How to Create Redis Database Clusters

Validated on 1 April 2021 • Posted on 20 August 2019

Redis is an open source, key-value database built with an in-memory design that emphasizes speed. It has support for rich data types, atomic operations, and Lua scripting.

You can create a Redis database cluster at any time from the Create menu by selecting Databases. This takes you to the Create a Database page.

In the create menu, click Databases to open the database cluster creation page. This is where you choose your database cluster’s configuration, like the number and size of nodes and the datacenter region.

Choose a database engine

In the Choose a database engine section, choose Redis.

The database engine selection portion of the databases create page

We currently support Redis 6.

Choose a cluster configuration

In the Choose a cluster configuration section, you specify the machine type, the number and size of the database nodes. The combined monthly cost of the database nodes is displayed to the right with the hourly cost underneath.

You can add up to one standby node to Redis database clusters. Learn more about high availability and failover for managed databases. You can change the cluster’s machine type and increase the size of database nodes after creation, but because of data integrity risks, you cannot downsize them.

Redis has some memory overhead requirements, so the amount of available memory in Redis nodes is less than their total amount of memory. Learn more about Redis memory usage.

Choose a datacenter

In the Choose a datacenter section, select the region for your database cluster.

The datacenter selection portion of the databases create page

For the best performance, create your database in the same region as your Droplets. Regions where you have Droplets display text underneath reading X Droplets in this region. Hover over the text to see the names of Droplets in that region.

VPC Network

In the VPC Network section, choose a VPC network for the database cluster. You can choose one you’ve created or use your default network for the datacenter region. VPC enables an additional networking interface that can only be accessed by other resources within the same VPC network. This keeps traffic between databases, Droplets, and other applicable resources from being routed outside the datacenter over the public internet.

Finalize and Create

In the last section, Finalize and Create, you choose the name for the cluster, the project to add it to, and any tags you want to use.

There are two subheaders in this section:

Choose a unique database cluster name. You can accept the automatically-generated name for the database or choose a custom name. Names must be between 3 - 63 characters long and consist only of alphanumeric characters and dashes.
Select project. Optionally, you can add the cluster to a different project. You can also click the Add Tags text in this section to tag the cluster.

When you’re ready, click the Create a Database Cluster button.

Clusters typically take five minutes or more to provision, but you can complete important configuration tasks such as restricting inbound connections while you wait.