synchronize php session between apache server and nginx

Question

is it possible and how to pass php session variables i have with a php and apache. I have a main site with log in option for my users that runs from apache server and I want to use nginx as a chat/communication server that automatically gets all session variables i have in apache/php session without to pass php session id (for security reason). Both servers have a same ip and stais on a same domain. Nginx server will be on subdomain. Already have set php session to work on any sub domain but is this is valid also if I use nginx server.

Any example will be helpful. Thanks in advanced.

Answer 1

Technically, the php sessions are files, which are usually located somewhere in /tmp. So once you've the session cookie, you can just read and unserialize the file's contents — after checking, it goes without saying, that the session is not expired.

If you need a more convenient format, look at php's session options. I'm quite sure you can serialize it as json for more portability, and there are ways to store sessions in SQL or even memcached.