Seeding a new cluster with an externally created snapshot - Amazon MemoryDB for Redis
Step 1: Create redis snapshot on external clusterStep 2: Create an Amazon S3 bucket and folderStep 3: Upload your snapshot to Amazon S3Step 4: Grant MemoryDB read access to the .rdb fileStep 5: Seed the MemoryDB cluster with the .rdb file data

Seeding a new cluster with an externally created snapshot

When you create a new MemoryDB cluster, you can seed it with data from a Redis .rdb snapshot file.

To seed a new MemoryDB cluster from a MemoryDB snapshot or ElastiCache for Redis snapshot, see Restoring from a snapshot.

When you use a Redis .rdb file to seed a new MemoryDB cluster, you can do the following:

  • Specify a number of shards in the new cluster. This number can be different from the number of shards in the cluster that was used to create the snapshot file.

  • Specify a different node type for the new cluster—larger or smaller than that used in the cluster that made the snapshot. If you scale to a smaller node type, be sure that the new node type has sufficient memory for your data and Redis overhead.

Important

  • You must ensure that your snapshot data doesn't exceed the resources of the node.

    If the snapshot is too large, the resulting cluster has a status of restore-failed. If this happens, you must delete the cluster and start over.

    For a complete listing of node types and specifications, see MemoryDB node-type specific parameters.

  • You can encrypt a Redis .rdb file with Amazon S3 server-side encryption (SSE-S3) only. For more information, see Protecting data using server-side encryption.

Step 1: Create redis snapshot on external cluster

To create the snapshot to seed your MemoryDB cluster

  1. Connect to your existing Redis instance.

  2. Run either the Redis BGSAVE or SAVE operation to create a snapshot. Note where your .rdb file is located.

    BGSAVE is asynchronous and does not block other clients while processing. For more information, see BGSAVE at the Redis website.

    SAVE is synchronous and blocks other processes until finished. For more information, see SAVE at the Redis website.

For additional information on creating a snapshot, see Redis persistence at the Redis website.

Step 2: Create an Amazon S3 bucket and folder

When you have created the snapshot file, you need to upload it to a folder within an Amazon S3 bucket. To do that, you must first have an Amazon S3 bucket and folder within that bucket. If you already have an Amazon S3 bucket and folder with the appropriate permissions, you can skip to Step 3: Upload your snapshot to Amazon S3.

To create an Amazon S3 bucket

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

  2. Follow the instructions for creating an Amazon S3 bucket in Creating a bucket in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.

    The name of your Amazon S3 bucket must be DNS-compliant. Otherwise, MemoryDB can't access your backup file. The rules for DNS compliance are:

    • Names must be at least 3 and no more than 63 characters long.

    • Names must be a series of one or more labels separated by a period (.) where each label:

      • Starts with a lowercase letter or a number.

      • Ends with a lowercase letter or a number.

      • Contains only lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes.

    • Names can't be formatted as an IP address (for example, 192.0.2.0).

    We strongly recommend that you create your Amazon S3 bucket in the same AWS Region as your new MemoryDB cluster. This approach makes sure that the highest data transfer speed when MemoryDB reads your .rdb file from Amazon S3.

    Note

    To keep your data as secure as possible, make the permissions on your Amazon S3 bucket as restrictive as you can. At the same time, the permissions still need to allow the bucket and its contents to be used to seed your new MemoryDB cluster.

To add a folder to an Amazon S3 bucket

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

  2. Choose the name of the bucket to upload your .rdb file to.

  3. Choose Create folder.

  4. Enter a name for your new folder.

  5. Choose Save.

    Make note of both the bucket name and the folder name.

Step 3: Upload your snapshot to Amazon S3

Now, upload the .rdb file that you created in Step 1: Create redis snapshot on external cluster. You upload it to the Amazon S3 bucket and folder that you created in Step 2: Create an Amazon S3 bucket and folder. For more information on this task, see Uploading objects. Between steps 2 and 3, choose the name of the folder you created .

