Creating a cluster in ElastiCache

The following examples show how to create a Redis OSS cluster in ElastiCache using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI and ElastiCache API.

Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) (Console)

ElastiCache supports replication when you use the Redis OSS engine. To monitor the latency between when data is written to a Redis OSS read/write primary cluster and when it is propagated to a read-only secondary cluster, ElastiCache adds to the cluster a special key, ElastiCacheMasterReplicationTimestamp. This key is the current Universal Universal Time (UTC) time. Because a Redis OSS cluster might be added to a replication group at a later time, this key is included in all Redis OSS clusters, even if initially they are not members of a replication group. For more information on replication groups, see High availability using replication groups.

To create a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cluster, follow the steps at Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cluster (Console).

As soon as your cluster's status is available, you can grant Amazon EC2 access to it, connect to it, and begin using it. For more information, see Step 3: Authorize access to the cluster and Step 4: Connect to the cluster's node.

Important

As soon as your cluster becomes available, you're billed for each hour or partial hour that the cluster is active, even if you're not actively using it. To stop incurring charges for this cluster, you must delete it. See Deleting a cluster in ElastiCache.

Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster (Console)

If you are running Redis OSS 3.2.4 or later, you can create a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster. Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) clusters support partitioning your data across 1 to 500 shards (API/CLI: node groups) but with some limitations. For a comparison of Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) and Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled), see Supported ElastiCache (Redis OSS) versions.

To create a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster using the ElastiCache console

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon ElastiCache console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/elasticache/.

2. From the list in the upper-right corner, choose the AWS Region that you want to launch this cluster in.

3. Choose Get started from the navigation pane.

4. Choose Create VPC and follow the steps outlined at Creating a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

5. On the ElastiCache dashboard page, choose Create cluster and then choose Create Redis OSS cluster.

6. Under Cluster settings, do the following:

   1. Choose Configure and create a new cluster.

   2. For Cluster mode, choose Enabled.

   3. For Cluster info enter a value for Name.

   4. (Optional) Enter a value for Description.

7. Under Location:

   AWS Cloud

   1. For AWS Cloud, we recommend you accept the default settings for Multi-AZ and Auto-failover. For more information, see Minimizing downtime in ElastiCache (Redis OSS) with Multi-AZ.

   2. Under Cluster settings

      1. For Engine version, choose an available version.

      2. For Port, use the default port, 6379. If you have a reason to use a different port, enter the port number.

      3. For Parameter group, choose a parameter group or create a new one. Parameter groups control the runtime parameters of your cluster. For more information on parameter groups, see Redis OSS-specific parameters and Creating an ElastiCache parameter group.

         Note

         When you select a parameter group to set the engine configuration values, that parameter group is applied to all clusters in the global datastore. On the Parameter Groups page, the yes/no Global attribute indicates whether a parameter group is part of a global datastore.

      4. For Node type, choose the down arrow ( ). In the Change node type dialog box, choose a value for Instance family for the node type that you want. Then choose the node type that you want to use for this cluster, and then choose Save.

         For more information, see Choosing your ElastiCache node size.

         If you choose an r6gd node type, data-tiering is automatically enabled. For more information, see Data tiering in ElastiCache.

      5. For Number of shards, choose the number of shards (partitions/node groups) that you want for this Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster.

         For some versions of Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled), you can change the number of shards in your cluster dynamically:

         • Redis OSS 3.2.10 and later – If your cluster is running Redis OSS 3.2.10 or later versions, you can change the number of shards in your cluster dynamically. For more information, see Scaling clusters in Redis OSS (Cluster Mode Enabled).

         • Other Redis OSS versions – If your cluster is running a version of Redis OSS before version 3.2.10, there's another approach. To change the number of shards in your cluster in this case, create a new cluster with the new number of shards. For more information, see Restoring from a backup into a new cache.

      6. For Replicas per shard, choose the number of read replica nodes that you want in each shard.

         The following restrictions exist for Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled).

         • If you have Multi-AZ enabled, make sure that you have at least one replica per shard.

         • The number of replicas is the same for each shard when creating the cluster using the console.

