Redis (ElastiCache)¶

This page contains information about using the Redis service in Handel. This service provides a Redis cluster via the ElastiCache service.

Service Limitations¶

No Cluster Mode Support¶

This service currently does not support using Redis in cluster mode. It does support replication groups with a primary node and 1 or more read replicas, but it doesn’t yet support Redis’ cluster mode sharding.

No Restoration From Snapshot¶

This service currently doesn’t allow you to launch a cluster from a previous cluster snapshot.

Parameters¶

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
type	string	Yes		This must always be redis for this service type.
instance_type	string	Yes		The size of each Redis instance in your cluster. See Choosing Your Node Size for more details.
redis_version	string	Yes		The version of Redis to run. See Comparing Redis Versions for a list of available versions.
description	string	No	Parameter group.	The redis group description.
maintenance_window	string	No		The weekly time range (in UTC) during which ElastiCache may peform maintenance on the node group. For example, you can specify Sun:05:00-Tue:09:00.
read_replicas	number	No	0	The number of read replicas you want to provision. Allowed values: 0-5.
snapshot_window	string	No		The daily time range (in UTC) during which ElastiCache will begin taking a daily snapshot of your node group. For example, you can specify 05:00-09:00. This feature is not available on the t2 and t1 instance types.
cache_parameters	Map<string,string>	No		Any cache parameters you wish for your Redis cluster. See Redis Specific Parameters for the list of parameters you can provide.
tags	Resource Tags	No		Any tags you wish to apply to this Redis cluster.

Warning

If you use read replicas, be aware that it will greatly increase your cost. Each read replica you use adds the full cost of another Redis node.

For example, if you have a single cache.m4.large Redis instance with no read replicas, it will cost about $112/month.

If you have that same cache.m4.large type, but with 1 read replica, it will cost you double at about $224/month since you are being charged for two full Redis instances.

Taken to its extreme, a cache.m4.large with 5 read replicas will cost about $673/month. Be careful to calculate how much this service will cost you if you are using read replicas

Example Handel File¶

version: 1

name: my-redis-cluster

environments:
  dev:
    cache:
      type: redis
      instance_type: cache.m3.medium
      redis_version: 3.2.4
      read_replicas: 1
      cache_parameters:
        activerehashing: 'no'
      tags:
        mytag: myvalue

Depending on this service¶

The Redis service outputs the following environment variables:

Environment Variable	Description
<SERVICE_NAME>_ADDRESS	The DNS name of the primary Redis node
<SERVICE_NAME>_PORT	The port on which the primary Redis node is listening.

See Environment Variable Names for information about how the service name is included in the environment variable name.

Events produced by this service¶

The Redis service does not produce events for other Handel services to consume.

Events consumed by this service¶

The Redis service does not consume events from other Handel services.