To upload your .rdb file to an Amazon S3 folder

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

  2. Choose the name of the Amazon S3 bucket you created in Step 2.

  3. Choose the name of the folder you created in Step 2.

  4. Choose Upload.

  5. Choose Add files.

  6. Browse to find the file or files you want to upload, then choose the file or files. To choose multiple files, hold down the Ctrl key while choosing each file name.

  7. Choose Open.

  8. Confirm the correct file or files are listed in the Upload page, and then choose Upload.

Note the path to your .rdb file. For example, if your bucket name is myBucket and the path is myFolder/redis.rdb, enter myBucket/myFolder/redis.rdb. You need this path to seed the new cluster with the data in this snapshot.

For additional information, see Bucket naming rules in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.

Step 4: Grant MemoryDB read access to the .rdb file

AWS Regions introduced before March 20, 2019, are enabled by default. You can begin working in these AWS Regions immediately. Regions introduced after March 20, 2019 are disabled by default. You must enable, or opt in, to these Regions before you can use them, as described in Managing AWS regions.

Grant MemoryDB read access to the .rdb file

To grant MemoryDB read access to the snapshot file

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

  2. Choose the name of the S3 bucket that contains your .rdb file.

  3. Choose the name of the folder that contains your .rdb file.

  4. Choose the name of your .rdb snapshot file. The name of the selected file appears above the tabs at the top of the page.

  5. Choose the Permissions tab.

  6. Under Permissions, choose Bucket policy and then choose Edit.

  7. Update the policy to grant MemoryDB required permissions to perform operations:

    • Add [ "Service" : "region-full-name.memorydb-snapshot.amazonaws.com" ] to Principal.

    • Add the following permissions required for exporting a snapshot to the Amazon S3 bucket:

      • "s3:GetObject"

      • "s3:ListBucket"

      • "s3:GetBucketAcl"

    The following is an example of what the updated policy might look like.

    {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Id": "Policy15397346",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Stmt15399483",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "Service": "us-east-1.memorydb-snapshot.amazonaws.com"
            },
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:GetBucketAcl"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket",
                "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/snapshot1.rdb",
                "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/snapshot2.rdb"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

  8. Choose Save.

Step 5: Seed the MemoryDB cluster with the .rdb file data

Now you are ready to create a MemoryDB cluster and seed it with the data from the .rdb file. To create the cluster, follow the directions at Creating a MemoryDB cluster.

The method you use to tell MemoryDB where to find the Redis snapshot you uploaded to Amazon S3 depends on the method you use to create the cluster:

Seed the MemoryDB cluster with the .rdb file data

  • Using the MemoryDB console

    After you choose the Redis engine, expand the Advanced Redis settings section and locate Import data to cluster. In the Seed RDB file S3 location box, type in the Amazon S3 path for the files(s). If you have multiple .rdb files, type in the path for each file in a comma separated list. The Amazon S3 path looks something like myBucket/myFolder/myBackupFilename.rdb.

  • Using the AWS CLI

    If you use the create-cluster or the create-cluster operation, use the parameter --snapshot-arns to specify a fully qualified ARN for each .rdb file. For example, arn:aws:s3:::myBucket/myFolder/myBackupFilename.rdb. The ARN must resolve to the snapshot files you stored in Amazon S3.

  • Using the MemoryDB API

    If you use the CreateCluster or the CreateCluster MemoryDB API operation, use the parameter SnapshotArns to specify a fully qualified ARN for each .rdb file. For example, arn:aws:s3:::myBucket/myFolder/myBackupFilename.rdb. The ARN must resolve to the snapshot files you stored in Amazon S3.

During the process of creating your cluster, the data in your snapshot is written to the cluster. You can monitor the progress by viewing the MemoryDB event messages. To do this, see the MemoryDB console and choose Events. You can also use the AWS MemoryDB command line interface or MemoryDB API to obtain event messages.