Redis is an open-source, networked, in-memory, key-value data store with optional durability. It is written in ANSI C. It’s a “NoSQL” key-value data store. More precisely, it is a data structure server.

To install Redis as daemon on a CentOS/RHEL/cPanel server, do the following steps

cd /usr/local/
wget http://download.redis.io/releases/redis-2.8.12.tar.gz
tar -xvzf redis-2.8.12.tar.gz
cd redis-2.8.12
make
cp src/redis-server /usr/local/bin
cp src/redis-cli /usr/local/bin
mkdir -p /etc/redis
mkdir -p /var/redis
cp redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf

Open /etc/redis/redis.conf using vi edirot and set the values as follows.

daemonize yes
port 6379
bind 127.0.0.1
dir  /var/redis/
logfile  /var/log/redis.log
pidfile  /var/run/redis.pid

Now create the startup script. Create a new file as /etc/init.d/redis and add the following contents to it ( Reference https://gist.github.com/paulrosania/257849 ). And make it executable ( chmod 755 /etc/init.d/redis ).

#!/bin/sh
#
# redis - this script starts and stops the redis-server daemon
#
# chkconfig:   - 85 15 
# description:  Redis is a persistent key-value database
# processname: redis-server
# config:      /etc/redis/redis.conf
# config:      /etc/sysconfig/redis
# pidfile:     /var/run/redis.pid
 
# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
 
# Source networking configuration.
. /etc/sysconfig/network
 
# Check that networking is up.
[ "$NETWORKING" = "no" ] && exit 0
 
redis="/usr/local/bin/redis-server"
prog=$(basename $redis)
 
REDIS_CONF_FILE="/etc/redis/redis.conf"
 
[ -f /etc/sysconfig/redis ] && . /etc/sysconfig/redis
 
lockfile=/var/lock/subsys/redis
 
start() {
    [ -x $redis ] || exit 5
    [ -f $REDIS_CONF_FILE ] || exit 6
    echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
    daemon $redis $REDIS_CONF_FILE
    retval=$?
    echo
    [ $retval -eq 0 ] && touch $lockfile
    return $retval
}
 
stop() {
    echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
    killproc $prog -QUIT
    retval=$?
    echo
    [ $retval -eq 0 ] && rm -f $lockfile
    return $retval
}
 
restart() {
    stop
    start
}
 
reload() {
    echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
    killproc $redis -HUP
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
}
 
force_reload() {
    restart
}
 
rh_status() {
    status $prog
}
 
rh_status_q() {
    rh_status >/dev/null 2>&1
}
 
case "$1" in
    start)
        rh_status_q && exit 0
        $1
        ;;
    stop)
        rh_status_q || exit 0
        $1
        ;;
    restart|configtest)
        $1
        ;;
    reload)
        rh_status_q || exit 7
        $1
        ;;
    force-reload)
        force_reload
        ;;
    status)
        rh_status
        ;;
    condrestart|try-restart)
        rh_status_q || exit 0
	    ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|condrestart|try-restart|reload|force-reload}"
        exit 2
esac

Now make sure the daemon will start after server reboot.

chkconfig --add redis
chkconfig redis on

Now we can start redis using command /etc/init.d/redis start

To make sure redis is working, run command “redis-cli ping” from commandline. If you get result “PONG”, that shows redis is working.

Now install redis PHP extension, using following command.

pecl install redis

Now open php.ini ( /usr/local/lib/php.ini on cPanel servers ) file and add the following line to it

extension=redis.so

Now restart Apache to apply the changes to php.ini file.