Redis Cluster: Setup, Sharding and Failover Testing

Watching cluster sharding and failover management is as gripping as visualizing a robotic machinery work.

My last blog on Redis Cluster was primarily focussed on its related concepts and requirements. I would highly recommend to go through the concepts first to have better understanding.

Here, I will straight forward move to its setup along with the behaviour of cluster when I intentionally turned down one Redis service on one of the node.
Let’s start from the scratch.

Redis Setup

Here, I will follow the approach of a 3-node Redis Cluster with Redis v5.0 on all the three CentOS 7.x nodes.

Setup Epel Repo

wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Setup Remi Repo

yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
yum --enablerepo=remi install redis

redis-server --version
Redis server v=5.0.5 sha=00000000:0 malloc=jemalloc-5.1.0 bits=64 build=619d60bfb0a92c36

3-Node Cluster Prerequisites

While setting up Redis cluster on 3 nodes, I will be following the strategy of having 3 master nodes and 3 slave nodes with one master and one slave running on each node serving redis at different ports. As shown in the diagram Redis service is running on Port 7000 and Port 7001

• 7000 port will serve Redis Master
• 7001 port will serve Redis Slave

Directory Structure

We need to design the directory structure to server both redis configurations.

tree /etc/redis

/etc/redis
`-- cluster
    |-- 7000
    |   `-- redis_7000.conf
    `-- 7001
        `-- redis_7001.conf

Redis Configuration

Configuration file for Redis service 1

cat /etc/redis/cluster/7000/redis_7000.conf

port 7000
dir /var/lib/redis/7000/
appendonly yes
protected-mode no
cluster-enabled yes
cluster-node-timeout 5000
cluster-config-file /etc/redis/cluster/7000/nodes_7000.conf
pidfile /var/run/redis_7000.pid

Configuration file for Redis service 2

cat /etc/redis/cluster/7001/redis_7001.conf

port 7001
dir /var/lib/redis/7001
appendonly yes
protected-mode no
cluster-enabled yes
cluster-node-timeout 5000
cluster-config-file /etc/redis/cluster/7001/nodes_7001.conf
pidfile /var/run/redis_7001.pid

Redis Service File

As we are managing multiple service on a single instance, we need to update service file for easier management of redis services.

Service management file for Redis service 1

cat /etc/systemd/system/redis_7000.service

[Unit]
Description=Redis persistent key-value database
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/redis-server /etc/redis/cluster/7000/redis_7000.conf --supervised systemd
ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7000 shutdown
Type=notify
User=redis
Group=redis
RuntimeDirectory=redis
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Service management file for Redis service 2

cat /etc/systemd/system/redis_7001.service

[Unit]
Description=Redis persistent key-value database
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/redis-server /etc/redis/cluster/7001/redis_7001.conf --supervised systemd
ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7001 shutdown
Type=notify
User=redis
Group=root
RuntimeDirectory=/etc/redis/cluster/7001
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Redis Service Status

Master Service

systemctl status redis_7000.service

● redis_7000.service - Redis persistent key-value database
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/redis_7000.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-09-25 08:14:15 UTC; 30min ago
  Process: 2902 ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7000 shutdown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 2917 (redis-server)
   CGroup: /system.slice/redis_7000.service
           └─2917 /usr/bin/redis-server *:7000 [cluster]
systemd[1]: Starting Redis persistent key-value database...
redis-server[2917]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # oO0OoO0OoO0Oo Redis is starting oO0OoO0OoO0Oo
redis-server[2917]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # Redis version=5.0.5, bits=64, commit=00000000, modified=0, pid=2917, just started
redis-server[2917]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # Configuration loaded
redis-server[2917]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 * supervised by systemd, will signal readiness
systemd[1]: Started Redis persistent key-value database.
redis-server[2917]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.754 * No cluster configuration found, I'm ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2
redis-server[2917]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 * Running mode=cluster, port=7000.
redis-server[2917]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 # Server initialized
redis-server[2917]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 * Ready to accept connections

Slave Service

systemctl status redis_7001.service

● redis_7001.service - Redis persistent key-value database
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/redis_7001.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-09-25 08:14:15 UTC; 30min ago
  Process: 2902 ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7001 shutdown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 2919 (redis-server)
   CGroup: /system.slice/redis_7001.service
           └─2919 /usr/bin/redis-server *:7001 [cluster]
systemd[1]: Starting Redis persistent key-value database...
redis-server[2919]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # oO0OoO0OoO0Oo Redis is starting oO0OoO0OoO0Oo
redis-server[2919]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # Redis version=5.0.5, bits=64, commit=00000000, modified=0, pid=2917, just started
redis-server[2919]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 # Configuration loaded
redis-server[2919]: 2917:C 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.752 * supervised by systemd, will signal readiness
systemd[1]: Started Redis persistent key-value database.
redis-server[2919]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.754 * No cluster configuration found, I'm ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2
redis-server[2919]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 * Running mode=cluster, port=7001.
redis-server[2919]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 # Server initialized
redis-server[2919]: 2917:M 25 Sep 2019 08:14:15.756 * Ready to accept connections

