How to Deploy Redis® on Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE)

Vultr Kubernetes Engine Redis Kubernetes

Published on October 6, 2023•Updated on June 20, 2024

How to Deploy Redis® on Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) header image

Introduction

Redis® is an open-source in-memory data store that can work as a quick-response database. It's capable of handling millions of queries per second with high availability and scalability. A Redis® Cluster is a group of Redis® instances used to achieve high availability, improved fault tolerance, and horizontal scaling in data management systems.

A Redis® cluster uses a full mesh topology where every node interconnects with the main node using a TCP connection. In Kubernetes, pods interconnect to each other making it possible to deploy Redis for high availability within a cluster.

Benefits of deploying Redis® in a Kubernetes cluster include:

High Availability
Scalability
Load Balancing and Service Discovery
Simplified Deployment and Management
Monitoring and Logging

This article explains how to deploy a Redis® Cluster on a Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) cluster.

Prerequisites

Before you begin

Deploy a Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) cluster with at least three nodes
Install Kubectl on your local machine to access the cluster

Create the Redis® Namespace

By default, Kubernetes adds all cluster components such as services, pods and ConfigMaps to the default namespace. By creating a separate namespace, you are able to manage pods and services more efficiently in the cluster. In this section, create the Redis® namespace as described in the steps below.

Create a new namespace for the Redis® cluster.
```
 $ kubectl create ns redis
```

Verify that the new namespace is available.

 $ kubectl get ns

Output:

 NAME              STATUS   AGE
 default           Active   12m
 kube-node-lease   Active   12m
 kube-public       Active   12m
 kube-system       Active   12m
 redis             Active   7s

Define a Storage Class

A storage class is a Kubernetes resource that allows you to reserve disk space or attach volumes from a cloud provider to your cluster. By default, pods do not store the data permanently. When a pod gets deleted or restarts, data inside the pods is permanently lost.

In this section, mount a Vultr Block Storage instance to your Kubernetes cluster to store data permanently, and avoid any data loss as described below.

Using a text editor such as Nano, create a new storage class YAML file.
```
 $ nano sc.yaml
```

Add the following configurations to the file.

 apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
 kind: StorageClass
 metadata:
   name: redis-storage
 provisioner: block.csi.vultr.com
 volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
 allowVolumeExpansion: true
 reclaimPolicy: Delete

Save and close the file.

Apply the storage class to your cluster.
```
 $ kubectl apply -f sc.yaml
```

Verify that the storage class is available.

 $ kubectl get sc

Your output should look like the below:

 NAME                             PROVISIONER                    RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
 redis-storage                    block.csi.vultr.com            Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   6s
 vultr-block-storage (default)    block.csi.vultr.com            Delete          Immediate              true                   12m
 vultr-block-storage-hdd          block.csi.vultr.com            Delete          Immediate              true                   12m
 vultr-block-storage-hdd-retain   block.csi.vultr.com            Retain          Immediate              true                   12m
 vultr-block-storage-retain       block.csi.vultr.com            Retain          Immediate              true                   12m

As displayed in the above output, a new storage class redis-storage is available and it's attached to a Vultr Block Storage volume.

Create a Persistent Volume

Data durability is essential for Redis® deployments. Persistent volumes store Redis® data on the cluster to achieve data durability in case a pod restarts. A Persistent volume requests a specified amount of storage from the Kubernetes cluster, and it's dynamically provisioned by a StorageClass.

In this section, create a persistent volume as described below.

Create a new manifest file to configure three persistent volumes using the vultr-block-storage provisioner.
```
 $ nano pv.yaml
```

Add the following configurations to the file.

 apiVersion: v1
 kind: PersistentVolume
 metadata:
   name: redis-pv1
 spec:
   storageClassName: vultr-block-storage
   capacity:
     storage: 10Gi
   accessModes:
     - ReadWriteOnce
   hostPath:
     path: "/storage/data1"
 ---
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: PersistentVolume
 metadata:
   name: redis-pv2
 spec:
   storageClassName: vultr-block-storage
   capacity:
     storage: 10Gi
   accessModes:
     - ReadWriteOnce
   hostPath:
     path: "/storage/data2"
 ---
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: PersistentVolume
 metadata:
   name: redis-pv3
 spec:
   storageClassName: vultr-block-storage
   capacity:
     storage: 10Gi
   accessModes:
     - ReadWriteOnce
   hostPath:
     path: "/storage/data3"

Save and close the file.

The above configuration creates three Persistent Volumes with a size of 10 GB using the vultr-block-storage provisioner. ReadWriteOnce means that the PVC is only mounted as read-write by a single node at a time.

