Install Redis cache

Download Redis from http://redis.io/download:

wget http://download.redis.io/releases/redis-3.0.0.tar.gz

Extract it and compile with:

tar -xzvf redis-3.0.0.tar.gz
cd redis-3.0.0
make

Install binaries:

make install

Create data directory for redis

This directory will work as data and working directory for your Redis instance:

mkdir -p /var/redis/6379

Create configuration file for redis

Create a directory where to store your Redis config files:

mkdir /etc/redis

Copy the template configuration file you'll find in the root directory of the Redis distribution into /etc/redis/ using the port number as name, for instance:

cp redis.conf /etc/redis/6379.conf

Edit this file, making sure to perform the following changes:

vi /etc/redis/6379.conf
  • Set daemonize to yes (by default it is set to no).
  • Set the pidfile to /var/run/redis_6379.pid (modify the port if needed).
  • Change the port accordingly. In our example it is not needed as the default port is already 6379.
  • Set your preferred loglevel.
  • Set the logfile to /var/log/redis_6379.log
  • Set the dir to /var/redis/6379 (very important step!)
  • Uncomment line # bind 127.0.0.1 (very important step for security reasons! With such settings redis will be accessible only from localhost. It will reject connections from outside network.)

Create init script for redis

  • Copy the init script that you'll find in the Redis distribution under the utils directory into /etc/init.d. We suggest calling it with the name of the port where you are running this instance of Redis. For example:

    cp utils/redis_init_script /etc/init.d/redis_6379

  • Edit the init script.

    vi /etc/init.d/redis_6379

    Add the following lines at the top of init script (below line #!/bin/sh):

    
#!/bin/sh
#
# Simple Redis init.d script conceived to work on Linux systems
# as it does use of the /proc filesystem.
#
# chkconfig:   - 85 15
# description:  Redis is a persistent key-value database
# processname: redis

    Make sure to modify REDIS_PORT accordingly to the port you are using. Both the pid file path and the configuration file name depend on the port number.

  • Finally add the new Redis init script to all the default runlevels using the following command:

    chkconfig --add redis_6379
chkconfig redis_6379 on

You are done! Now you can try running your instance with:

/etc/init.d/redis_6379 start

Verify Redis installation

Make sure that everything is working as expected:

  • Try pinging your instance with redis-cli ping.
  • Do a test save with redis-cli save and check that the dump file is correctly stored into /var/redis/6379/ (you should find a file called dump.rdb).
  • Check that your Redis instance is correctly logging in the log file /var/log/redis_6379.log.
  • If it's a new machine where you can try it without problems make sure that after a reboot everything is still working.