Redis Cluster Setup

Redis itself provides cli tool to setup cluster.
In the current 3 node scenario, I opt 7000 port on all node to serve Redis master and 7001 port to serve Redis slave.

redis-cli --cluster create 172.19.33.7:7000 172.19.42.44:7000 172.19.45.201:7000 172.19.33.7:7001 172.19.42.44:7001 172.19.45.201:7001 --cluster-replicas 1

The first 3 address will be the master and the next 3 address will be the slaves. It will be a cross node replication, say, Slave of any Mater will reside on a different node and the cluster-replicas define the replication factor, i.e each master will have 1 slave.

>>> Performing hash slots allocation on 6 nodes...
Master[0] -> Slots 0 - 5460
Master[1] -> Slots 5461 - 10922
Master[2] -> Slots 10923 - 16383
Adding replica 172.19.42.44:7001 to 172.19.33.7:7000
Adding replica 172.19.45.201:7001 to 172.19.42.44:7000
Adding replica 172.19.33.7:7001 to 172.19.45.201:7000
M: ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 172.19.33.7:7000
   slots:[0-5460] (5461 slots) master
M: 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 172.19.42.44:7000
   slots:[5461-10922] (5462 slots) master
M: 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 172.19.45.201:7000
   slots:[10923-16383] (5461 slots) master
S: 896b2a7195455787b5d8a50966f1034c269c0259 172.19.33.7:7001
   replicates 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6
S: 89206df4f41465bce81f44e25e5fdfa8566424b8 172.19.42.44:7001
   replicates ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2
S: 20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 172.19.45.201:7001
   replicates 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72
Can I set the above configuration? (type 'yes' to accept):

A dry run will showcase the cluster setup and ask for confirmation.

Can I set the above configuration? (type 'yes' to accept): yes
>>> Nodes configuration updated
>>> Assign a different config epoch to each node
>>> Sending CLUSTER MEET messages to join the cluster
Waiting for the cluster to join
..
>>> Performing Cluster Check (using node 172.19.33.7:7000)
M: ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 172.19.33.7:7000
   slots:[0-5460] (5461 slots) master
   1 additional replica(s)
S: 20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 172.19.45.201:7001
   slots: (0 slots) slave
   replicates 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72
M: 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 172.19.42.44:7000
   slots:[5461-10922] (5462 slots) master
   1 additional replica(s)
M: 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 172.19.45.201:7000
   slots:[10923-16383] (5461 slots) master
   1 additional replica(s)
S: 89206df4f41465bce81f44e25e5fdfa8566424b8 172.19.42.44:7001
   slots: (0 slots) slave
   replicates ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2
S: 896b2a7195455787b5d8a50966f1034c269c0259 172.19.33.7:7001
   slots: (0 slots) slave
   replicates 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6
[OK] All nodes agree about slots configuration.
>>> Check for open slots...
>>> Check slots coverage...
[OK] All 16384 slots covered.

Check Cluster Status

Connect to any of the cluster node to check the status of cluster.

redis-cli -c -h 172.19.33.7 -p 7000

172.19.33.7:7000> cluster nodes
20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 172.19.45.201:7001@17001 slave 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 0 1569402961000 6 connected
314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 172.19.42.44:7000@17000 master - 0 1569402961543 2 connected 5461-10922
19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 172.19.45.201:7000@17000 master - 0 1569402960538 3 connected 10923-16383
ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 172.19.33.7:7000@17000 myself,master - 0 1569402959000 1 connected 0-5460
89206df4f41465bce81f44e25e5fdfa8566424b8 172.19.42.44:7001@17001 slave ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 0 1569402960000 5 connected
896b2a7195455787b5d8a50966f1034c269c0259 172.19.33.7:7001@17001 slave 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 0 1569402959936 4 connected

Redis cluster itself manages the cross node replication, as seen in the above screen, 172.19.42.44:7000 master is associated with 172.19.45.201:7001 slave.