Apply the configuration to the cluster
```
 $ kubectl apply -f pv.yaml
```

Verify the new persistent volumes

 $ kubectl get pv

Your output should look like the one below:

 NAME        CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY    STATUS      CLAIM   STORAGECLASS         REASON   AGE
 redis-pv1   10Gi        RWO            Retain           Available           vultr-block-storage            6s
 redis-pv2   10Gi        RWO            Retain           Available           vultr-block-storage            5s
 redis-pv3   10Gi        RWO            Retain           Available           vultr-block-storage            4s

Create the ConfigMap

The ConfigMap is a key-value store in a Kubernetes cluster in which you can define the Redis® configuration information. In this section, create a ConfigMap for the Redis® cluster as described below.

Create a new ConfigMap YAML file
```
 $ nano redis-config.yaml
```

Add the following configurations to the file. Replace your_secure_password with a secure password for your cluster

 apiVersion: v1
 kind: ConfigMap
 metadata:
   name: redis-config
 data:
   redis.conf: |
     masterauth your_secure_password
     requirepass your_secure_password
     # Define the Redis listening interfaces
     bind 0.0.0.0
     # Enable or disable the protected mode
     protected-mode no
     # Define the Redis listening port
     port 6379
     tcp-backlog 511
     # Close the connection after a client is idle for N seconds (0 to disable)
     timeout 0

     tcp-keepalive 300
     daemonize no
     supervised no
     # Define Redis PID file
     pidfile "/var/run/redis_6379.pid"
     loglevel notice
     logfile ""
     databases 16
     always-show-logo yes
     save 900 1
     save 300 10
     save 60 10000

     stop-writes-on-bgsave-error yes
     rdbcompression yes
     rdbchecksum yes
     dbfilename "dump.rdb"
     rdb-del-sync-files no
     # Define the database storage location
     dir "/data"
     replica-serve-stale-data yes
     replica-read-only yes
     repl-diskless-sync no
     repl-diskless-sync-delay 5
     repl-diskless-load disabled
     repl-disable-tcp-nodelay no
     replica-priority 100
     acllog-max-len 128
     lazyfree-lazy-eviction no
     lazyfree-lazy-expire no
     lazyfree-lazy-server-del no
     replica-lazy-flush no

     lazyfree-lazy-user-del no
     appendonly yes
     appendfilename "appendonly.aof"
     appendfsync everysec
     no-appendfsync-on-rewrite no
     auto-aof-rewrite-percentage 100
     auto-aof-rewrite-min-size 64mb

     aof-load-truncated yes
     aof-use-rdb-preamble yes
     lua-time-limit 5000
     slowlog-log-slower-than 10000
     slowlog-max-len 128
     latency-monitor-threshold 0
     notify-keyspace-events ""
     hash-max-ziplist-entries 512
     hash-max-ziplist-value 64
     list-max-ziplist-size -2
     list-compress-depth 0
     set-max-intset-entries 512
     zset-max-ziplist-entries 128
     zset-max-ziplist-value 64
     hll-sparse-max-bytes 3000
     stream-node-max-bytes 4kb
     stream-node-max-entries 100

     activerehashing yes
     client-output-buffer-limit normal 0 0 0
     client-output-buffer-limit replica 256mb 64mb 60
     client-output-buffer-limit pubsub 32mb 8mb 60
     hz 10
     dynamic-hz yes
     aof-rewrite-incremental-fsync yes
     rdb-save-incremental-fsync yes

     jemalloc-bg-thread yes

Save and close the file

In the above configuration, the master and slavepasswords must be the same to establish a connection in the Redis® cluster

Apply your configuration to the Kubernetes cluster
```
 $ kubectl apply -n redis -f redis-config.yaml
```
Verify that the ConfigMap is available in the Redis® namespace
```
 $ kubectl get configmap -n redis
```
Output:
```
 NAME               DATA   AGE 
 kube-root-ca.crt   1      110s
 redis-config       1      4s
```
To view the full Redis® code for a ConfigMap, visit the GitHub repository to fork or download the file.

Scale Redis® in the Kubernetes Cluster using a StatefulSet

A StatefulSet deploys stateful applications and clustered applications that save data to persistent storage. It's suitable for deploying Redis® and other applications that require persistent identities and stable hostnames. In this section, create a StatefulSet as below.

