diff --git a/openstack_dashboard/local/local_settings.py.example b/openstack_dashboard/local/local_settings.py.example
index 2ad4078e14..5c76d344bb 100644
--- a/openstack_dashboard/local/local_settings.py.example
+++ b/openstack_dashboard/local/local_settings.py.example
@@ -153,7 +153,9 @@ SECRET_KEY = secret_key.generate_or_read_from_file(
 
 # We recommend you use memcached for development; otherwise after every reload
 # of the django development server, you will have to login again. To use
-# memcached set CACHES to something like
+# memcached set CACHES to something like below.
+# For more information, see
+# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/topics/http/sessions/.
 #CACHES = {
 #    'default': {
 #        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.memcached.MemcachedCache',
@@ -161,12 +163,6 @@ SECRET_KEY = secret_key.generate_or_read_from_file(
 #    },
 #}
 
-CACHES = {
-    'default': {
-        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache',
-    },
-}
-
 # Send email to the console by default
 EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend'
 # Or send them to /dev/null
diff --git a/openstack_dashboard/settings.py b/openstack_dashboard/settings.py
index fb5c700349..977e2a3b0f 100644
--- a/openstack_dashboard/settings.py
+++ b/openstack_dashboard/settings.py
@@ -198,7 +198,14 @@ AUTHENTICATION_URLS = ['openstack_auth.urls']
 AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'openstack_auth.User'
 MESSAGE_STORAGE = 'django.contrib.messages.storage.fallback.FallbackStorage'
 
-SESSION_ENGINE = 'django.contrib.sessions.backends.signed_cookies'
+SESSION_ENGINE = 'django.contrib.sessions.backends.cache'
+CACHES = {
+    'default': {
+        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.memcached.MemcachedCache',
+        'LOCATION': '127.0.0.1:11211',
+    },
+}
+
 SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY = True
 SESSION_EXPIRE_AT_BROWSER_CLOSE = True
 SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = False
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/session-engine-bc6305bfb74a9beb.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/session-engine-bc6305bfb74a9beb.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ec5709f547
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/session-engine-bc6305bfb74a9beb.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+upgrade:
+  - |
+    The default value of ``SESSION_ENGINE`` is changed to
+    ``django.contrib.sessions.backends.cache``
+    so that a cache-based session backend is used.
+
+    The default cache back-end is set to the memcached backend
+    ``django.core.cache.backends.memcached.MemcachedCache``
+    from the local-memory backend
+    considering multi-process web server deployments.
+
+    They are settings which horizon recommends for a long time
+    but we have not use them by default.
+
+    If your deployment uses the signed-cookies as a session engine,
+    ensure that ``SESSION_ENGINE`` is configured to
+    ``django.contrib.sessions.backends.signed_cookies``
+    before upgrading horizon to Stein release.
+    If your deployment uses the cached session engine and
+    your cache backend depends on horizon default setting,
+    ensure to ``CACHES`` setting to use the local-memory backend.