How to Install and Configure Redis Database on Ubuntu

This guide explains how to install and perform the basic configuration of Redis on Ubuntu 20.04.

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Redis is an open-source in-memory data structure store. It can serve as a database cache and message broker and works well with web applications.

Redis is an example of a key-value store database. A key is used to retrieve a stored value. A value can contain either a simple data type such as a string, or a complex data structure such as a list, set, or hash.

Redis Advantages and Disadvantages

Redis supports concurrency since all single-command operations in Redis are atomic. Redis contains a large library of commands, but it does not have a query language or relational capabilities. Since Redis is an in-memory database, it runs quickly with low latency. However, you can only store as much data as memory allows. Redis provides persistence methods to either write the current database state to disk or record all transactions in a log.

Redis requires a robust, stable hosting environment to function properly. To store large amounts of data, we recommend hosting Redis on a High Memory Linode

Steps in this Guide.

A complete Redis installation, including basic configuration tasks, consists of the high-level steps outlined below. Each step is covered in detail in its own section.

Verify your System Parameters
Install Redis
Enable and Run Redis
Secure Redis
Configure Redis Persistence
Optimize Redis for Better Performance

Verify your System Parameters

Ensure your Linode is running an up-to-date version of Ubuntu 20.04. If necessary, enable and configure the ufw firewall. Run the following commands to enable ufw and allow it to accept incoming SSH connections.

Configure ufw to allow SSH connections.

ufw allow OpenSSH

Enable ufw.

ufw enable

Run the ufw status command to confirm the configuration.

ufw status

The output now lists the OpenSSH protocols along with an action of ALLOW.

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Install Redis

You can install Redis either through the Ubuntu APT utility or from a TAR file. The latest stable version (as of publication) is Redis 7.0.9, but pre-release versions are also available on the Redis downloads page.

Install Redis From a Package

To install Redis using the APT utility, follow the steps below:

Add the Redis repository to the Ubuntu source repositories.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:redislabs/redis

Update your Ubuntu packages.

sudo apt update

Install Redis using the package installation program.

sudo apt install redis-server

Note: If the Redislabs repository is added, APT automatically installs the latest stable version. We do not recommend installing Redis through the Ubuntu default packages, as that might install an older version.

Install Redis From a Downloaded File

To install Redis from a downloaded .gz file, follow the steps below:

Download the latest stable version from the Redis downloads page to your computer. Transfer the Redis file to your host via scp, ftp, or any other file transfer method. The following example shows a Redis 6.0.9 executable. Replace the filename with the actual name of the file you are transferring, and substitute your user name and host IP address.

scp /localpath/redis-7.0.9.tar.gz user@yourhost:~/

Unzip the file using the tar utility.

tar xzf redis-7.0.9.tar.gz

Change directory to the appropriate directory and install Redis. The actual directory name depends upon the exact Redis version.

cd redis-7.0.9
make

Enable and Run Redis

Redis-cli is the main command-line interface for Redis. Through this utility you can interactively store and retrieve data, and perform administrative tasks. You can configure Redis through the redis.conf file, which contains a list of directives. Each directive consists of a variable name, plus a value, such as supervised systemd.

Add a directive to allow Redis to start via the system control utility. Edit the redis.conf file at /etc/redis/redis.conf, and change the value of the supervised directive to systemd.

This setting is found in the "General" section of the file.

...
supervised systemd
...

Use systemctl to start the Redis service.

sudo systemctl restart redis.service

Enter the interactive Redis CLI.

redis-cli

Perform a ping to test connectivity to the server.

PING

If Redis is running, it returns a PONG as a reply.

PONG

Use the SET command to create a key-value pairing. Redis returns an OK response upon a successful set operation.

SET server:name "hi"

Retrieve the value of the key you previously set.

GET server:name

Redis returns hi as the result.
Output:

hi

The redis.conf file contains extensive documentation and many examples. A sample redis.conf file can be found on the Redis Git Hub site.

You can also use redis-cli as a function to run any command. Pass in the command and any associated variables as arguments. For example, you can perform a ping with redis-cli ping.

Secure Redis

Configure a Password for Redis

Beginning with version 6, Redis maintains multi-user security through an Access Control List (ACL). Additionally, you can create a default user password. A default password might be sufficient for a single user. However, we highly recommend you use one or both of these methods.

Change the requirepass variable in the redis.conf file to set the default password.

Uncomment the existing requirepass directive, and change the default password to a more secure password.

...
requirepass yourpassword
...

Restart Redis to force the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart redis.service

Enter redis-cli and set a key and value without authenticating.

redis-cli
SET server:name "hello"

Redis returns an authentication error since you have not logged in yet.

(error) NOAUTH Authentication required.

Login with the auth command, replacing "password" with the password you configured. Redis returns an OK response upon a successful login.

AUTH "password"

Try the previous SET command again. Redis now returns an OK response.