Create a new StatefulSet YAML file to scale the Redis® cluster
```
 $ nano redis-statefulset.yaml
```

Add the following configurations to the file

 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: StatefulSet
 metadata:
   name: redis
 spec:
   serviceName: redis
   # Specify the number of Redis® replicas
   replicas: 3
   selector:
     matchLabels:
       app: redis
   template:
     metadata:
       labels:
         app: redis
     spec:
       initContainers:
       - name: config
         # Specify the Redis® docker image version
         image: redis:6.2.3-alpine
         command: [ "sh", "-c" ]
         args:
           - |
             # Copy the Redis® configuration file to each Redis® pod.
             cp /tmp/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf

             echo "finding master..."
             MASTER_FDQN=`hostname  -f | sed -e 's/redis-[0-9]\./redis-0./'`
             if [ "$(redis-cli -h sentinel -p 5000 ping)" != "PONG" ]; then
               echo "master not found, defaulting to redis-0"

               if [ "$(hostname)" == "redis-0" ]; then
                 echo "this is redis-0, not updating config..."
               else
                 echo "updating redis.conf..."
                 echo "slaveof $MASTER_FDQN 6379" >> /etc/redis/redis.conf
               fi
             else
               echo "sentinel found, finding master"
               MASTER="$(redis-cli -h sentinel -p 5000 sentinel get-master-addr-by-name mymaster | grep -E '(^redis-\d{1,})|([0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3})')"
               echo "master found : $MASTER, updating redis.conf"
               echo "slaveof $MASTER 6379" >> /etc/redis/redis.conf
             fi
         # Specify the Redis® volume name and mount path
         volumeMounts:
         - name: redis-config
           mountPath: /etc/redis/
         - name: config
           mountPath: /tmp/redis/
       # Specify the Redis® Docker image version, listening port, volume name, and mount path.
        containers:
       - name: redis
         image: redis:6.2.3-alpine
         command: ["redis-server"]
         args: ["/etc/redis/redis.conf"]
         ports:
         - containerPort: 6379
           name: redis
         volumeMounts:
         - name: data
           mountPath: /data
         - name: redis-config
           mountPath: /etc/redis/
       volumes:
       - name: redis-config
         emptyDir: {}
       - name: config
         configMap:
           name: redis-config
   # Specify the Vultr storage class and requested storage space from the Kubernetes cluster.
    volumeClaimTemplates:
   - metadata:
       name: data
     spec:
       accessModes: [ "ReadWriteOnce" ]
       storageClassName: "vultr-block-storage"
       resources:
         requests:
           storage: 500Mi

Save and close the file

Apply the above StatefulSet configuration to deploy the Redis® cluster
```
 $ kubectl apply -n redis -f redis-statefulset.yaml
```

Verify the list of running pods in the cluster

 $ kubectl get pods -n redis

Output:

 NAME      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
 redis-0   1/1     Running   0          31s
 redis-1   1/1     Running   0          25s
 redis-2   1/1     Running   0          20s

As displayed in the above output, all Redis® cluster pods are available and running.

Create a Headless Service Resource

To access Redis® internally on your cluster, create a headless service object in the Kubernetes cluster to access the application internally as described below.

Create a new headless service resource file
```
 $ nano redis-service.yaml
```

Add the following configurations to the file

 apiVersion: v1
 kind: Service
 metadata:
   name: redis
 spec:
   clusterIP: None
   ports:
   - port: 6379
     targetPort: 6379
     name: redis
   selector:
     app: redis

Save and close the file

Apply the service resource to the Kubernetes cluster
```
 $ kubectl apply -n redis -f redis-service.yaml
```

Verify that the Redis® service is running

 $ kubectl get service -n redis

Output:

 NAME    TYPE        CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
 redis   ClusterIP   None         <none>        6379/TCP   8s

Verify the Redis® Master Slave Replication

You have deployed the Redis cluster with three pods named redis-0, redis-1, and redis-2. The pod redis-0 acts as a master while other pods work as slaves in the cluster.

View the master pod redis-0 logs.

 $ kubectl -n redis logs redis-0

Output:

 1:C 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.968 # oO0OoO0OoO0Oo Redis is starting oO0OoO0OoO0Oo
 1:C 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.981 # Redis version=6.2.3, bits=64, commit=00000000, modified=0, pid=1, just started
 1:C 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.981 # Configuration loaded
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.982 * monotonic clock: POSIX clock_gettime
                 _._                                                  
            _.-``__ ''-._                                             
       _.-``    `.  `_.  ''-._           Redis 6.2.3 (00000000/0) 64 bit
   .-`` .-```.  ```\/    _.,_ ''-._                                  
  (    '      ,       .-`  | `,    )     Running in standalone mode
  |`-._`-...-` __...-.``-._|'` _.-'|     Port: 6379
  |    `-._   `._    /     _.-'    |     PID: 1
   `-._    `-._  `-./  _.-'    _.-'                                   
  |`-._`-._    `-.__.-'    _.-'_.-'|                                            |    `-._`-._        _.-'_.-'    |           https://redis.io       
   `-._    `-._`-.__.-'_.-'    _.-'                                   
  |`-._`-._    `-.__.-'    _.-'_.-'|                                  
  |    `-._`-._        _.-'_.-'    |                                  
   `-._    `-._`-.__.-'_.-'    _.-'                                   
       `-._    `-.__.-'    _.-'                                       
           `-._        _.-'                                           
               `-.__.-'                                               

