Migrating between Elasticache and Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise (ACRE) is easy using RIOT

This module provides a simple, end to end demonstration of the process.

Quick Start

terraform init -upgrade
terraform plan
teraform apply
./run_memtier_benchmark.sh
./run_riot.sh

Architecture

The system architecture is shown below:

(Thanks to plantuml for the simple drawings)

The EC2 instances are identical except for the software installed. They use the same ssh key, default VPC, security group etc. etc.

You will need to use the three access points:

• ssh-memtier: run the memtier_benchmark traffic generator to generate load into the elasticache databse
• ssh-riot: run the riot-redis tool to migrate data from elasticache to ACRE
• redisInsight: run RedisInsight to see the keys in ACRE

Connection instructions for these are printed out when you run Terraform (although there is an issue which means not everything is automated, unfortunately).

Use Instructions

Setup

RedisInsight

Ensure you have access to RedisInsight - this will be the tool for looking at the ACRE database.

Terraform

For AWS these terraform variables are required

• region:
• linux_ami:
• ssh_key_name:
• security_group_id:

You need the following secrets:

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES:

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

For Azure these terraform variables are required:

• tenant_id: Tenant ID
• subscription_id: Subscription ID (also known as Application ID)
• client_id: Client ID (aka Service Principal)
• client_secret Client Secret:

If you're doing this locally then the following module definition can be used (filling in for missing values, of course!)

module "ec2acre" {
  source = "github.com/Redislabs-Solution-Architects/terraform_aws_azure_ec_to_acre_demo"
  region = 
  linux_ami = 
  instance_type = 
  ssh_key_name = 
  security_group_id =
  subscription_id = 
  client_id = 
  client_secret = 
  tenant_id = 
}

Then execute

terraform init

Creation

terraform apply

After you have approved this will take around 15 minutes to complete and will spit out several outputs as shown here (your actual values will differ!):

redis_insight-Host = "redisgeek-7l0j.eastus.redisenterprise.cache.azure.net"
redis_insight-Password = "Value must be retrieved by going to Azure Resource Manager, searching for redisgeek-7l0j and selecting the 'Access Keys'}"
redis_insight-Port = 10000
run_memtier = "ssh -i ~/.ssh/toby-kp.pem ec2-user@44.192.49.207 '/usr/local/bin/memtier_benchmark -s source.m5xbzg.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com -p 6379'"
run_riot = "ssh -i ~/.ssh/toby-kp.pem ec2-user@3.237.20.67 '/usr/local/bin/riot-redis -h source.m5xbzg.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com -p 6379  replicate -h redisgeek-7l0j.eastus.redisenterprise.cache.azure.net -p 10000 --idle-timeout 10000 --live --tls --no-verify-peer -a PASSWORD'"

(Note that the ssh strings include single quotes ' - you'll need these to avoid shell parsing issues, so make sure you cut/paste correctly!)

Operation

Use the redis_insight_* outputs to add the ACRE DB to RedisInsight. Note that the redis_insight_Password is a string containing instructions for how to obtain the password you'll need to access the ACRE DB, and which you'll need for both RedisInsight as well as to replace the PASSWORD value in the run_riot string.

Then use the command strings for run_memtier and run_riot in separate terminals to pump data into the EC database and have RIOT copy that live to the ACRE DB. (Remember: replace PASSWORD with the ACRE password you obtained above!).

You should see the keys etc in RedisInsight

You can flush the ACRE DB and repeat; you can run memtier and RIOT in any order you choose. So long as traffic is generated within 10 seconds of starting RIOT then you should have success

Teardown

• Remove the ACRE DB from RedisInsight manually
• Delete the infrastructure using terraform:

terraform destroy

Issues

• Requires user to have already setup a default VPC and a subnet.
• Security Group requires ssh access by user, access from EC2 instances to Elasticache, and egress
• Minimal permissions to run this template are not specified