Node.js + express.js + passport.js : stay authenticated between server restart

There's an opensource called connect-mongo that does exactly what you need - persists the session data in mongodb

usage example (with a reuse of mongoose opened connection) :

var session = require('express-session');
var MongoStore = require('connect-mongo')(session);
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/sess');
app.use(express.session({
    secret:'secret',
    maxAge: new Date(Date.now() + 3600000),
    store: new MongoStore(
    // Following lines of code doesn't work
    // with the connect-mongo version 1.2.1(2016-06-20).
    //    {db:mongoose.connection.db},
    //    function(err){
    //        console.log(err || 'connect-mongodb setup ok');
    //   }
    {mongooseConnection:mongoose.connection}
    )        
}));

you can read more about it here: https://github.com/kcbanner/connect-mongo

i use connect-mongo like so:

var MongoStore = require('connect-mongo');

var sess_conf = {
  db: {
    db: mydb,
    host: localhost,
    collection: 'usersessions' // optional, default: sessions
  },
  secret: 'ioudrhgowiehgio'
};

 app.use(express.session({
    secret: sess_conf.secret,
    maxAge: new Date(Date.now() + 3600000),
    store: new MongoStore(sess_conf.db)
  }));


[...]

// Initialize Passport!  Also use passport.session() middleware, to support
  // persistent login sessions (recommended).
  app.use(passport.initialize());
  app.use(passport.session());

This is because you use MemoryStore (default) for sessions. Look at this code from memory.js (part of Connect framework):

var MemoryStore = module.exports = function MemoryStore() {
  this.sessions = {};
};

and this snippet from session.js (Express)

function session(options){
    /* some code */
    , store = options.store || new MemoryStore
    /* some code */
}

Now you should understand that every server restart resets the MemoryStore. In order to keep the data you have to use some other session store. You can even write your own (shouldn't be too difficult), although Redis (see this library) might be a good choice (and it is well supported by Express).

// EDIT

According to the Connect documentation it is enough for you if you implement get, set and destroy methods. The following code should work:

customStore = {
    get : function(sid, callback) {
        // custom code, for example calling MongoDb
    },
    set : function(sid, session, callback) {
        // custom code
    },
    destroy : function(sid, callback) {
        // custom code
    }
}    

app.use(express.session({
    store: customStore
}));

You just need to implement calling MongoDb (or any other Db although I still recommend using nonpermament one like Redis) for storing session data. Also read the source code of other implementations to grab the idea.

Node.js + express.js + passport.js : stay authenticated between server restart

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