Issue php session_start() causes website to hang and gateway timeout

[morphoice]

Server operating system version

Debian 12

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.65 Update #2

I have a new plesk webserver setup with php version 8.2.24 by OS vendor run as FPM application.
php session.save_path is set to /var/lib/php/sessions which exists, however if I just so much as call sesssion_start()
in a php script the site hangs completely, eventually displaying a gateway timeout.What am I doing wrong?
it should be trivial to start a php session.

 

[WebHostingAce]

I tried the PHP script below.

<?php
echo "<pre>";
echo "PHP Version: " . phpversion() . "\n";
echo "Session Save Path: " . ini_get('session.save_path') . "\n";
try {
    if (session_status() !== PHP_SESSION_ACTIVE) {
         session_start();
         echo "Session started successfully.\n";
         $_SESSION['test_session_variable'] = "This is a test session variable.";
         echo "Test session variable set.\n";
         if (isset($_SESSION['test_session_variable'])) {
             echo "Session variable read successfully: " . $_SESSION['test_session_variable'] . "\n";
         }
    } else {
      echo "Session already started.\n";
    }
      $session_id = session_id();
      if(empty($session_id)){
        echo "Session id is blank. This means that we cannot create session files.\n";
      } else {
        echo "Session id: ".$session_id."\n";
      }
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Error starting session: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
}
if(session_status() == PHP_SESSION_ACTIVE){
  echo "Session status is active. \n";
} else if (session_status() == PHP_SESSION_NONE){
    echo "Session status is none. \n";
} else if (session_status() == PHP_SESSION_DISABLED){
   echo "Session status is disabled. \n";
}
echo "</pre>";
?>

Even with the INCORRECT session.save_path the script doesn't hangs. Please see if this script the helps you to identify the issue is related to the session.save_path or not.