Troubleshooting pocket guide for Redis Enterprise Software

Troubleshoot issues with Redis Enterprise Software, including connectivity issues between the database and clients or applications.

If your client or application cannot connect to your database, verify the following.

Identify Redis host issues

Check resource usage

Used disk space should be less than 90%. To check the host machine's disk usage, run the df command:

$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
overlay          59G   23G   33G  41% /
/dev/vda1        59G   23G   33G  41% /etc/hosts

RAM and CPU utilization should be less than 80%, and host resources must be available exclusively for Redis Enterprise Software. You should also make sure that swap memory is not being used or is not configured.

Run the free command to check memory usage:

$ free
          total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        6087028     1954664      993756      409196     3138608     3440856
Swap:       1048572           0     1048572

Used CPU should be less than 80%. To check CPU usage, use top or vmstat.

Run top:

$ top
Tasks:  54 total,   1 running,  53 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  1.7 us,  1.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 96.8 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  6087028 total,   988672 free,  1958060 used,  3140296 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  1048572 total,  1048572 free,        0 used.  3437460 avail Mem

Run vmstat:

$ vmstat
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
2  0      0 988868 177588 2962876    0    0     0     6    7   12  1  1 99  0  0

If CPU or RAM usage is greater than 80%, ask your system administrator which process is the culprit. If the process is not related to Redis, terminate it.

Sync clock with time server

It is recommended to sync the host clock with a time server.

Verify that time is synchronized with the time server using one of the following commands:

ntpq -p
chronyc sources
timedatectl

Remove https_proxy and http_proxy variables

Run printenv and check if https_proxy and http_proxy are configured as environment variables:
```
printenv | grep -i proxy
```
If https_proxy or http_proxy exist, remove them:
```
unset https_proxy
```
```
unset http_proxy
```

Review system logs

Review system logs including the syslog or journal for any error messages, warnings, or critical events. See Logging for more information.

Identify issues caused by security hardening

Temporarily deactivate any security hardening tools (such as selinux, cylance, McAfee, or dynatrace), and check if the problem is resolved.
The user redislabs must have read and write access to /tmp directory. Run the following commands to verify.
1. Create a test file in /tmp as the redislabs user:
```
$ su - redislabs -s /bin/bash -c 'touch /tmp/test'
```
2. Verify the file was created successfully:
```
$ ls -l /tmp/test
-rw-rw-r-- 1 redislabs redislabs 0 Aug 12 02:06 /tmp/test
```
Using a non-permissive file mode creation mask (umask) can cause issues.
1. Check the output of umask:
```
$ umask
0022
```
2. If umask's output differs from the default value 0022, it might prevent normal operation. Consult your system administrator and revert to the default umask setting.

Identify cluster issues

Use supervisorctl status to verify all processes are in a RUNNING state:
```
supervisorctl status
```
Run rlcheck and verify no errors appear:
```
rlcheck
```

Run rladmin status issues_only and verify that no issues appear:

$ rladmin status issues_only
CLUSTER NODES:
NODE:ID ROLE ADDRESS EXTERNAL_ADDRESS HOSTNAME SHARDS CORES FREE_RAM PROVISIONAL_RAM VERSION STATUS

DATABASES:
DB:ID  NAME        TYPE  STATUS  SHARDS  PLACEMENT   REPLICATION    PERSISTENCE    ENDPOINT  

ENDPOINTS:
DB:ID               NAME             ID          NODE             ROLE             SSL       

SHARDS:
DB:ID      NAME     ID        NODE     ROLE     SLOTS      USED_MEMORY            STATUS

Run rladmin status shards. For each shard, USED_MEMORY should be less than 25 GB.

$ rladmin status shards
SHARDS:
DB:ID    NAME         ID          NODE      ROLE      SLOTS       USED_MEMORY       STATUS   
db:1     db1          redis:1     node:1    master    0-16383     2.13MB            OK

Run rladmin cluster running_actions and confirm that no tasks are currently running (active):
```
$ rladmin cluster running_actions
No active tasks
```

Troubleshoot connectivity

Database endpoint resolution

On the client machine, check if the database endpoint can be resolved:
```
dig <endpoint>
```
If endpoint resolution fails on the client machine, check on one of the cluster nodes:
```
dig @localhost <endpoint>
```
If endpoint resolution succeeds on the cluster node but fails on the client machine, review the DNS configuration and fix any errors.
If the endpoint can’t be resolved on the cluster node, contact support.

Client application issues

To identify possible client application issues, test connectivity from the client machine to the database using redis-cli:

INFO:

redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> INFO

PING:

redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> PING

or if TLS is enabled:

redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> --tls --insecure --cert --key PING

If the client machine cannot connect, try to connect to the database from one of the cluster nodes:
```
redis-cli -h <node IP or hostname> -p <port> -a <password> PING
```
If the cluster node is also unable to connect to the database, contact Redis support.
If the client fails to connect, but the cluster node succeeds, perform health checks on the client and network.

Firewall access

Run one of the following commands to verify that database access is not blocked by a firewall on the client machine or cluster:
```
iptables -L
```
```
ufw status
```
```
firewall-cmd –list-all
```
To resolve firewall issues:
1. If a firewall is configured for your database, add the client IP address to the firewall rules.
2. Configure third-party firewalls and external proxies to allow the cluster FQDN, database endpoint IP address, and database ports.

Troubleshoot latency

Server-side latency

Make sure the database's used memory does not reach the configured database max memory limit. For more details, see Database memory limits.
Try to correlate the time of the latency with any surge in the following metrics:
- Number of connections
- Used memory
- Evicted keys
- Expired keys
Run SLOWLOG GET using redis-cli to identify slow commands such as KEYS or HGETALL:
```
redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> SLOWLOG GET <number of entries>
```
Consider using alternative commands such as SCAN, SSCAN, HSCAN, and ZSCAN.
Keys with large memory footprints can cause latency. To identify such keys, compare the keys returned by SLOWLOG GET with the output of the following commands:
```
redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> --memkeys
```
```
redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p <port> -a <password> --bigkeys
```
For additional diagnostics, see:
- Diagnosing latency issues
- View Redis slow log

Client-side latency

Verify the following:

There is no memory or CPU pressure on the client host.
The client uses a connection pool instead of frequently opening and closing connections.
The client does not erroneously open multiple connections that can pressure the client or server.