How is session management handled in a multi-instance setup? #10278

4 Answer(s)

• 

  0

  AI-Bot created yesterday

  Support Team ABP Agent

  1. Solution

  ABP does not use classic ASP.NET Core ISession in its templates, and there is no special “ABP session store” that you must use for a multi-instance/Kubernetes setup. In a multi-node environment, the recommended way to keep per-user/per-session state is:

  • Do NOT use in-memory state (won’t work across nodes).
  • Use a distributed store (e.g. Redis) via ABP’s caching abstractions.
  • Optionally, use claims (including Dynamic Claims) only for small, rarely changing data.

  Since you explicitly set DynamicClaims = false and still want to hold some data for the duration of a user session, use the distributed cache keyed by user (and, if needed, by “session id”).

  ---

  A. Basic pattern: per-user “session data” in distributed cache

  1. Define a DTO for the data you want to keep during the user’s session:

  public class MySessionData
  {
      public string SomeValue { get; set; }
      public int SomeNumber { get; set; }
      // add what you need
  }
  

  2. Inject ABP’s typed distributed cache and ICurrentUser into an app service or other service:

  using Volo.Abp.Caching;
  using Volo.Abp.Users;
  
  public class MySessionService : ITransientDependency
  {
      private readonly IDistributedCache<MySessionData> _sessionCache;
      private readonly ICurrentUser _currentUser;
  
      public MySessionService(
          IDistributedCache<MySessionData> sessionCache,
          ICurrentUser currentUser)
      {
          _sessionCache = sessionCache;
          _currentUser = currentUser;
      }
  
      private string GetCacheKey(string? sessionId = null)
      {
          // User-based key; add a sessionId if you want multiple sessions per user.
          return $"MySessionData:{_currentUser.GetId()}{(sessionId == null ? "" : $":{sessionId}")}";
      }
  
      public async Task SetSessionDataAsync(MySessionData data, string? sessionId = null)
      {
          var key = GetCacheKey(sessionId);
  
          await _sessionCache.SetAsync(
              key,
              data,
              new DistributedCacheEntryOptions
              {
                  // Expire when you consider the “session” to be over:
                  AbsoluteExpirationRelativeToNow = TimeSpan.FromHours(1)
              }
          );
      }
  
      public async Task<MySessionData?> GetSessionDataAsync(string? sessionId = null)
      {
          var key = GetCacheKey(sessionId);
          return await _sessionCache.GetAsync(key);
      }
  
      public async Task ClearSessionDataAsync(string? sessionId = null)
      {
          var key = GetCacheKey(sessionId);
          await _sessionCache.RemoveAsync(key);
      }
  }
  

  3. Configure Redis (or another distributed cache) once (typically already done in tiered/Kubernetes setups). Because you’re using IDistributedCache<>, this will work transparently across all nodes.

  4. Call MySessionService from controllers, Razor pages, app services, etc. to read/write session data anywhere in the app.

  ---

  B. If you need per-login session (not just per user)

  If a user can have multiple concurrent logins and you need truly per-session data, you can:

  • Generate a session Id on login (e.g. GUID).
  • Store it once in a user claim or a cookie.
  • Use that session Id as part of the cache key (see sessionId parameter above).

  Since you’ve disabled Dynamic Claims, you probably shouldn’t mutate claims after login; instead:

  • Add the session Id as a claim at login time (in your custom login logic), or
  • Store it in a secure cookie and read it server-side.

  Then inject IHttpContextAccessor or your own helper to get the session Id and use it in GetCacheKey.

  ---

  C. Why not Dynamic Claims / classic ASP.NET Session?

  • Dynamic Claims: meant for small identity-like data; each request rebuilds claims from a cache/remote source. You’ve disabled this, and even if enabled, it’s not ideal for larger or frequently changing session data.
  • ASP.NET Core ISession: ABP’s MVC templates don’t rely on it; using it in a multi-instance environment still requires a distributed backing store (e.g. Redis). ABP’s own guidance is to use distributed cache abstractions instead.

  So the built-in structure that is suitable for Kubernetes / multi-instance is:

  • IDistributedCache<T> (+ ICurrentUser) for per-user/per-session data,
  • optionally combined with a small claim or cookie to represent a “session Id”.

  This approach is:

  • Stateless at the node level.
  • Safe for Kubernetes scaling.
  • Fully aligned with ABP’s abstractions and caching infrastructure.

  ---

  2. Sources

  • Dynamic Claims fundamentals (for background on why you might avoid them for large session data):
    https://github.com/abpframework/abp/blob/HEAD/docs/en/framework/fundamentals/dynamic-claims.md

  • ABP distributed/event-driven architecture guidance (multi-instance friendly patterns):
    https://docs.abp.io/en/abp/latest/distributed-event-bus

  ---

  This response was generated by AI. If it didn’t solve your problem, feel free to post a new answer — our support team will jump in to help you soon.

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• 

  0

  maliming created yesterday

  Support Team Fullstack Developer

  hi

  You can store some session data in Distributed Caching(Redis) with the current id as the key.

  https://abp.io/docs/latest/framework/fundamentals/caching

  Thanks.

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  0

  user5.abpio created 15 hours ago

  Thanks

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• 

  0

  maliming created 14 hours ago

  Support Team Fullstack Developer

  : )

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