This post will show you how to install Redis 3.x onto Ubuntu 16.04

Redis is a server-side (Lua based) schema-free open source (in Memory) NoSQL Key/Value store database that supports replication between servers. Redis has an Eventual Consistency replication between servers (over Immediate Consistency) between servers. Eventual consistency is evil in some peoples minds, eventual consistency does require different coding considerations (to guaranteed valid data but does offer speed benefits).

Redis is the worlds 9th most popular database behind Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DB2, Microsoft Access, Cassandra. Redis is the most popular key-value store database. View the database trend chart here.

When to use Redis over MySQL or MongoDB

Here is a great guide on when to use Redis over MongoDB. Read my previous guide on building a scalable and secure MySQL Cluster.

Redis has a place where a relational database or NoSQL document stores do not (but it is more work). Read more here.

Redis is great in situations where caching or where memory is available on the server.

grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:        4046404 kB

grep MemFree /proc/meminfo
MemFree:         3559244 kB

Free Memory

free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3951         241        3213           9         496        3474

Installing Redis on Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install redis-server

Backup the conf file

cp /etc/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf.bak

Open the redis cli (and test it).

redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> ping
PONG

Show Redis info (from the redis-cli)

redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> info
# Server
redis_version:3.0.6
redis_git_sha1:00000000
redis_git_dirty:0
redis_build_id:687a2a319020fa42
redis_mode:standalone
os:Linux 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64
arch_bits:64
multiplexing_api:epoll
gcc_version:5.3.1
process_id:17920
run_id:6b657bf624b1a91f7ba40c4c8a693024ca88d887
tcp_port:6379
uptime_in_seconds:34
uptime_in_days:0
hz:10
lru_clock:11819524
config_file:/etc/redis/redis.conf

# Clients
connected_clients:1
client_longest_output_list:0
client_biggest_input_buf:0
blocked_clients:0

# Memory
used_memory:508784
used_memory_human:496.86K
used_memory_rss:6905856
used_memory_peak:508784
used_memory_peak_human:496.86K
used_memory_lua:36864
mem_fragmentation_ratio:13.57
mem_allocator:jemalloc-3.6.0

# Persistence
loading:0
rdb_changes_since_last_save:0
rdb_bgsave_in_progress:0
rdb_last_save_time:1521768930
rdb_last_bgsave_status:ok
rdb_last_bgsave_time_sec:-1
rdb_current_bgsave_time_sec:-1
aof_enabled:0
aof_rewrite_in_progress:0
aof_rewrite_scheduled:0
aof_last_rewrite_time_sec:-1
aof_current_rewrite_time_sec:-1
aof_last_bgrewrite_status:ok
aof_last_write_status:ok

# Stats
total_connections_received:2
total_commands_processed:1
instantaneous_ops_per_sec:0
total_net_input_bytes:28
total_net_output_bytes:7
instantaneous_input_kbps:0.00
instantaneous_output_kbps:0.00
rejected_connections:0
sync_full:0
sync_partial_ok:0
sync_partial_err:0
expired_keys:0
evicted_keys:0
keyspace_hits:0
keyspace_misses:0
pubsub_channels:0
pubsub_patterns:0
latest_fork_usec:0
migrate_cached_sockets:0

# Replication
role:master
connected_slaves:0
master_repl_offset:0
repl_backlog_active:0
repl_backlog_size:1048576
repl_backlog_first_byte_offset:0
repl_backlog_histlen:0

# CPU
used_cpu_sys:0.04
used_cpu_user:0.02
used_cpu_sys_children:0.00
used_cpu_user_children:0.00

# Cluster
cluster_enabled:0

# Keyspace

Benchmarking your Redis (quick)

redis-benchmark -h 127.0.0.1 -p 6379 -t set,lpush -n 100000 -q
SET: 90252.70 requests per second
LPUSH: 130548.30 requests per second

Benchmarking your Redis (slow)

redis-benchmark -n 100000
====== PING_INLINE ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.34 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

97.65% <= 1 milliseconds
99.96% <= 4 milliseconds
100.00% <= 4 milliseconds
74794.31 requests per second

====== PING_BULK ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.02 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.74% <= 1 milliseconds
100.00% <= 1 milliseconds
98231.83 requests per second

====== SET ======
  100000 requests completed in 0.93 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.99% <= 1 milliseconds
100.00% <= 1 milliseconds
107066.38 requests per second

====== GET ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.03 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.76% <= 1 milliseconds
99.95% <= 3 milliseconds
100.00% <= 4 milliseconds
96618.36 requests per second

====== INCR ======
  100000 requests completed in 0.87 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.85% <= 1 milliseconds
100.00% <= 1 milliseconds
115340.26 requests per second

====== LPUSH ======
  100000 requests completed in 0.78 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.89% <= 1 milliseconds
100.00% <= 1 milliseconds
128205.13 requests per second

====== LPOP ======
  100000 requests completed in 0.81 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

99.61% <= 1 milliseconds
100.00% <= 1 milliseconds
124069.48 requests per second

====== SADD ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.38 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

