Does Ruby on Rails Work With Redis?
Ruby on Rails integrates seamlessly with Redis for caching, session storage, and background job queues, with Rails providing first-class support through multiple built-in adapters.
Quick Facts
How Ruby on Rails Works With Redis
Rails treats Redis as a pluggable backend for multiple subsystems rather than a required dependency. The most common integration is caching via ActiveSupport::Cache::RedisStore, which is configured in a single line in your environment config. Rails also supports Redis as a session store and ActionCable uses Redis as the message broker for WebSocket connections across multiple server instances. For background jobs, Sidekiq (the most popular Rails background job processor) requires Redis and has become the de facto standard, though Rails includes built-in job queueing adapters. The developer experience is remarkably smooth—you configure Redis connection details once, and Rails handles serialization, key namespacing, and expiration automatically. Most Rails developers use redis-rb as the underlying client library, which is already a dependency of Rails' caching and ActionCable systems. The architecture is flexible: you can use a single Redis instance for everything or separate instances by concern. Connection pooling is handled automatically, and Rails provides middleware for cache warming and stampede prevention.
Best Use Cases
Redis Cache Setup in Rails
bundle add redis sidekiq# config/environments/production.rb
config.cache_store = :redis_cache_store, {
url: ENV['REDIS_URL'] || 'redis://localhost:6379/1',
namespace: 'myapp',
expires_in: 1.hour,
pool: { size: 5, timeout: 1 }
}
# config/initializers/sidekiq.rb
Sidekiq.configure_server do |config|
config.redis = { url: ENV['REDIS_URL'] || 'redis://localhost:6379' }
end
Sidekiq.configure_client do |config|
config.redis = { url: ENV['REDIS_URL'] || 'redis://localhost:6379' }
end
# app/jobs/example_job.rb
class ExampleJob < ApplicationJob
queue_as :default
def perform(*args)
Rails.cache.write('key', 'value', expires_in: 30.minutes)
end
endKnown Issues & Gotchas
Redis key collision when multiple Rails apps share the same instance without proper namespacing
Fix: Use config.cache_store = :redis_cache_store, { namespace: 'myapp_prod' } to isolate keys per environment/app
Serialization errors when caching non-JSON-serializable objects without proper configuration
Fix: Use Rails' default marshal serializer or explicitly configure json serializer with proper object support
Connection pool exhaustion under high concurrent load if not tuned properly
Fix: Set pool size appropriately: { pool: 10 } in redis_cache_store config, monitor with redis-cli info stats
Data loss if Redis is treated as permanent storage without persistence enabled
Fix: Enable Redis RDB persistence or AOF in redis.conf for data durability beyond cache
Alternatives
- •Memcached with Rails for simpler caching (less feature-rich, better for cache-only use cases)
- •PostgreSQL with pg_stat_statements for caching queries directly in the database
- •DynamoDB or other managed caches for serverless Rails deployments
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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