In this tutorial, we’ll see how to install and configure an external Redis server to be used as a session handler for a PHP application running on CentOS 8.

The session handler is responsible for storing and retrieving data saved into sessions – by default, PHP uses files for that. An external session handler can be used for creating scalable PHP environments behind a load balancer, where all application nodes will connect to a central server to share session information.

How to Set Up a Redis Server as a Session Handler:

# nano /usr/local/php74/lib/php.ini

# session.save_handler = redis

# session.save_path = "tcp://127.0.0.1:6379?auth=secretpass123"

Redis Extra Security:

Set a Password for the Redis Server

To add an extra layer of security to your Redis installation, you are encouraged to set a password for accessing the server data. We will edit the same configuration file from the previous step, /etc/redis/redis.conf:

sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf

 Copy

Now, uncomment the line that contains requirepass, and set a strong password:/etc/redis/redis.conf

requirepass yourverycomplexpasswordhere

 Copy

Restart the Redis service so the changes take effect:

sudo service redis-server restart

The post PHP Redis Session Handler – WordPress Redis appeared first on Vincent Verloop.