Use Redis as a Session Store

Beginner8 min

Store and manage user sessions in Redis for fast, centralized session handling across multiple application instances.

Prerequisites

-Redis installed and running
-redis-cli available

Steps

Create a session key with user data

Store session data as a hash with a unique session ID and set a TTL for automatic expiration.

$ redis-cli HSET session:abc123 userId 1001 username alice role admin createdAt '2026-03-11T10:00:00Z'

Set session expiration

Automatically expire the session after 30 minutes of inactivity.

$ redis-cli EXPIRE session:abc123 1800

Call EXPIRE again on each request to implement sliding session windows.

Retrieve session data

Fetch all fields from a session hash to validate the user.

$ redis-cli HGETALL session:abc123

Destroy a session on logout

Remove the session key entirely when the user logs out.

$ redis-cli DEL session:abc123

Count active sessions

Use SCAN to count all active session keys without blocking.

$ redis-cli --scan --pattern 'session:*' | wc -l

Avoid KEYS in production as it blocks the server. Always use SCAN for pattern matching on live instances.

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Redis Session Store Management
set -euo pipefail

SESSION_ID="sess_$(openssl rand -hex 16)"
echo "=== Creating session: $SESSION_ID ==="
redis-cli HSET "session:$SESSION_ID" userId 1001 username alice role admin createdAt "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
redis-cli EXPIRE "session:$SESSION_ID" 1800

echo ""
echo "=== Session data ==="
redis-cli HGETALL "session:$SESSION_ID"

echo ""
echo "=== TTL remaining ==="
redis-cli TTL "session:$SESSION_ID"

echo ""
echo "=== Active sessions ==="
redis-cli --scan --pattern 'session:*' | wc -l

echo ""
echo "=== Destroying session ==="
redis-cli DEL "session:$SESSION_ID"
echo "Session destroyed."

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/bin/bash # Redis Session Store Management set -euo pipefail SESSION_ID="sess_$(openssl rand -hex 16)" echo "=== Creating session: $SESSION_ID ===" redis-cli HSET "session:$SESSION_ID" userId 1001 username alice role admin createdAt "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" redis-cli EXPIRE "session:$SESSION_ID" 1800 echo "" echo "=== Session data ===" redis-cli HGETALL "session:$SESSION_ID" echo "" echo "=== TTL remaining ===" redis-cli TTL "session:$SESSION_ID" echo "" echo "=== Active sessions ===" redis-cli --scan --pattern 'session:*' | wc -l echo "" echo "=== Destroying session ===" redis-cli DEL "session:$SESSION_ID" echo "Session destroyed."