         • The number of read replicas per shard is fixed and cannot be changed. If you find you need more or fewer replicas per shard (API/CLI: node group), you must create a new cluster with the new number of replicas. For more information, see Tutorial: Seeding a new self-designed cluster with an externally created backup.

   3. Under Connectivity

      1. For Network type, choose the IP version(s) this cluster will support.

      2. For Subnet groups, choose the subnet that you want to apply to this cluster. ElastiCache uses that subnet group to choose a subnet and IP addresses within that subnet to associate with your nodes. ElastiCache clusters require a dual-stack subnet with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned to them to operate in dual-stack mode and an IPv6-only subnet to operate as IPv6-only.

         When creating a new subnet group, enter the VPC ID to which it belongs.

         Select a Discovery IP type. Only the IP adresses of your chosen protocol are returned.

         For more information, see:

         • Choosing a network type in ElastiCache.

         • Create a subnet in your VPC.

         If you are Using local zones with ElastiCache, you must create or choose a subnet that is in the local zone.

         For more information, see Subnets and subnet groups.

   4. For Availability zone placements, you have two options:

      • No preference – ElastiCache chooses the Availability Zone.

      • Specify availability zones – You specify the Availability Zone for each cluster.

        If you chose to specify the Availability Zones, for each cluster in each shard, choose the Availability Zone from the list.

      For more information, see Choosing regions and availability zones for ElastiCache.

   5. Choose Next

   6. Under Advanced Redis OSS settings

      1. For Security:

         1. To encrypt your data, you have the following options:

            • Encryption at rest – Enables encryption of data stored on disk. For more information, see Encryption at Rest.

              Note

              You have the option to supply a different encryption key by choosing Customer Managed AWS KMS key and choosing the key. For more information, see Using customer managed keys from AWS KMS.

            • Encryption in-transit – Enables encryption of data on the wire. For more information, see encryption in transit. For Redis OSS engine version 6.0 and above, if you enable Encryption in-transit you will be prompted to specify one of the following Access Control options:

              • No Access Control – This is the default setting. This indicates no restrictions on user access to the cluster.

              • User Group Access Control List – Select a user group with a defined set of users that can access the cluster. For more information, see Managing User Groups with the Console and CLI.

              • Redis OSS AUTH Default User – An authentication mechanism for Redis OSS server. For more information, see Redis OSS AUTH.

            • Redis OSS AUTH – An authentication mechanism for Redis OSS server. For more information, see Redis OSS AUTH.

            Note

            For Redis OSS versions between 3.2.6 onward, excluding version 3.2.10, Redis OSS AUTH is the sole option.

         2. For Security groups, choose the security groups that you want for this cluster. A security group acts as a firewall to control network access to your cluster. You can use the default security group for your VPC or create a new one.

            For more information on security groups, see Security groups for your VPC in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

   7. For regularly scheduled automatic backups, select Enable automatic backups and then enter the number of days that you want each automatic backup retained before it is automatically deleted. If you don't want regularly scheduled automatic backups, clear the Enable automatic backups check box. In either case, you always have the option to create manual backups.

      For more information on Redis OSS backup and restore, see Snapshot and restore.

   8. (Optional) Specify a maintenance window. The maintenance window is the time, generally an hour in length, each week when ElastiCache schedules system maintenance for your cluster. You can allow ElastiCache to choose the day and time for your maintenance window (No preference), or you can choose the day, time, and duration yourself (Specify maintenance window). If you choose Specify maintenance window from the lists, choose the Start day, Start time, and Duration (in hours) for your maintenance window. All times are UCT times.

      For more information, see Managing ElastiCache cluster maintenance.

   9. (Optional) For Logs:

      • Under Log format, choose either Text or JSON.

      • Under Destination Type, choose either CloudWatch Logs or Kinesis Firehose.

      • Under Log destination, choose either Create new and enter either your CloudWatch Logs log group name or your Firehose stream name, or choose Select existing and then choose either your CloudWatch Logs log group name or your Firehose stream name,

   10. For Tags, to help you manage your clusters and other ElastiCache resources, you can assign your own metadata to each resource in the form of tags. For mor information, see Tagging your ElastiCache resources.

   11. Choose Next.

   12. Review all your entries and choices, then make any needed corrections. When you're ready, choose Create.

   On premises

   1. For On premises, we recommend you leave Auto-failover enabled. For more information, see Minimizing downtime in ElastiCache (Redis OSS) with Multi-AZ

   2. Follow the steps at Using Outposts.

To create the equivalent using the ElastiCache API or AWS CLI instead of the ElastiCache console, see the following:

• API: CreateReplicationGroup

• CLI: create-replication-group

As soon as your cluster's status is available, you can grant EC2 access to it, connect to it, and begin using it. For more information, see Step 3: Authorize access to the cluster and Step 4: Connect to the cluster's node.

Important

As soon as your cluster becomes available, you're billed for each hour or partial hour that the cluster is active, even if you're not actively using it. To stop incurring charges for this cluster, you must delete it. See Deleting a cluster in ElastiCache.

Creating a cluster (AWS CLI)

To create a cluster using the AWS CLI, use the create-cache-cluster command.

Important

As soon as your cluster becomes available, you're billed for each hour or partial hour that the cluster is active, even if you're not actively using it. To stop incurring charges for this cluster, you must delete it. See Deleting a cluster in ElastiCache.

Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cluster (CLI)

Example – A Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) Cluster with no read replicas

The following CLI code creates a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cache cluster with no replicas.

Note

When creating cluster using a node type from the r6gd family, you must pass the data-tiering-enabled parameter.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws elasticache create-cache-cluster \
--cache-cluster-id my-cluster \
--cache-node-type cache.r4.large \
--engine redis \
--num-cache-nodes 1 \
--cache-parameter-group default.redis6.x \
--snapshot-arns arn:aws:s3:::my_bucket/snapshot.rdb

For Windows:

aws elasticache create-cache-cluster ^
--cache-cluster-id my-cluster ^
--cache-node-type cache.r4.large ^
--engine redis ^
--num-cache-nodes 1 ^
--cache-parameter-group default.redis6.x ^
--snapshot-arns arn:aws:s3:::my_bucket/snapshot.rdb

Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster (AWS CLI)

Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) clusters (API/CLI: replication groups) cannot be created using the create-cache-cluster operation. To create a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster (API/CLI: replication group), see Creating a Redis OSS (Cluster Mode Enabled) replication group from scratch (AWS CLI).

For more information, see the AWS CLI for ElastiCache reference topic create-replication-group.

Creating an ElastiCache cluster (ElastiCache API)

To create a cluster using the ElastiCache API, use the CreateCacheCluster action.

Important

As soon as your cluster becomes available, you're billed for each hour or partial hour that the cluster is active, even if you're not using it. To stop incurring charges for this cluster, you must delete it. See Deleting a cluster in ElastiCache.

Creating a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cache cluster (ElastiCache API)

The following code creates a Redis OSS (cluster mode disabled) cache cluster (ElastiCache API).

Line breaks are added for ease of reading.

https://elasticache.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/
    ?Action=CreateCacheCluster
    &CacheClusterId=my-cluster
    &CacheNodeType=cache.r4.large
    &CacheParameterGroup=default.redis3.2
    &Engine=redis
    &EngineVersion=3.2.4
    &NumCacheNodes=1
    &SignatureVersion=4       
    &SignatureMethod=HmacSHA256
    &SnapshotArns.member.1=arn%3Aaws%3As3%3A%3A%3AmyS3Bucket%2Fdump.rdb
    &Timestamp=20150508T220302Z
    &Version=2015-02-02
    &X-Amz-Algorithm=&AWS;4-HMAC-SHA256
    &X-Amz-Credential=<credential>
    &X-Amz-Date=20150508T220302Z
    &X-Amz-Expires=20150508T220302Z
    &X-Amz-SignedHeaders=Host
    &X-Amz-Signature=<signature>

Creating a cache cluster in Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) (ElastiCache API)

Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) clusters (API/CLI: replication groups) cannot be created using the CreateCacheCluster operation. To create a Redis OSS (cluster mode enabled) cluster (API/CLI: replication group), see Creating a replication group in Redis OSS (Cluster Mode Enabled) from scratch (ElastiCache API).

For more information, see the ElastiCache API reference topic CreateReplicationGroup.