Run redis rootless, distroless and secure.
For developers, who are building real-time data-driven applications, Redis is the preferred, fastest, and most feature-rich cache, data structure server, and document and vector query engine.
What can I do with this? This image will run redis rootless and distroless for more security. Besides being more secure and slim than most images, it also offers additional start parameters to either start Redis in command mode, as a replica or as a in-memory database that persists nothing to disk. Simply provide the command needed:
- --cmd - Will execute all commands against the Redis database specified via
REDIS_HOSTenvironment variable - --replica MASTER - Will start as replica from MASTER (can be IP, FQDN or container DNS)
- --in-memory - Will start Redis only in memory
- 1 - ... and more?
Why should I run this image and not the other image(s) that already exist? Good question! Because ...
Important
- ... this image runs rootless as 1000:1000
- ... this image has no shell since it is distroless
- ... this image is auto updated to the latest version via CI/CD
- ... this image has a health check
- ... this image runs read-only
- ... this image is automatically scanned for CVEs before and after publishing
- ... this image is created via a secure and pinned CI/CD process
- ... this image is very small
- ... this image can be used to execute commands after redis has started
If you value security, simplicity and optimizations to the extreme, then this image might be for you.
Below you find a comparison between this image and the most used or original one.
| image | 11notes/redis:7.4.5 | redis:7.4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| image size on disk | 5.71MB | 117MB |
| process UID/GID | 1000/1000 | 0/0 |
| distroless? | ✅ | ❌ |
| rootless? | ✅ | ❌ |
- /redis/etc - Directory of your redis.conf
- /redis/var - Directory of your redis data
name: "kv"
x-image-redis: &image
image: "11notes/redis:7.4.5"
read_only: true
services:
redis:
<<: *image
environment:
REDIS_PASSWORD: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
networks:
backend:
volumes:
- "redis.etc:/redis/etc"
- "redis.var:/redis/var"
tmpfs:
- "/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
restart: "always"
# start a replica
replica:
<<: *image
environment:
REDIS_PASSWORD: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
command: "--replica redis"
networks:
backend:
volumes:
- "replica.etc:/redis/etc"
- "replica.var:/redis/var"
tmpfs:
- "/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
restart: "always"
# start Redis only in-memory
in-memory:
<<: *image
environment:
REDIS_PASSWORD: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
command: "--in-memory"
networks:
backend:
volumes:
- "in-memory.etc:/redis/etc"
tmpfs:
- "/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
restart: "always"
# execute CLI commands via redis-cli
cli:
<<: *image
depends_on:
redis:
condition: "service_healthy"
restart: true
environment:
REDIS_HOST: "redis"
REDIS_PASSWORD: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
# start redis in cmd mode
entrypoint: ["/usr/local/bin/redis", "--cmd"]
# commands to execute in order
command:
- PING
- --version
- SET key value NX
- GET key
networks:
backend:
# demo container to actually view the databases
gui:
image: "redis/redisinsight"
environment:
RI_REDIS_HOST0: "redis"
RI_REDIS_PASSWORD0: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
RI_REDIS_HOST1: "replica"
RI_REDIS_PASSWORD1: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
RI_REDIS_HOST2: "in-memory"
RI_REDIS_PASSWORD2: "${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
ports:
- "3000:5540/tcp"
networks:
backend:
frontend:
volumes:
redis.etc:
redis.var:
replica.etc:
replica.var:
in-memory.etc:
networks:
frontend:
backend:
internal: true| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
user |
docker | user name |
uid |
1000 | user identifier |
gid |
1000 | group identifier |
home |
/redis | home directory of user docker |
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
TZ |
Time Zone | |
DEBUG |
Will activate debug option for container image and app (if available) | |
REDISCLI_HISTFILE |
Disable history of redis-cli (for security) | /dev/null |
REDIS_IP |
IP of Redis server | 0.0.0.0 |
REDIS_PORT |
Port of Redis server | 6379 |
REDIS_HOST |
IP of upstream Redis server when using --cmd |
|
REDIS_PASSWORD |
Password used for authentication |
These are the main tags for the image. There is also a tag for each commit and its shorthand sha256 value.
It is of my opinion that the :latest tag is dangerous. Many times, I’ve introduced breaking changes to my images. This would have messed up everything for some people. If you don’t want to change the tag to the latest semver, simply use the short versions of semver. Instead of using :7.4.5 you can use :7 or :7.4. Since on each new version these tags are updated to the latest version of the software, using them is identical to using :latest but at least fixed to a major or minor version.
If you still insist on having the bleeding edge release of this app, simply use the :rolling tag, but be warned! You will get the latest version of the app instantly, regardless of breaking changes or security issues or what so ever. You do this at your own risk!
docker pull 11notes/redis:7.4.5
docker pull ghcr.io/11notes/redis:7.4.5
docker pull quay.io/11notes/redis:7.4.5
Important
This image is not based on another image but uses scratch as the starting layer. The image consists of the following distroless layers that were added:
- 11notes/distroless - contains users, timezones and Root CA certificates
Tip
- Use a reverse proxy like Traefik, Nginx, HAproxy to terminate TLS and to protect your endpoints
- Use Let’s Encrypt DNS-01 challenge to obtain valid SSL certificates for your services
This image is provided to you at your own risk. Always make backups before updating an image to a different version. Check the releases for breaking changes. If you have any problems with using this image simply raise an issue, thanks. If you have a question or inputs please create a new discussion instead of an issue. You can find all my other repositories on github.
created 17.07.2025, 16:16:12 (CET)
Footnotes
-
Sentinel mode will follow soon as well as the possibility to change the announce IP and port ↩
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