Swap Sessions to disk

[Radim Kolar <hs...@sendmail.cz>]

I have problem with session management. Currently G stores all sessions in
memory, so after memory is exhausted, G crashes. 

Its very easy to DOS Geronimo server that way (just run ab benchmark tool
from apache) and it takes just a few minutes. Also lot of bots don't bother
with sending session cookie back - they are eating valuable server memory if
session handling is enabled for JSP page.

I propose to change tomcat session manager to manager with swap to disk
feaure. its called org.apache.catalina.session.PersistentManager and it
should be used by default and configured via portlet. Other applications
servers, like WAS, can limit number of open sessions and thus increasing
reliability.

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-3838
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Re: Swap Sessions to disk

[Kevan Miller <ke...@gmail.com>]

On Sep 9, 2008, at 6:09 PM, Radim Kolar wrote:

>
> I have problem with session management. Currently G stores all  
> sessions in
> memory, so after memory is exhausted, G crashes.
>
> Its very easy to DOS Geronimo server that way (just run ab benchmark  
> tool
> from apache) and it takes just a few minutes. Also lot of bots don't  
> bother
> with sending session cookie back - they are eating valuable server  
> memory if
> session handling is enabled for JSP page.
>
> I propose to change tomcat session manager to manager with swap to  
> disk
> feaure. its called org.apache.catalina.session.PersistentManager and  
> it
> should be used by default and configured via portlet. Other  
> applications
> servers, like WAS, can limit number of open sessions and thus  
> increasing
> reliability.
>
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-3838

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-3376 was intended to  
enable this support. A problem was fixed in 3376. However, I'm pretty  
sure the full function was not properly tested. Working properly, this  
would give you the ability to configure the maxActiveSessions for a  
StandardManager or configure a StandardManager.

Agreed that it would be nice to be able to configure these features  
via the Admin Console. I'm not sure that PersistentManager should be  
the default, however. I'd be happy to start with just being able to  
configure this, period.

Are you offering to help implement this? Your contributions would be  
most welcome!

--kevan