Developers often need some database to store the data of their applications. Big companies invest heavily in their database infrastructure, security, and performance. Databases can be relational and non-relational.
Redis is one such database. But it is not like conventional databases. It has much more performance but also comes with its own drawbacks.
Redis is an open-source, in-memory, networked, high-performance database. It is known for its optimizations, scalability and performance improvements over traditional database systems. It was developed in 2009 and now it is one of the most popular databases. Redis Labs was founded later in 2015. Through Redis Labs, the founders started offering products and services around it.
Some of the features of Redis are:
- The fast reads and writes to the database as it is an in-memory database.
- Support for lots of data structures like strings, hashes, sets, sorted sets, lists, bitmaps, etc.
- It is ideal for applications that require low latency due to its blazing-fast performance.
- It has high throughput which makes it easy to handle lots of user requests.
- Redis enables real-time communication between your application components. This is done through its Pub/Sub (Publish/Subscribe) messaging feature in Redis.
- Redis provides a developer-friendly experience because it is easy to use. It allows developers to use simple command structures to manipulate data.
- Redis supports replication of data to multiple replica servers through asynchronous replication.
Prerequisites for Installing Redis on Linux
You should take care of the following prerequisites before installing Redis:-
- You should have root or sudo privileges in your system.
- You should check if your Linux distro is supported by Redis.
- You should check the hardware requirements from the official website.
- You should have Redis dependencies Installed like C compiler (GCC) and libc.
- Configure your firewall (if you have any) to allow the Redis port.
- We recommend taking a backup of your system.
- Update the system, drivers, repositories and package manager.
Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Redis on Linux
Redis is an open-source, in-memory database known for its high performance and scalability. To install Redis on a Linux system, ensure you have root or sudo privileges and that your system meets the hardware requirements. Use package managers like apt for Ubuntu, dnf for Fedora, or pacman for Arch Linux to install Redis. Configuration and initialization steps vary by distribution.
The installation process is quite easy. We’ve listed different methods of installation for popular Linux distros like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.
Installing Redis on Ubuntu and Debian: A Detailed Guide
You can add the Redis repository to the apt index by the following command:-
curl -fsSL https://packages.redis.io/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/redis-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.redis.io/deb $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/redis.list
After doing so, simply update the package manager and install the Redis package through apt manager. You can do so by the following command:-
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install redis
Alternate Ways to Install Redis on Ubuntu and Debian
If you’ve snapd package manager then you can use the following command to install Redis on your system:-
sudo snap install redis
Installing Redis on Fedora
Follow these steps to install Redis on Fedora-based systems:-
- Update your
dnfpackage manager. - Install Redis through the following command:-
$ sudo dnf install redis
Redis will be installed and to initialise Redis on Fedora you can use the following command:-
sudo systemctl start redis
Installing Redis on Arch Linux
Follow these steps to install Redis on an Arch Linux-based system:-
- Update your system package by running the following command on the terminal:-
sudo pacman -Syu
- Then you can install Redis through the following command:-
sudo pacman -S redis
Redis will be installed on your system and to check its status run the following command:-
systemctl status redis
Using AUR to Install Redis on Arch Linux
If you have AUR (Arch User Repository) and yay package you can use the following command as well:-
yay -S redis
Wrapping Up: Redis Installation and Configuration
Redis is one of the fastest and most scalable databases. It is able to achieve performance because it stores the data on memory rather than the disk. Redis shines where the database needs to have real-time synchronization and low latency. Redis is widely used for session storage, caching, and real-time analytics. Redis is used widely by small to large companies. It has features like Replication, and Pub/Sub Messaging and also supports Lua scripting.
There are some limitations of Redis as well like data size limitations or single-threaded processing. That is why most of the time it is used as a secondary storage along with a primary storage.
Before installation check out the prerequisites section. We recommend updating your package managers, installing Redis dependencies, checking your hardware and software compatibility, etc. The installation process is easy as well because Redis supports Linux systems. We’ve listed various methods to install Redis on popular Linux distros. You can use built-in package managers like dnf, apt, pacman, etc or use packages like snap or yay.
After installation, you can configure the Redis. We recommend referring to its official documentation. Redis is a great tool to include in your application server. It enhances the experience of your users and is used worldwide.
Official Redis website