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How to Import data into a Redis database

Profile picture for Ajeet Raina
Author:
Ajeet Raina, Former Developer Growth Manager at Redis

Redis offers multiple ways to import data into a database; from an file, an script or from an existing Redis database.

Import using redis-cli script​

  1. Create a simple file users.redis with all the commands you want to run

    HSET 'user:001' first_name 'John' last_name 'doe' dob '12-JUN-1970'
    HSET 'user:002' first_name 'David' last_name 'Bloom' dob '03-MAR-1981'

  2. Use the redis-cli tool to execute the script

    redis-cli -h localhost -p 6379 < users.redis

This approach will only run the commands and will not impact the existing data, except if you modify existing keys in the script.

Sample dataset: You can find sample dataset ready to be imported using this method in the https://github.com/redis-developer/redis-datasets repository.

Restore an RDB file​

If you have an RDB file dump.rdb that contains the data you want you can use this file to create a new database

  1. Copy the dump.rdb file into the Redis working directory

    If you do not know what it is folder you can run the command CONFIG get dir where your Redis instance is up and running

  2. Start the Redis service with the redis-server

  3. The file dump.rdb is automatically imported.

  4. Connect to the database using redis-cli or any other client, to check that data have been imported. (for example SCAN)

Redis Persistence

- Warning: Importing data erases all existing content in the database.

Import & Synchronize using RIOT​

Redis Input/Output Tools (RIOT) is a set of import/export command line utilities for Redis:

  • RIOT DB: migrate from an RDBMS to Redis, Search, JSON, ...
  • RIOT File: bulk import/export data from/to files.
  • RIOT Gen: generate sample Redis datasets for new feature development and proof of concept.
  • RIOT Redis: live replication from any Redis database (including AWS Elasticache) to another Redis database.
  • RIOT Stream: import/export messages from/to Kafka topics.
Online Database Migration from Amazon ElastiCache to Redis Enterprise Cloud using RIOT

Import data into Redis Enterprise​

You can easily import data into Redis Enterprise and Redis Enterprise Cloud, take a look to the following documentation: