How to: Install Redis

Redis is an open source memory data store mostly used as a database, cache or a message broker. Within a web farm running multiple Now Assistants it can be used as:

• A shared cache - for example if an item (e.g. a card) is changed on one Now Assistant server, the cached version will be server to all remaining servers.
• A lock manager - to ensure that multiple instances can edit elements within Now Assistant concurrently, without blocking each other.
• A publish-subscribe system - which ensures that once content is updated on one instance, other instances are notified and display the correct content.

In this guide we'll be installing Redis v3.2 on Windows Server 2016. Please note that for a production level instance we recommend using Redis on Linux. Let's begin!

Installation

To begin, we need to download the correct version of Redis from here.

Let's start the installation:

Next we'll agree to the License Agreement:

Then, we'll set the installation path:

In the following window you can set which port number Redis should be using. If your Redis server is going to be exposed to the Internet we're recommend to change the default, but for this guide we'll keep it:

Then, you can set a memory limit. If unset Redis will have no limits as to how much memory it'll have access to. If Redis runs out of memory it might slow down or even crash, therefore it is a good idea to set a limited memory size.

More information about using Redis can be found here.

For this guide we'll not set a memory limit:

In the next window, you will be able to start the installation which will last about 5 minutes and afterwards Redis setup will be complete.