ASP.NET: Is Session Object my acceptable solution for static variable?

Question

I've read several threads about this topic and need some clarification on a few sentences I read in a book:

If you store your Session state in-process, your application is not scalable. The reason for this is that the Session object is stored on one particular server. Therefore storing Session state in-process will not work with a web farm.

What does "scalable" in the first sentence mean?
Does the third sentence means if my app resides on a shared web host, I shouldn't use Session["myData"] to store my stuff? If so, what should I use?

Thanks.

By the way "static variable" is a contradiction in terms :)

pseudocoder
– pseudocoder

2011-06-10 21:19:58 +00:00
Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 21:19 — pseudocoder
– pseudocoder, Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 21:19

Oded · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-10 20:59:26Z

2

1:

Scalability in this sense:

the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth.[

2:

Use a session server or store sessions in SQL Server, which are described here.

answered Jun 10, 2011 at 20:59

Oded

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pseudocoder · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-10 21:08:18Z

1

ASP.NET can store all the combined Session information for an Application (the "Session State") in 3 possible places on the server-side (client cookies is also possible but that is a different story):

"InProc" (In Process) which means in memory on the IIS server attached to the asp.net worker process,
"StateServer" which is a separate process that can be accessed by multiple IIS servers but still stores the Session state in memory, and
"SQLServer" which stores the Session state in a SQL Server database.

1) The reason In-process is not scalable is if your needs exceed the capacity of a single IIS server, multiple servers can't use an In-process session state. If you have determined a shared hosting scenario will fulfill you needs, you don't need to worry about it.

2) When you store something in Session["Name"], ASP.net stores that data wherever the application is configured to store Session state. If you want to change where Session state is stored, all you need to do is configure your web.config file. If you are using a shared hosting environment, your IIS deployment is considered single server even though no doubt the actual servers are in a farm of some sort.

See: MSDN Session-State Modes

answered Jun 10, 2011 at 21:08

pseudocoder

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3 Comments

pseudocoder Over a year ago

@Oded apparently our Google searches yielded the same MSDN article, credit goes to you for posting first!

user776676 Over a year ago

Am I interpreting correctly that it's safe for me to use Session["Name"] in a shared hosting environment? Because there's VIRTUALLY only one server that I am using to store these data?

pseudocoder Over a year ago

@user776676: Yes. What i was trying to get at is regardless of what Session-State Mode you are using, your code will typically stay the same.

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