SET server:name "hello"

Configure an Access Control List (ACL) for Redis

In a multi-user environment, we highly recommend you configure an ACL. An ACL restricts privileges and potentially dangerous commands to a subset of the users. You can create additional users in the redis.conf file.

Each user directive must contain a username, the keyword on or off to enable or disable the entry, a set of command permissions and restrictions, a set of key permissions, and the password (with a preceding > symbol). To indicate all commands, use @all. Use allkeys to reference all key-value pairs. Redis parses each user directive from left to right, so the order of permissions and restrictions is important.

This is only a brief introduction to this topic. Create users with memorable names, strong passwords, and appropriate permissions when building your own ACL. A complete explanation of all the ACL options is available on the Redis ACL page.

Display the current ACL configuration with the ACL LIST command. It currently shows only the default user and their privileges.

redis-cli
ACL LIST

Edit the redis.conf file and add user directives for two users. The first directive adds user2 and assigns the password user2pass, along with access to all commands and keys.

The second user directive, for user3, is similar except this user cannot run SET commands.

user user2 +@all allkeys on >user2pass
user user3 +@all -SET allkeys on >user3pass

Restart Redis to force the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart redis.service

Re-enter the Redis CLI and log in as user2 (authenticate with the AUTH command). Execute a SET command. Redis now returns an OK response.

redis-cli
AUTH user2 user2pass
SET server:name "fido2"

Exit and then re-enter the Redis CLI, authenticating as user3. Attempt to execute another SET to change the same key to a new value.

redis-cli
AUTH user3 user3pass
SET server:name "hey"

This attempt fails and returns a permission error.
Output

(error) NOPERM this user has no permissions to run the 'set' command or its subcommand

Attempt to retrieve the value of this same key with a GET command. Redis now returns the value.

GET server:name

You can also create users through the redis-cli interface using the ACL SET USER command, or through a separate ACL file. See the Redis ACL page for more information.

In earlier versions of Redis, administrators could rename and therefore hide powerful commands using rename-command directives in redis.conf. With the introduction of the ACL feature, this directive is no longer recommended. However, it is still available for backward compatibility.

Configure Redis Persistence

Redis stores all of its data in memory, so in the event of a crash or a system reboot everything is lost. If you want to permanently save your data, you must configure some form of data persistence.

Redis supports two persistence options:

Redis Database File* (RDB) persistence takes snapshots of the database at intervals corresponding to the save directives in the redis.conf file. The redis.conf file contains three default intervals. RDB persistence generates a compact file for data recovery. However, any writes since the last snapshot is lost.
Append Only File (AOF) persistence appends every write operation to a log. Redis replays these transactions at startup to restore the database state. You can configure AOF persistence in the redis.conf file with the appendonly and appendfsync directives. This method is more durable and results in less data loss. Redis frequently rewrites the file so it is more concise, but AOF persistence results in larger files, and it is typically slower than the RDB approach.

To change the RDB snapshot intervals, edit the save directives in redis.conf. A directive consisting of save 30 100 means Redis continues to take a snapshot every 30 seconds provided at least 100 keys have changed. Multiple snapshot thresholds can be configured.

save 900 1
save 300 10
save 60 10000

To enable AOF persistence, edit redis.conf and change the value of the appendonly directive to yes. Then you can set the appendfsync directive to any one of the following of your choice.

always - sync upon every new command
everysec - sync one time per second
no - let Ubuntu manage the sync.

The default of everysec is a good compromise for most implementations.

appendonly yes
appendfsync everysec

Restart the redis server after making any changes to the Redis persistence directives.

sudo systemctl restart redis.service

Some of the AOF persistence settings are complicated. Consult the Redis Persistence Documentation for more advice about this option.

Optimize Redis for Better Performance

Redis recommends several additional optimizations for the best performance. In addition to the following advice, Redis makes several recommendations regarding persistence and replication. Consult the Redis Administration Information for more information.

Set the overcommit memory setting to 1 in sysctl.conf. You must reboot the node for this setting to take effect.

vm.overcommit_memory = 1

Note: Enter the command sysctl vm.overcommit_memory=1 to apply this setting immediately.
{{< /note >}}

Disable the transparent huge pages feature as this adversely affects Redis latency.

echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled

Specify an explicit maximum memory value (in bytes) in redis.conf. This value must be at least somewhat less than your available system memory. Restart Redis after making this change.

maxmemory 2147483648

Create some swap space in the system to prevent Redis from crashing if it consumes too much memory. The following commands set up a 2GB swap file.

sudo mkdir /swapdir/
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapdir/swapfile bs=1MB count=2048
sudo chmod 600 /swapdir/swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapdir/swapfile
sudo swapon /swapdir/swapfile

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we discussed how to installl and configure the Redis database on Ubuntu using various methods and techniques. You can expand your knowledge such as:

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License: CC 4.0
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