You are looking at the documentation of a prior release. To read the documentation of the latest release, please
visit here.
New to KubeDB? Please start here.
Overview
KubeDB supports restarting a Redis/Valkey database via a RedisOpsRequest. Restarting is useful if some pods are stuck in an unexpected state or are not functioning correctly. This tutorial will guide you through the process of restarting a Redis cluster using KubeDB.
Before You Begin
You need a Kubernetes cluster, and the
kubectlcommand-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you don’t have a cluster, you can create one using kind.Install the KubeDB CLI on your workstation and the KubeDB operator in your cluster by following the steps here.
To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a namespace called
demo.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
Note: The YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in the docs/examples/redis folder in the GitHub repository kubedb/docs.
Deploy Redis Cluster
In this section, we will deploy a Redis cluster using KubeDB.
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: Redis
metadata:
name: redis-cluster
namespace: demo
spec:
version: 8.2.2
mode: Cluster
cluster:
replicas: 2
storageType: Durable
storage:
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
storageClassName: local-path
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
Let’s create the Redis custom resource (CR) shown above:
$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.2.21-rc.1/docs/examples/redis/restart/redis.yaml
redis.kubedb.com/redis-cluster created
Once the Redis cluster is created, you can check the pods created:
$ kubectl get pods -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=redis-cluster -w
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
redis-cluster-shard0-0 1/1 Running 0 19h
redis-cluster-shard0-1 1/1 Running 0 19h
redis-cluster-shard1-0 1/1 Running 0 19h
redis-cluster-shard1-1 1/1 Running 0 19h
redis-cluster-shard2-0 1/1 Running 0 19h
redis-cluster-shard2-1 1/1 Running 0 19h
Apply Restart OpsRequest
To restart the Redis cluster, we will create a RedisOpsRequest to initiate the restart operation.
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: RedisOpsRequest
metadata:
name: restart
namespace: demo
spec:
type: Restart
databaseRef:
name: redis-cluster
apply: Always
spec.type: Specifies the type of operation, in this case,Restart.spec.databaseRef: References the name of the Redis database (redis-cluster) in the same namespace as theRedisOpsRequest.spec.apply: Determines whether the operation should always be applied (Always) or only when there are changes (IfReady).
Let’s create the RedisOpsRequest CR:
$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.2.21-rc.1/docs/examples/redis/restart/restart.yaml
RedisOpsRequest.ops.kubedb.com/restart created
Restart Process for Redis Cluster
In a Redis cluster, pods are organized into shards, each containing multiple replicas in a master-slave setup. The restart process follows these steps:
- Restart replicas first: For each shard, restart all slave pods one by one.
- Restart masters last: After all slaves in all shards are restarted, restart the master pods one by one.
This ensures high availability and minimal disruption during the restart.
You can check the status of the RedisOpsRequest to confirm the restart operation:
$ kubectl get rdops -n demo
NAME TYPE STATUS AGE
restart Restart Successful 6m51s
$ kubectl get rdops -n demo restart -o yaml
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: RedisOpsRequest
metadata:
annotations:
kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
{"apiVersion":"ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1","kind":"RedisOpsRequest","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"restart","namespace":"demo"},"spec":{"apply":"Always","databaseRef":{"name":"redis-cluster"},"type":"Restart"}}
creationTimestamp: "2025-10-21T08:41:47Z"
generation: 1
name: restart
namespace: demo
resourceVersion: "157658"
uid: 234fb008-ca91-420d-a2ae-4121c2c34595
spec:
apply: Always
databaseRef:
name: redis-cluster
type: Restart
status:
conditions:
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:41:47Z"
message: Redis ops request is restarting the database nodes
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Restart
status: "True"
type: Restart
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:41:53Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard0-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard0-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:42:28Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard0-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard0-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:42:28Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard1-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard1-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:43:03Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard1-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard1-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:43:03Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard2-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard2-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:43:38Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard2-1
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard2-1
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:43:38Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard0-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard0-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:44:13Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard0-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard0-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:44:13Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard1-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard1-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:44:48Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard1-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard1-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:44:48Z"
message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard2-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: EvictPod--redis-cluster-shard2-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:45:23Z"
message: is pod ready; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:redis-cluster-shard2-0
observedGeneration: 1
status: "True"
type: IsPodReady--redis-cluster-shard2-0
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:45:23Z"
message: Successfully restarted pods
observedGeneration: 1
reason: RestartPods
status: "True"
type: RestartPods
- lastTransitionTime: "2025-10-21T08:45:23Z"
message: Successfully Restarted Database
observedGeneration: 1
reason: Successful
status: "True"
type: Successful
observedGeneration: 1
phase: Successful
Cleaning Up
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created in this tutorial, run:
$ kubectl delete rdops -n demo restart
$ kubectl delete redis -n demo redis-cluster
$ kubectl delete ns demo
Next Steps
- Learn about backup and restore Redis databases using KubeStash.
- Explore initializing a Redis database with scripts.
- Understand the detailed concepts of the Redis object.
- Want to contribute to KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.