97.02% <= 1 milliseconds
99.97% <= 2 milliseconds
99.97% <= 3 milliseconds
100.00% <= 3 milliseconds
72516.32 requests per second

====== SPOP ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.40 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

98.36% <= 1 milliseconds
99.85% <= 4 milliseconds
99.85% <= 5 milliseconds
99.92% <= 6 milliseconds
99.95% <= 10 milliseconds
100.00% <= 10 milliseconds
71326.68 requests per second

====== LPUSH (needed to benchmark LRANGE) ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.27 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

95.40% <= 1 milliseconds
99.84% <= 2 milliseconds
99.85% <= 4 milliseconds
99.92% <= 5 milliseconds
99.98% <= 6 milliseconds
100.00% <= 6 milliseconds
78492.93 requests per second

====== LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) ======
  100000 requests completed in 2.16 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

95.95% <= 1 milliseconds
99.81% <= 2 milliseconds
99.82% <= 3 milliseconds
99.84% <= 4 milliseconds
99.90% <= 5 milliseconds
99.93% <= 7 milliseconds
99.94% <= 8 milliseconds
99.98% <= 10 milliseconds
100.00% <= 10 milliseconds
46382.19 requests per second

====== LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) ======
  100000 requests completed in 5.49 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

1.99% <= 1 milliseconds
91.78% <= 2 milliseconds
98.61% <= 3 milliseconds
99.65% <= 4 milliseconds
99.81% <= 5 milliseconds
99.90% <= 6 milliseconds
99.96% <= 9 milliseconds
99.96% <= 10 milliseconds
99.98% <= 11 milliseconds
100.00% <= 11 milliseconds
18221.57 requests per second

====== LRANGE_500 (first 450 elements) ======
  100000 requests completed in 8.79 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

0.04% <= 1 milliseconds
60.33% <= 2 milliseconds
86.38% <= 3 milliseconds
97.11% <= 4 milliseconds
99.24% <= 5 milliseconds
99.54% <= 6 milliseconds
99.69% <= 7 milliseconds
99.80% <= 8 milliseconds
99.87% <= 9 milliseconds
99.90% <= 10 milliseconds
99.91% <= 11 milliseconds
99.92% <= 12 milliseconds
99.93% <= 13 milliseconds
99.98% <= 14 milliseconds
99.99% <= 15 milliseconds
100.00% <= 16 milliseconds
100.00% <= 16 milliseconds
11381.74 requests per second

====== LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) ======
  100000 requests completed in 9.66 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

0.01% <= 1 milliseconds
3.03% <= 2 milliseconds
94.78% <= 3 milliseconds
98.32% <= 4 milliseconds
98.90% <= 5 milliseconds
99.32% <= 6 milliseconds
99.60% <= 7 milliseconds
99.82% <= 8 milliseconds
99.92% <= 9 milliseconds
99.93% <= 10 milliseconds
99.94% <= 11 milliseconds
99.94% <= 12 milliseconds
99.95% <= 15 milliseconds
99.95% <= 16 milliseconds
99.95% <= 18 milliseconds
99.98% <= 19 milliseconds
99.99% <= 20 milliseconds
100.00% <= 20 milliseconds
10350.90 requests per second

====== MSET (10 keys) ======
  100000 requests completed in 1.22 seconds
  50 parallel clients
  3 bytes payload
  keep alive: 1

97.69% <= 1 milliseconds
99.95% <= 5 milliseconds
100.00% <= 6 milliseconds
82101.80 requests per second

How to save and query a simple key/value integer

127.0.0.1:6379> set testvalue 123
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> get testvalue
"123"

How to save and query a simple key/value string

127.0.0.1:6379> set testvalue "Hello World"
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> get testvalue
"Hello World"

Saving and querying multiple values

127.0.0.1:6379> mset testvalue1 "a" testvalue2 "b"
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> mget testvalue1 testvalue2
1) "a"
2) "b"

Clear all

127.0.0.1:6379> flushall
OK

Add to list (new items at the top)

127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "a"
(integer) 1
127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "b"
(integer) 2
127.0.0.1:6379> lpush testlist "c"
(integer) 3
127.0.0.1:6379> lrange testlist 0 -1
1) "c"
2) "b"
3) "a"

Add to list (new items at the bottom)

127.0.0.1:6379> rpush testlist "a"
(integer) 1
127.0.0.1:6379> rpush testlist "b"
(integer) 2
127.0.0.1:6379> rpush testlist "c"
(integer) 3
127.0.0.1:6379> lrange testlist 0 -1
1) "a"
2) "b"
3) "c"

Redis Documentation

redis.io

redis.io/­documentation

https://redis.io/commands/

Redis Crash Course Tutorial

More

5 uses of redis as a database.

Using Redis at scale at Twitter

Digital Ocean guide on Redis

Coming soon PHP access to Redis.

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v1.2 Removed reference to Redis 4 in the blurb.

v1.1 Oops, this was Redis 3 and not 4 (thanks, Patrik)

v1.0 Initial version