KeyDB: A Multithreaded, High-Performance Fork of Redis

Summary

KeyDB is a high-performance, multithreaded fork of Redis, designed for enhanced memory efficiency and high throughput. It maintains full compatibility with the Redis protocol, modules, and scripts, making it a seamless drop-in replacement. KeyDB also introduces advanced features like Active Replication and a MVCC architecture for non-blocking operations.

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Introduction

KeyDB is a high-performance, multithreaded fork of Redis, developed with a strong focus on memory efficiency and high throughput. It maintains full compatibility with the Redis protocol, modules, and scripts, making it a drop-in replacement for existing Redis deployments. KeyDB offers advanced features such as Active Replication, FLASH Storage, and Subkey Expires, alongside a MVCC architecture that allows non-blocking queries like KEYS and SCAN. Recently, KeyDB became part of Snap Inc., further solidifying its development and open-source commitment.

Installation

KeyDB is primarily designed and tested for Linux environments, leveraging features like SO_REUSEPORT. To get started, first initialize and update submodule dependencies:

git submodule init && git submodule update

Next, install the necessary build dependencies. For Debian/Ubuntu systems, this typically involves:

sudo apt install build-essential nasm autotools-dev autoconf libjemalloc-dev tcl tcl-dev uuid-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libbz2-dev libzstd-dev liblz4-dev libsnappy-dev libssl-dev

After dependencies are installed, compile KeyDB with a simple make command:

make

For specific configurations, such as systemd support, TLS, or FLASH storage, additional make flags are available. If you encounter build issues or need to rebuild with different options, make distclean is recommended to clear cached build options and dependencies.

Examples

Running KeyDB is straightforward. Navigate to the src directory and execute keydb-server:

cd src
./keydb-server

You can also specify a configuration file or pass command-line options:

./keydb-server /path/to/keydb.conf --port 9999

To interact with your KeyDB instance, use keydb-cli:

cd src
./keydb-cli
keydb> ping
PONG
keydb> set foo bar
OK
keydb> get foo
"bar"
keydb> incr mycounter
(integer) 1

A comprehensive list of commands is available in the KeyDB documentation.

Why use

KeyDB distinguishes itself by offering significantly higher throughput than Redis on the same hardware, leading to reduced operational costs and complexity. Its multithreaded architecture efficiently utilizes modern multi-core processors, while maintaining Redis protocol compatibility. Features like Active Replication simplify hot-spare failover and enable distributed writes across replicas. KeyDB's MVCC design ensures that operations like KEYS and SCAN do not block the database, preserving performance. The project's philosophy emphasizes a "batteries included" approach, aiming to provide a more complete and user-friendly experience by integrating features that might otherwise require external components. Backed by Snap Inc., KeyDB is actively maintained and committed to the open-source community.