Configuring Redis for scaling

Based on your infrastructure setup and how you have installed GitLab, there are multiple ways to configure Redis.

You can choose to install and manage Redis and Sentinel yourself, use a hosted cloud solution, or you can use the ones that come bundled with the Linux packages so you can only focus on configuration. Pick the one that suits your needs.

Use Valkey instead of Redis

Valkey is an open source high-performance key/value datastore that is fully compatible with Redis. GitLab supports Valkey as an opt-in alternative to Redis.

Using Valkey instead of Redis is a beta feature.

When enabled, Valkey uses the same user, group, data directory, and log directory conventions as Redis by default.

To switch to Valkey on Redis nodes, add the following to /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

redis['backend'] = 'valkey'

Known issues

• Because of known issue 589642, the Admin Area reports the Valkey version incorrectly. This issue doesn’t affect the version of Valkey installed or how it functions.

Redis replication and failover using the Linux package

This setup is for when you have installed GitLab using the Linux Enterprise Edition (EE) package.

Both Redis and Sentinel are bundled in the package, so you can use it to set up the whole Redis infrastructure (primary, replica and sentinel).

For more information, see Redis replication and failover with the Linux package.

Redis replication and failover using the non-bundled Redis

This setup is for when you have either a Linux package installation or a self-compiled installation, but you want to use your own external Redis and Sentinel servers.

For more information, see Redis replication and failover providing your own instance.

Standalone Redis using the Linux package

This setup is for when you have installed the Linux Community Edition (CE) package to use the bundled Redis, so you can use the package with only the Redis service enabled.

For more information, see Standalone Redis using the Linux package.