🚢 Installing Redis Server Using Docker Container

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

Installing a Redis server is not too hard following this guide. But it is much easier simply running it from a Docker container.

Prerequisites

To use Docker on your laptop, you need to install Docker Desktop. There is a version for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Step 1 — Install and Run the container

Simply execute the following command:

docker run --name my-redis -p 6379:6379 -d redis

This command will do the following:

1. Pull the latest Redis image from the Docker hub (the place where all the public 3rd party images are stored)
2. Create and run the container and name it: my-redis
3. Route port 6379 on my laptop to port 6379 inside the container. 6379 is Redis default port and can be changed

That’s it!

Please note: if the Redis image already exists on your local registry, it won’t be pulled again. So the next time you run this command, it will be much fatser

➜ docker run --name my-redis -p 6379:6379 -d redis
Unable to find image 'redis:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/redis
33847f680f63: Pull complete
26a746039521: Pull complete
18d87da94363: Pull complete
5e118a708802: Pull complete
ecf0dbe7c357: Pull complete
46f280ba52da: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:cd0c68c5479f2db4b9e2c5fbfdb7a8acb77625322dd5b474578515422d3ddb59
Status: Downloaded newer image for redis:latest
eff7dedc53ec235068d543574111055a08d84b518f149ba6aac4adb6e63181d4

We can confirm Redis Docker is running by using docker ps:

➜ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                       NAMES
eff7dedc53ec   redis     "docker-entrypoint.s…"   34 minutes ago   Up 28 minutes   0.0.0.0:6379->6379/tcp, :::6379->6379/tcp   my-redis

We can see a container by the name of my-redis which is up snd running for 28 minutes.

Step 2 — Connect to Redis from inside the container

First, let’s try to connect from inside the container. Simply run the following command:

docker exec -it my-redis sh

This command will do the following:

1. Run the shell inside the Redis container by the name of my-redis
2. Display the command prompt

➜ docker exec -it my-redis sh
#

We can execute redis-cli (Redis command-line interface) and do some tests:

# redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> ping
PONG
127.0.0.1:6379> set name Monica
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> get name
"Monica"
127.0.0.1:6379>

Step 3 — Connect to Redis from your laptop

Now, let’s see if we can also connect to Redis from my laptop. First, we need redis-cli (Redis command-line interface) installed locally.

Then, simply do the same tests again:

➜ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> ping
PONG
127.0.0.1:6379> get name
"Monica"
127.0.0.1:6379>

That’s it! we now have Redis installed locally via Docker. 🙌

What about persistency?

As long as we don’t remove the container, the data will remain intact. Let’s test this by:

1. Stopping the Container
2. Starting the Container
3. Checking key value

➜ docker stop my-redis
my-redis
➜ redis-cli
Could not connect to Redis at 127.0.0.1:6379: Connection refused
not connected> exit
➜ docker start my-redis
my-redis
➜ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> get name
"Monica"
127.0.0.1:6379>

🎬