NodeJS Clustering Issues

I am looking for a way to share the same data structure (which contains functions, so JSON is not an option) across all cluster instances within NodeJS. I have a data structure called 'Users' that tracks user sessions and contains functions that they have access to. I need to be able to share this datastructure across all node processes, or I need an alternative design pattern. Does anyone know of any solutions to this issue? Thanks

There are multiple options for setting up proper IPC (inter process communication) on nodejs:

  • using a document/key-value storage solution like Redis (key-value) or MongoDB (NoSQL Document-Storage)
  • using the integrated IPC functionality of the cluster module (see send method)

Deciding which one of those solutions fits best depends on your requirements and your project setup. For our last project, i decided to use both methods:

  • IPC for triggering jobs and dispatching partial tasks to different nodejs instances
  • Redis for centralized session- and api-token management

If you are using Express, i highly recommend you use the Redis middleware connect-redis. This session middleware automatically handles centralized session management for express based applications (which also means you can store complex JS objects and have access to them from all your instances).

I realize this is old and answered, but it may be beneficial to others to note an alternative. The recommended way to handle a situation as this is to place this data structure with its functions in a separate file and require it when needed. This will essentially pull in the "code/functions" and you store (serialize/deserialize) the data itself in any data store.