 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.989 # Server initialized
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:12.989 * Ready to accept connections
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:57.464 * Replica 10.244.9.4:6379 asks for synchronization
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:57.465 * Full resync requested by replica 10.244.9.4:6379
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:57.465 * Replication backlog created, my new replication IDs are 'b70dca12298759349d656cfe77273767af7384af' and  '0000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:57.465 * Starting BGSAVE for SYNC with target: disk
 12:C 17 Jul 2023 15:17:58.034 * DB saved on disk
 12:C 17 Jul 2023 15:17:58.037 * RDB: 0 MB of memory used by copy-on-write
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:58.073 * Background saving terminated with success
 1:M 17 Jul 2023 15:17:58.073 * Synchronization with replica 10.244.85.131:6379 succeeded

To view detailed information about the Redis® master node, use the describe command as below

 $ kubectl -n redis describe pod redis-0

Output:

       /etc/redis/ from redis-config (rw)
       /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from kube-api-access-5czkj (ro)
 Conditions:
   Type              Status
   Initialized       True 
   Ready             True 
   ContainersReady   True 
   PodScheduled      True 
 Volumes:
   data:
     Type:       PersistentVolumeClaim (a reference to a PersistentVolumeClaim in the same namespace)
     ClaimName:  data-redis-0
     ReadOnly:   false
   redis-config:
     Type:       EmptyDir (a temporary directory that shares a pod's lifetime)
     Medium:     
     SizeLimit:  <unset>
   config:
     Type:      ConfigMap (a volume populated by a ConfigMap)
     Name:      redis-config
     Optional:  false
   kube-api-access-5czkj:
     Type:                    Projected (a volume that contains injected data from multiple sources)
     TokenExpirationSeconds:  3607
     ConfigMapName:           kube-root-ca.crt
     ConfigMapOptional:       <nil>
     DownwardAPI:             true
 QoS Class:                   BestEffort
 Node-Selectors:              <none>
 Tolerations:                 node.kubernetes.io/not-ready:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
                               node.kubernetes.io/unreachable:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s

Connect to the redis-0 pod to fetch the replication information
```
 $ kubectl -n redis exec -it redis-0 -- sh
```
Log in to the Redis® shell
```
 # redis-cli 
```
Authenticate with the replica using your master password
```
 > auth your_secure_password
```

Verify the available replication information

 > info replication

Your output should look like the one below:

  # Replication
  role:master
  connected_slaves:2
  slave0:ip=10.244.9.4,port=6379,state=online,offset=112,lag=0
  slave1:ip=10.244.85.131,port=6379,state=online,offset=112,lag=0
  master_failover_state:no-failover
  master_replid:b70dca12298759349d656cfe77273767af7384af
  master_replid2:0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
  master_repl_offset:112
  second_repl_offset:-1
  repl_backlog_active:1
  repl_backlog_size:1048576
  repl_backlog_first_byte_offset:1
  repl_backlog_histlen:112

Exit the Redis® replica instance
```
  $ exit
```

Test Replication Across the Redis® Cluster Nodes

To test the Redis® replication process, write sample data on the master pod and verify that the same data replicates on the slave pods

Connect to the master pod redis-0

 $ kubectl -n redis exec -it redis-0 -- sh

Log in to Redis® using Redis® CLI
```
 # redis-cli 
```
Enter the master password to gain full access to the Redis® cluster
```
 127.0.0.1:6379> auth your_secure_password
```

Add some data to the master node

 > SET test1 june
 > SET test2 july
 > SET test3 august

Verify the added data

 > KEYS *

Output:

 1) "test3"
 2) "test2"
 3) "test1"

Connect to the slave pod redis-1

 $ kubectl -n redis exec -it redis-1 -- sh

Log in to the Redis® shell
```
 # redis-cli
```
Authenticate using the slave password you created earlier
```
 > auth your_secure_password
```
Verify that data successfully replicates from the master node
```
 > KEYS *
```
Your output should look like the one below.
```
 1) "test1"
 2) "test2"
 3) "test3"
```

Conclusion

In this article, you have deployed a Redis® cluster to a Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) cluster. You have added a key-value store on the master node and verified the replicated data on the slave node. For more information about Redis® cluster, visit the official documentation.

How to Deploy Redis® on Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE)

Introduction

Prerequisites

Create the Redis® Namespace

Define a Storage Class

Create a Persistent Volume

Create the ConfigMap

Scale Redis® in the Kubernetes Cluster using a StatefulSet

Create a Headless Service Resource

Verify the Redis® Master Slave Replication

Test Replication Across the Redis® Cluster Nodes

Conclusion

Products

Features

Marketplace

Resources

Company