | memcache.allow_failover, memcache.max_failover_attempts, and memcache.session_redundancy are exposed |
Choose one extension deliberately, confirm which one is loaded by the PHP runtime serving web requests, and use only its directives. A command-line PHP binary and a web-server PHP process can load different configuration files, so verify the effective web configuration rather than assuming the CLI environment is representative.
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What happens when nodes are added or removed
Planned changes
With consistent hashing enabled, adding a node does not move every existing key. Only keys in the affected hash ranges are assigned to the new topology. Removing a node similarly remaps the ranges that belonged to it. This reduces, but does not eliminate, session misses during a topology change.
Before a planned removal, drain traffic if possible and give users enough time to complete important workflows. A drained node can still hold sessions that have not been copied elsewhere. Removing it without replicas or an application-level recovery path will log out users whose sessions were stored there.
Unplanned loss
Consistent hashing is a placement algorithm, not persistence. It cannot recover an entry after node loss, memory pressure, expiration, or eviction. Treat a cache-node outage as a possible session loss event and decide in advance whether the application should ask users to sign in again, rebuild a cart from durable data, or take another recovery action.
Replicas and failover: useful, but not durable storage
The memcached extension can write session data to additional nodes with memcached.sess_number_of_replicas. The PHP manual calls this “poor man’s HA.” Replication can reduce the chance that one node failure loses a session, but it does not provide strongly consistent, durable storage.
A replica may be stale, and a failed server that later returns may contain old data or no data at all. If a node is removed from service automatically, configure memcached.sess_remove_failed_servers and its failure limit only when you also have a plan for recovery and reintroduction. Otherwise, a transient network fault can create a different problem when the old node comes back and is trusted again.
For the memcache extension, the corresponding controls include:
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memcache.allow_failoverto permit trying another server after a failure.memcache.max_failover_attemptsto limit how many alternatives are attempted.memcache.session_redundancyto control redundant session storage.- The
consistenthash strategy to reduce remapping when the server list changes.
Failover attempts add latency to a request when a server is unavailable. Set limits that fit your request budget, and monitor both error rates and response time instead of judging failover only by whether a request eventually succeeds.
Binary protocol and proxy compatibility
Protocol mode must match both the extension and any Memcached proxy in front of the servers. The PHP memcached reference states that libmemcached replicas work only when binary mode is enabled. It also documents that certain proxies, including twemproxy, require binary protocol to be disabled.
Set memcached.sess_binary_protocol according to the actual path:
- Direct connections with libmemcached replicas: binary mode must be enabled for the replica feature to work.
- A proxy that accepts only the text protocol: binary mode must be disabled, even if direct-node documentation recommends enabling it.
- Mixed or changing deployments: verify the requirement for the exact proxy and extension versions before rollout; do not infer it from another environment.
Inspect the effective value with phpinfo() or your runtime’s configuration inspection. A setting in an unused php.ini file does not change the web process.
Expiration, eviction, and capacity planning
session.gc_maxlifetime expresses how long PHP considers an inactive session eligible for collection. Memcached also has its own memory limit and eviction behavior. The cache must have enough free capacity and an eviction policy that can retain active session entries for the lifetime your application promises.
Increasing session.gc_maxlifetime without increasing cache capacity can make the configuration look correct while users are still logged out early because Memcached evicts entries under pressure. Monitor memory usage, evictions, item age, and session-miss rates. A low miss rate during a quiet period does not prove that the pool will retain sessions during a traffic spike.
Memcached is an in-memory cache. The PHP handler settings described here do not turn it into a durable database. If losing a session would cause unacceptable financial, legal, or operational harm, store the authoritative state in a durable shared system and use the session as a retrievable convenience, or choose a durable session-store design instead.
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Roll out the configuration safely
- Inventory the runtime. Record the PHP version, loaded session extension, extension version, and the configuration file used by the web process.
- Prepare the pool. Confirm DNS or addresses, ports, firewall rules, and authentication or network isolation required by your Memcached deployment.
- Apply identical baseline settings. Set the same handler, server list, cookie behavior, session lifetime, hashing mode, lock setting, and protocol mode on every worker.
- Test one worker first. Create a session, make a request through that worker, then retrieve the same session through another worker or a second application instance.
- Test concurrency. Send parallel requests with one session ID and verify that updates are not silently lost. Include a request that takes longer than usual so lock timing is exercised.
- Test node failure. Remove or isolate one cache node in a staging environment. Record whether sessions are preserved, which requests become slower, and how the application handles a miss.
- Test recovery. Bring the node back and verify whether old values, empty values, or stale replicas are observed. Confirm that your removal and re-addition procedure does not reintroduce bad data.
- Roll out gradually. Shift a small percentage of traffic, watch session-miss, login, error, latency, lock-wait, and Memcached-eviction metrics, then expand the rollout.
Troubleshooting common failures
Users receive a new session on every request
- Check that the browser sends the same cookie name, domain, path, secure flag, and SameSite behavior to each application host.
- Confirm that all workers use the same
session.save_handlerand that the extension is actually loaded by the web runtime. - Verify that every worker can resolve and connect to every listed Memcached endpoint.
- Look for immediate eviction or a lifetime shorter than expected.
Sessions disappear after a node change
Confirm that consistent hashing was enabled before the change and that the missing keys were not located solely on the removed node. Hashing reduces remapping but cannot preserve data that has no surviving copy. If replicas were enabled, check whether binary protocol mode matched the requirement and whether the replica was stale.
Parallel requests overwrite each other
Check memcached.sess_locking and the effective lock wait, retry, and expiry values. If locking is disabled, re-enable it for ordinary PHP sessions. If requests routinely exceed the lock expiry, measure their duration and adjust the expiry rather than simply increasing retries.
Requests become slow during an outage
Inspect failover attempts and connection timeouts. A large failover count can turn one unavailable node into a long request delay. Reduce attempts only after confirming that the remaining pool can meet availability requirements, and make sure the application has a defined behavior when no session copy can be read.
Replicas do not work through a proxy
Check the binary protocol setting first. Libmemcached replicas require binary mode, while some proxies require it to be disabled. The proxy’s supported protocol and the extension’s effective memcached.sess_binary_protocol value must agree.
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- Every worker has the same handler and complete server pool.
- Session cookie settings are consistent across all application hosts.
- Consistent hashing is enabled and its supported type is known.
- Session locking remains on, with lock tuning based on measured request duration.
- Replica and failed-server-removal behavior has a documented recovery procedure.
- Binary protocol mode is compatible with the extension, replicas, and any proxy.
session.gc_maxlifetimefits available memory and observed eviction behavior.- Monitoring covers session misses, login spikes, lock waits, latency, node health, memory, and evictions.
- The application can tolerate a missing session or can reconstruct critical state from durable storage.
Recommended design decision
For a new deployment, use the memcached extension with an identical multi-node pool on every worker, explicit consistent hashing, session locking, and a tested node-failure procedure. Add replicas only when their protocol and stale-data consequences are understood. If a session must survive cache loss, do not rely on Memcached alone: keep the important state in a durable shared store and treat the PHP session as a cacheable access layer.
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