Last updated September 20, 2023

This article explains the differences between Heroku Data for Redis provisioning, plans, and connections in Private Spaces or Shield Private Spaces as compared with Heroku Data for Redis in the Common Runtime.

Heroku Private Spaces are dedicated environments for running applications within an isolated network. Every part of the application stack, including the dyno, data stores, and third-party add-ons is contained within this environment.

Heroku Data for Redis can run within a Private Space with the same developer experience as on the Common Runtime. Many of the same CLI commands and web interfaces work for private Heroku Data for Redis instances.

Private Heroku Data for Redis plans aren’t accessible to applications at build time. We advise you to eliminate the build time dependency on your private data store, use a public Heroku Data plan, or contact support for guidance.

Provisioning

The private-tier Heroku Data for Redis plans are only meant for Private Spaces. You can only provision private-tier plans inside the isolated network environment. If you attempt to create an instance from the premium tier, that request fails.

Create a New Instance

Many buildpacks create a Redis instance as part of the build process. If the application that’s being created is within a Private Space, unless a Redis instance already exists for that application, the lowest available private plan is used when creating the instance. For a list of the currently available plans, see the plans section.

You can provision private Heroku Data for Redis instances via the CLI:

$ heroku addons:create heroku-redis:private-7 -a private-example-app

Depending on the region and the type of database being created, the provisioning process can take up to 10 minutes before the instance is available for use.

Plans

Heroku Data for Redis offers a set of plans for Private Spaces. The private tier is designed for production applications and includes:

• Region support
• Fork support
• Metrics published to the application log stream
• High availability

Shield Private Space Plans

In Shield Private Spaces, you can use the additional Heroku Shield for Redis plans. These databases have strict connection requirements, prevent external connections, and require encrypted clients.

The shield tier is designed for production applications and includes:

• Region support
• Metrics published to the application log stream
• High availability

External Connections

Unlike the Heroku Data for Redis instances in our premium tier, you can’t access private instances via a local computer. For access to a private Redis instance, you must use the available Heroku Data for Redis CLI commands. This ensures that you have the correct authorization to connect to the instance across the isolated network boundary.

Using the CLI

The ability to connect to private instances is integrated directly into the Heroku CLI. All of the commands available for the premium tier are available for private instances.

For more information on the available CLI commands for Heroku Data for Redis, see Managing Heroku Data for Redis Using the CLI.

Migrating from a Premium Redis Plan to a Private Redis Plan

If you migrate an application from the Common Runtime into a Heroku Private Space, you can also migrate the data from a premium Redis instance to a private Redis instance.

In the event that an application is being migrated from the Common Runtime into a Heroku Private Space, the data from a premium Redis instance can also be migrated to a private Redis instance. This migration guide only applies to moving data from a premium Heroku Data for Redis instance to a private Heroku Data for Redis instance inside a Private Space.

1. Get the credentials of the Common Runtime instance

To begin the process, we need the credentials from the Heroku Data for Redis instance running on the Common Runtime.

$ heroku redis:credentials REDIS_URL -a example-app
redis://h:pdx11111111@ec2-184-255-255-255.compute-1.amazonaws.com:7929

2. Prevent new instance updates

It’s important that no new data is written to your application on the source system during the migration process or it doesn’t get transferred to the new database. To accomplish this, place your source app into maintenance mode. If you have scheduler jobs running as well, disable them.

$ heroku maintenance:on
Enabling maintenance mode for example-app... done

Maintenance mode doesn’t automatically scale down any dynos. You must scale down any web and non-web dynos to make sure that no connections are writing data to the database.

$ heroku ps:scale worker=0
Scaling worker processes... done, now running 0

3. Provision the Private plan using a fork

Assuming that the application has been created inside the private space, you can provision the new private Heroku Data for Redis plan using the --fork flag in conjunction with the Heroku Data for Redis URI from step 1 of this process.

$ heroku addons:create heroku-redis:private-7 --fork=redis://h:pdx11111111@ec2-184-255-255-255.compute-1.amazonaws.com:7929 -a private-example-app
Creating heroku-redis:private-7 on ⬢ private-example-app... $900/month
Your add-on should be available in a few minutes.
redis-rugged-22859 is being created in the background. The app will restart when complete...
Use heroku addons:info redis-rugged-22859 to check creation progress
Use heroku addons:docs heroku-redis to view documentation

4. Promote the forked instance

If you forked the Redis instance from an add-on that wasn’t the primary (it wasn’t the one with REDIS_URL config var), then skip this step. You can use the config var of the new add-on in your app.

For a fork of the primary Redis add-on, promote the forked instance to be the primary so that REDIS_URL points to this instance:

$ heroku redis:promote HEROKU_REDIS_CHARCOAL_URL
Promoting redis-rugged-22859 to HEROKU_REDIS_CHARCOAL_URL on example-app

5. Make the target application active

To resume normal application operation, scale any non-web dynos back to their original levels. If the application wasn’t previously using non-web dynos, skip this step in order to avoid scaling any dynos that you don’t need.

$ heroku ps:scale worker=1

Finally, turn off maintenance mode.

$ heroku maintenance:off

Your application is now receiving requests to your migrated Redis instance. This can be confirmed by running heroku redis:info. The instance denoted by REDIS_URL is considered the primary instance.

Steps to take after the migration

After upgrading your instance, deprovision the old instance so that you aren’t paying for an unused instance.

$ heroku addons:destroy HEROKU_REDIS_BLUE