How to Monitor Redis Server with Prometheus and Grafana in 5 minutes

Most items from the INFO command are exported, see http://redis.io/commands/info for details. In addition, for every database there are metrics for total keys, expiring keys and the average TTL for keys in the database.

You can also export values of keys if they’re in numeric format by using the -check-keys flag. The exporter will also export the size (or, depending on the data type, the length) of the key. This can be used to export the number of elements in (sorted) sets, hashes, lists, etc.

This Prometheus exporter for Redis metrics supports Redis 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x

export VER="0.21.2"
wget https://github.com/oliver006/redis_exporter/releases/download/v${VER}/redis_exporter-v${VER}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract the downloaded archive file

tar xvf redis_exporter-v${VER}.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv redis_exporter /usr/local/bin/
rm -f redis_exporter-v${VER}.linux-amd64.tar.gz

redis_exporter should be executable from your current SHELL

$ redis_exporter  -version
INFO[0000] Redis Metrics Exporter v0.21.2    build date: 2018-09-20-18:15:12    sha1: 8bb0b841e9a70b0348f69483e58fea01d521c47a    Go: go1.10.4

To get a list of all options supported, pass --help option

# redis_exporter  --help
Usage of redis_exporter:
  -check-keys string
    	Comma separated list of key-patterns to export value and length/size, searched for with SCAN
  -check-single-keys string
    	Comma separated list of single keys to export value and length/size
  -debug
    	Output verbose debug information
  -log-format string
    	Log format, valid options are txt and json (default "txt")
  -namespace string
    	Namespace for metrics (default "redis")
  -redis-only-metrics
    	Whether to export go runtime metrics also
  -redis.addr string
    	Address of one or more redis nodes, separated by separator
  -redis.alias string
    	Redis instance alias for one or more redis nodes, separated by separator
  -redis.file string
    	Path to file containing one or more redis nodes, separated by newline. NOTE: mutually exclusive with redis.addr
  -redis.password string
    	Password for one or more redis nodes, separated by separator
  -script string
    	Path to Lua Redis script for collecting extra metrics
  -separator string
    	separator used to split redis.addr, redis.password and redis.alias into several elements. (default ",")
  -use-cf-bindings
    	Use Cloud Foundry service bindings
  -version
    	Show version information and exit
  -web.listen-address string
    	Address to listen on for web interface and telemetry. (default ":9121")
  -web.telemetry-path string
    	Path under which to expose metrics. (default "/metrics")

The user prometheus will be used to run the service. Add Promethes system user if it doesn’t exist

sudo groupadd --system prometheus
sudo useradd -s /sbin/nologin --system -g prometheus prometheus

Then proceed to create a systemd service unit file.

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/redis_exporter.service

Add below content

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
Documentation=https://github.com/oliver006/redis_exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/redis_exporter \
  --log-format=txt \
  --namespace=redis \
  --web.listen-address=:9121 \
  --web.telemetry-path=/metrics

SyslogIdentifier=redis_exporter
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

For Init system

Install daemonize ( CentOS / Ubuntu )

sudo yum -y install daemonize
sudo apt-get install daemonize

Create init script

sudo vim /etc/init.d/redis_exporter

#!/bin/bash
# Author: Josphat Mutai, [email protected] , https://github.com/jmutai
# redis_exporter     This shell script takes care of starting and stopping Prometheus redis exporter 
#
# chkconfig: 2345 80 80
# description: Prometheus redis exporter  start script
# processname: redis_exporter
# pidfile: /var/run/redis_exporter.pid

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

RETVAL=0
PROGNAME=redis_exporter
PROG=/usr/local/bin/${PROGNAME}
RUNAS=prometheus
LOCKFILE=/var/lock/subsys/${PROGNAME}
PIDFILE=/var/run/${PROGNAME}.pid
LOGFILE=/var/log/${PROGNAME}.log
DAEMON_SYSCONFIG=/etc/sysconfig/${PROGNAME}

# GO CPU core Limit

#GOMAXPROCS=$(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)
GOMAXPROCS=1

# Source config

. ${DAEMON_SYSCONFIG}

start() {
    if [[ -f $PIDFILE ]] > /dev/null; then
        echo "redis_exporter  is already running"
        exit 0
    fi

    echo -n "Starting redis_exporter  service…"
    daemonize -u ${USER} -p ${PIDFILE} -l ${LOCKFILE} -a -e ${LOGFILE} -o ${LOGFILE} ${PROG} ${ARGS}
    RETVAL=$?
    echo ""
    return $RETVAL
}

stop() {
    if [ ! -f "$PIDFILE" ] || ! kill -0 $(cat "$PIDFILE"); then
        echo "Service not running"
        return 1
    fi
    echo 'Stopping service…'
    #kill -15 $(cat "$PIDFILE") && rm -f "$PIDFILE"
    killproc -p ${PIDFILE} -d 10 ${PROG}
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
    [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f ${LOCKFILE} ${PIDFILE}
    return $RETVAL
}

status() {
    if [ -f "$PIDFILE" ] || kill -0 $(cat "$PIDFILE"); then
      echo "redis exporter  service running..."
      echo "Service PID: `cat $PIDFILE`"
    else
      echo "Service not running"
    fi
     RETVAL=$?
     return $RETVAL
}

# Call function
case "$1" in
    start)
        start
        ;;
    stop)
        stop
        ;;
    restart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
    status)
        status
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
        exit 2
esac

Create Arguments configuration file

sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/redis_exporter

Define used command Arguments

ARGS="--log-format=txt \
--namespace=redis \
--web.listen-address=:9121 \
--web.telemetry-path=/metrics"

Test the script

# /etc/init.d/redis_exporter
Usage: /etc/init.d/redis_exporter {start|stop|restart}

sudo /etc/init.d/redis_exporter start
sudo chkconfig redis_exporter on

You can verify that the service is running using

$ sudo /etc/init.d/redis_exporter status
redis exporter  service running...
Service PID: 27106

$ sudo chkconfig --list | grep redis_exporter
redis_exporter 0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

$ sudo ss -tunelp | grep 9121
tcp    LISTEN     0      128                   :::9121                 :::*      users:(("redis_exporter",1970,6)) ino:1823474168 sk:ffff880341cd7800

The last step is to add a job to the Prometheus server for scraping metrics. Edit /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

# Redis Servers
  - job_name: 10.10.10.3-redis
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['10.10.10.3:9121']
        labels:
          alias: 10.10.10.3

  - job_name: 10.10.10.4-redis
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['10.10.10.4:9121']
        labels:
          alias: 10.10.10.4

Restart prometheus service for scraping of data metrics to begin

sudo systemctl restart prometheus

Test access to port 9121 from Prometheus server, it should be able to connect.

$ telnet 10.1.10.15 9121
Trying 10.1.10.15...
Connected to 10.1.10.15.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]

Add Prometheus data source to Grafana and import or create a grafana dashboard for Redis.

Grafana dashboard is available on grafana.net and/or github.com. My Job configuration uses an alias, I’ll use Grafana dashboard with host & alias selector is available on github.com.

Download the dashboard json file

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oliver006/redis_exporter/master/contrib/grafana_prometheus_redis_dashboard_alias.json

On Grafana UI, go to Create > Import Dashboard > Upload .json File. Select downloaded json file and click “Import“.

Wait for data to start appearing on your Grafana Dashboard, below is a sample view