session - Using PHP $_SESSION variable to store large amonts of data

Question

I'm currently storing a fair amount of data in the $_SESSION variable. I'm doing this so I don't need to keep accessing the database.

Should I be worried about memory issues on a shared server?

Can servers cope with large amounts of data stored in the $_SESSION variable?

Answer 1

Should I be worried about memory issues on a shared server?

Yes - session data is loaded into the script's memory on every request. Hence, you are at risk of breaking the individual per-script memory limit. Even if you don't hit the limit, this is really inefficient.

Accessing data from the database on demand is much better.