Using a Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster as a PHP session storage

You can use Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ clusters for storing PHP session data.

To configure a Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster as PHP session storage:

1. Configure PHP to use the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster as storage for sessions.
2. Check whether PHP session data is saved to the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster.

If you no longer need the resources you created, delete them.

Required paid resourcesRequired paid resources

The support cost includes:

• Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ target cluster fee: Using computing resources allocated to hosts, and its disk space (see Valkey™ pricing).
• Fee for using public IP addresses if public access is enabled for cluster hosts (see Virtual Private Cloud pricing).
• VM fee: using computing resources, storage, and public IP address (see Compute Cloud pricing).

Getting startedGetting started

Prepare the infrastructurePrepare the infrastructure

Configure additional settingsConfigure additional settings

1. Connect to the VM with the web server via SSH and configure it:

   • Install certificates:

     sudo mkdir --parents /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/ && \
     sudo wget "https://storage.yandexcloud.net/cloud-certs/CA.pem" \
         --output-document /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt
     

   • Prepare the environment and install the phpredis library using pecl:

     sudo apt update && \
     sudo apt install php-dev pkg-php-tools redis-tools --yes && \
     sudo pecl channel-update pecl.php.net && \
     sudo pecl install redis
     

   • Become the owner of the /var/www/html/ directory and delete all its contents:

     sudo chown <username> /var/www/html/ --recursive && \
     rm /var/www/html/*
     

Configure PHP to use the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster as storage for sessionsConfigure PHP to use the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster as storage for sessions

1. Make changes to the php.ini configuration file for your web server.

   The php.ini file is usually located in the following directory:

   • /etc/php/7.2/apache2/ for Apache
   • /etc/php/7.2/fpm/ for NGINX

   To find out the location of php.ini, run the sudo find /etc/ -name php.ini command.

   Note

   There is no need to make any changes to php.ini for the PHP CLI.

   Non-sharded cluster

   Sharded cluster

   [PHP]
   ...
   extension = redis
   ...
   [Session]
   session.save_handler = redis
   session.save_path = "tcp://<Valkey™_master_host_FQDN>:6379?auth=<password>"
   

   [PHP]
   ...
   extension = redis
   ...
   [Session]
   session.save_handler = rediscluster
   session.save_path = "seed[]=<FQDN1>:6379&seed[]=<FQDN2>:6379&seed[]=<FQDN3>:6379&auth=<password>"
   

   Here, <FQDN1>, <FQDN2>, and <FQDN3> are fully qualified domain names of cluster master hosts. For example, for a cluster with three shards and password for password, the session.save_path parameter value will look like this:

   session.save_path = "seed[]=rc1a-t9h8gxqo********.mdb.yandexcloud.net:6379&seed[]=rc1b-7qxk0h3b********.mdb.yandexcloud.net:6379&seed[]=rc1c-spy1c1i4********.mdb.yandexcloud.net:6379&auth=password"
   

   For more information about how to connect to clusters, see Setting up a connection.

2. Restart the web server:

   • sudo systemctl restart apache2 for Apache
   • sudo systemctl restart php7.2-fpm for NGINX

Check whether PHP session data is saved to the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ clusterCheck whether PHP session data is saved to the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster

1. In the /var/www/html/ directory, create a file named index.php that will be outputting the powers of 2:

   <?php
   session_start();
   
   $count = isset($_SESSION['count']) ? $_SESSION['count'] : 1;
   
   echo $count;
   
   $_SESSION['count'] = $count * 2;
   

   Each time the page is refreshed, the output value will increase. The $count variable value will be saved in the session data. A unique key will be created for each session in Valkey™.

2. Connect to the Valkey™ cluster from the VM via redis-cli:

   redis-cli -c -h <master_host_FQDN> -a <password>
   

   Enter the following command to see what keys are stored in Valkey™:

   KEYS *
   

   (empty list or set)
   

   The returned result shows that no data is currently stored in Valkey™.

3. Check whether user sessions are saved when connecting to the web server:

   1. Enter the public IP of the VM hosting the web server in the browser address bar. The first time you open the page, 1 will be output.
   2. Refresh the page several times: the output value will increase.
   3. Open the page in a different browser: the count will start from 1.
   4. Refresh the page several times: the output value will increase, too.

   The fact that the $count variable value is saved between the browser page updates shows that the configured PHP session storage mechanism in the Yandex Managed Service for Valkey™ cluster works well.

4. Repeat the query to view the keys stored in Valkey™:

   KEYS *
   

   1) "PHPREDIS_SESSION:keb02haicgi0ijeju3********"
   2) "PHPREDIS_SESSION:c5r0mbe1v84pn2b5kj********"
   

   The returned result shows that, for each session in Valkey™, its own key is created.

Delete the resources you createdDelete the resources you created

Delete the resources you no longer need to avoid paying for them: