Session Storage Options – Magento

When it comes to installing Magento for the first time, one of the options that you need to choose is session storage options.

By default ‘File System’ is selected, but you can also choose ‘Database.

So what are sessions and why do we need to configure how they are stored?

When a customer revists your online store (that is running Magento) a few days later after first browsing, the items they added to the shopping cart are still in the cart – that is a session.

File System:

File System session storage is simple, stable and durable. It’s simple because you don’t have to do anything to set it up. It’s stable because it uses journaling.

Journaling is a file system that keeps track of the changes that will be made in a journal before committing them to the main file system. In the event of a system crash or power failure, such file systems are quicker to bring back online and less likely to become corrupted.

Database:

Database session storage means that the session data is stored in the Magento MySQL database.