This is the simplest, most reliable, production-ready alternative to Redis and works perfectly for microservices under the same domain.

🎯 Why this is the Best Fit

• ✅ Works even on shared hosting (no Redis needed)
• ✅ Easy to set up (just 1 shared DB table)
• ✅ Secure and Laravel-native
• ✅ Supports scaling and logout everywhere
• ✅ Works with any Laravel version (8, 9, 10, 11…)

✅ Step-by-Step Setup: Laravel Session Sharing via Database

🔧 1. Use a Shared Database (or a shared sessions table) between all microservices

Let’s say you have a database called myhospital_sessions_db.

Update your .env in all services (main, doctors, hospitals):

SESSION_DRIVER=database
SESSION_CONNECTION=mysql_sessions   # Optional alias if you're using different DB for sessions
SESSION_COOKIE=myhospitalnow_session
SESSION_DOMAIN=.myhospitalnow.com
APP_KEY=base64:YourSameAppKeyHere

🔧 2. Update config/database.php if using separate connection

'mysql_sessions' => [
    'driver' => 'mysql',
    'host' => env('SESSION_DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
    'port' => env('SESSION_DB_PORT', '3306'),
    'database' => env('SESSION_DB_DATABASE', 'myhospital_sessions_db'),
    'username' => env('SESSION_DB_USERNAME', 'your_db_user'),
    'password' => env('SESSION_DB_PASSWORD', 'your_db_password'),
],

Then in .env:

SESSION_CONNECTION=mysql_sessions

🔧 3. Create sessions table (only once)

Run in any one service:

php artisan session:table
php artisan migrate

This will create the shared sessions table.

🔧 4. Use same APP_KEY across all Laravel apps

Copy the APP_KEY from one service and paste into all others.

Example:

APP_KEY=base64:abc123... (must be exactly the same in every `.env`)

🔁 5. Clear config/cache after update in all apps

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:cache

✅ Final Result:

• Log in once at https://www.myhospitalnow.com/
• Automatically recognized on:
  • /doctors
  • /hospitals
  • /appointments
• Seamless, secure session sharing 🎉

⚠️ Bonus: Protect Session Hijacking

In config/session.php, enable these for security:

'secure' => true,         // HTTPS-only
'same_site' => 'lax',     // Or 'strict'

Optional: Add Central Logout

To ensure logging out in one service invalidates session in all, just destroy session from DB:

Session::flush(); // Will remove session from shared DB

✅ This is production-ready and works on shared hosting, VPS, or containers.

Let me know if you want:

• A working example repo
• Laravel 11-ready config
• Redis version later for scale

Want me to generate the exact config/session.php and .env structure for you?