Data Sharding

There are 16384 slots. These slots are divided by the number of servers.
If there are 3 servers; 1, 2 and 3 then

• Server 1 contains hash slots from 0 to 5500.
• Server 2 contains hash slots from 5501 to 11000.
• Server 3 contains hash slots from 11001 to 16383.

redis-cli -c -h 172.19.33.7 -p 7000

172.19.33.7:7000> set a 1
-> Redirected to slot [15495] located at 172.19.45.201:7000
OK
172.19.45.201:7000> set b 2
-> Redirected to slot [3300] located at 172.19.33.7:7000
OK
172.19.33.7:7000> set c 3
-> Redirected to slot [7365] located at 172.19.42.44:7000
OK
172.19.42.44:7000> set d 4
-> Redirected to slot [11298] located at 172.19.45.201:7000
OK
172.19.45.201:7000> get b
-> Redirected to slot [3300] located at 172.19.33.7:7000
"2"
172.19.33.7:7000> get a
-> Redirected to slot [15495] located at 172.19.45.201:7000
"1"
172.19.45.201:7000> get c
-> Redirected to slot [7365] located at 172.19.42.44:7000
"3"
172.19.42.44:7000> get d
-> Redirected to slot [11298] located at 172.19.45.201:7000
"4"
172.19.45.201:7000>

Redis Cluster Failover

Stop Master Service

Let’s stop the Redis master service on Server 3.

systemctl stop redis_7000.service
systemctl status redis_7000.service

● redis_7000.service - Redis persistent key-value database
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/redis_7000.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2019-09-25 09:32:37 UTC; 23s ago
  Process: 3232 ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7000 shutdown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 2892 ExecStart=/usr/bin/redis-server /etc/redis/cluster/7000/redis_7000.conf --supervised systemd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 2892 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Cluster State (Failover)

While checking the cluster status, Redis master service running on server 3 at port 7000 is shown fail and disconnected.

At the same moment its respective slave gets promoted to master which is running on port 7001 on server 1.

redis-cli -c -h 172.19.33.7 -p 7000

172.19.45.201:7000> CLUSTER NODES
314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 172.19.42.44:7000@17000 master,fail - 1569403957138 1569403956000 2 disconnected
ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 172.19.33.7:7000@17000 master - 0 1569404037252 1 connected 0-5460
896b2a7195455787b5d8a50966f1034c269c0259 172.19.33.7:7001@17001 slave 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 0 1569404036248 4 connected
89206df4f41465bce81f44e25e5fdfa8566424b8 172.19.42.44:7001@17001 slave ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 0 1569404036752 5 connected
20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 172.19.45.201:7001@17001 master - 0 1569404036000 7 connected 5461-10922
19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 172.19.45.201:7000@17000 myself,master - 0 1569404035000 3 connected 10923-16383

Restarting Stopped Redis

Now we will check the behaviour of cluster once we fix or restart the redis service that we intentionally turned down earlier.

systemctl start redis_7000.service
systemctl status redis_7000.service

● redis_7000.service - Redis persistent key-value database
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/redis_7000.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-09-25 09:35:12 UTC; 8s ago
  Process: 3232 ExecStop=/bin/redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 -p 7000 shutdown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 3241 (redis-server)
   CGroup: /system.slice/redis_7000.service
           └─3241 /usr/bin/redis-server *:7000 [cluster]

Cluster State (Recovery)

Finally, all redis service are back in running state. The master service that we turned down and restarted has now become slave to its promoted master.

redis-cli -c -h 172.19.33.7 -p 7000

172.19.45.201:7000> CLUSTER NODES 314038a48bda3224bad21c3357dbff8305735d72 172.19.42.44:7000@17000 slave 20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 0 1569404162565 7 connected ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 172.19.33.7:7000@17000 master - 0 1569404162000 1 connected 0-5460 896b2a7195455787b5d8a50966f1034c269c0259 172.19.33.7:7001@17001 slave 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 0 1569404163567 4 connected 89206df4f41465bce81f44e25e5fdfa8566424b8 172.19.42.44:7001@17001 slave ff3e4300bec02ed4bd1be9af5d83a5b44249c2b2 0 1569404163000 5 connected 20ab4b30f3d6d25045909c6c33ab70feb635061c 172.19.45.201:7001@17001 master - 0 1569404162000 7 connected 5461-10922 19a2c81b7f489bec35eed474ae8e1ad787327db6 172.19.45.201:7000@17000 myself,master - 0 1569404161000 3 connected 10923-16383

It’s not done yet, further we can explore around having a single endpoint to point from the application. I will am currently working on that and soon will come up with the solution.
Apart from this monitoring the Redis Cluster will also be a major aspect to look forward.
Till then get your hands dirty playing around the Redis Cluster setup and failover.