Sessions in Redis

Description

dotCMS now supports storing user sessions in Redis, moving session state out of application server memory and into a dedicated, external in-memory data store. By externalizing sessions, dotCMS delivers more predictable behavior across upgrades, restarts, and clustered deployments—without relying on sticky sessions or fragile in-memory state.

This architecture is designed for modern, scalable environments. Session data persists independently of any single node, enabling smoother operations, better fault tolerance, and cleaner horizontal scaling. The result is a more resilient platform that behaves consistently under load and during change.

Benefits

For DevOps & Platform Teams

• Perform upgrades and restarts with greater confidence, knowing user sessions persist outside the application server.

• Support true horizontal scaling and clustered deployments without session affinity or custom workarounds.

• Reduce memory pressure on application servers by offloading session storage to Redis.

• Improve overall system stability and predictability in production environments.

Use Cases

Zero-Downtime Upgrades
During dotCMS upgrades or restarts, active user sessions remain intact in Redis, minimizing disruption for logged-in users and administrators.

Clustered Deployments
Organizations running multiple dotCMS nodes share session state through Redis, allowing traffic to be routed to any node without breaking user sessions.

High-Availability Architectures
Mission-critical deployments use Redis-backed sessions to improve resilience, ensuring individual node failures don’t interrupt user access or workflows.

Resources

• Redis Cache Provider Documentation