This add-on is operated by Stovepipe Studios

Redis, Instrumented and Scaled

Last updated October 18, 2018

Creating a RedisGreen server

You can use the Heroku CLI to add RedisGreen to your app:

$ heroku addons:create redisgreen:basic
Adding redisgreen:basic to fancy-slinky-2001... done, v24 ($169/mo)
Basic Redis server successfully provisioned.
Use `heroku addons:docs redisgreen:basic` to view documentation

Once your RedisGreen server has been built, your app will have access to a “REDISGREEN_URL” environment variable that contains the Redis URI for your Redis server. You can also view the RedisGreen environment variable using the Heroku CLI:

$ heroku config | grep REDISGREEN
REDISGREEN_URL: redis://rg:gnysfn55t65g72ntd4g0a6h8ea91ca9v@smart-panda.redisgreen.net:10042

RedisGreen Dashboard

The RedisGreen dashboard provides graphs, alerts, diagnostic information, and more. Access the RedisGreen dashboard through your app’s Heroku Dashboard page or through the Heroku CLI:

$ heroku addons:open redisgreen

Using Redis with Ruby

Add the redis and hiredis gems to your Gemfile and run bundle install to install them:

gem 'redis'
gem 'hiredis'

For Rails apps, create an initializer at config/initializers/redis.rb to create a global Redis connection when your app loads:

$redis = Redis.new(url: ENV["REDISGREEN_URL"], driver: :hiredis)

For all non-Rails projects, you can use the above code wherever it makes the most sense. For example, in Sinatra apps, you would put the above code in the “configure” block:

require 'redis'

configure :production do
  uri = URI.parse(ENV["REDISGREEN_URL"])
  $redis = Redis.new(url: ENV["REDISGREEN_URL"], driver: :hiredis)
end

configure :development, :test do
  $redis = Redis.new
end

Using Redis with Python

Install the “redis” package:

% pip install redis

And create your Redis connection with:

import os, redis

redis = redis.from_url(os.getenv("REDISGREEN_URL"))

To use Redis as a cache backend for your Django app with django-redis:

CACHES = {
    "default": {
        "BACKEND": "django_redis.cache.RedisCache",
        "LOCATION": os.getenv("REDISGREEN_URL"),
        "OPTIONS": {
            "CLIENT_CLASS": "django_redis.client.DefaultClient",
        }
    }
}

To use RedisGreen as your session store, you’ll also need to update your Django session engine settings:

SESSION_ENGINE = "django.contrib.sessions.backends.cache"
SESSION_CACHE_ALIAS = "default"

Using Redis with Node.js

Install the “redis” package using npm:

$ npm install redis

And then run npm install to install the package locally. You can then create your Redis connection with:

var redis = require("redis");
var client = redis.createClient(process.env.REDISGREEN_URL);

Using Redis with PHP

We recommend the predis library. Add the library to your composer.json file:

"require": {
  ...
  "predis/predis": "1.0.3",
  ...
}

And connect by using the REDISGREEN_URL environment variable:

$redis = new Predis\Client(getenv('REDISGREEN_URL'));

Custom Configuration

If you need any configuration, just hit the “Support” button in the RedisGreen dashboard or email us at support@redisgreen.net and we’ll work with you to implement the best configuration for your particular needs.

Rotating Credentials

Rotating credentials with RedisGreen is simple, just hit the “Support” link in the RedisGreen dashboard and request a credential rotation. Depending on your requirements, RedisGreen can provide a hot standby database with new credentials which you can migrate to on your own, or RedisGreen can push a new REDIS_URL variable to your application, restarting your dynos with the new credentials.

Removing RedisGreen

RedisGreen can be removed from your app via the Heroku CLI:

$ heroku addons:destroy redisgreen
  !    WARNING: Destructive Action
  !    This command will affect the app: fancy-slinky-2001
  !    To proceed, type "fancy-slinky-2001" or re-run this command with --confirm fancy-slinky-2001
  > fancy-slinky-2001
 Removing redisgreen:basic from fancy-slinky-2001... done, v25 ($169/mo)

Additional Support

Use the “Support” button in the RedisGreen dashboard or email us at support@redisgreen.net to get help with any aspect of your RedisGreen server, including custom configurations.