Learn how to fix the “Could not connect to Redis connection refused “ error with ease. Our Server Management Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

Could not connect to Redis connection refused – Fix it easily

Most webmasters and web hosts that use Redis would have seen this error:

Could not connect to Redis at 127.0.0.1:6379: Connection refused

It is usually caused when the Redis service is stopped in the server.

As part of our Server Management Services for online service providers and website owners, we have seen several other causes for this error.

Today we’ll go through the top causes and fixes for the Redis connection refused error.

What causes the Redis connection refused error?

Redis is used by many to reduce application load time. However, users at times complain that they receive a connection refused error after installing the Redis extension.

The common reasons that trigger the error include:

• Redis-Server not Started
• Firewall Restriction
• Resource usage

Apart from these, there are some alternate reasons that trigger the Redis connection error. Today, let’s look into the reasons behind this error and its fixes.

Redis-Server is not started

According to our experts, the most common cause of this error is that the Redis server is not running. Hence, we need to start the Redis server with the correct command for our operating system, like ‘redis-server’ or ‘sudo systemctl start redis’.

For example:

1. To begin with, run redis-server or sudo redis-server to start the Redis server.
2. Then, if we get a permission error, run the command with sudo.
3. In order to run Redis in the background, use this command:

   redis-server --daemonize yes
4. Finally, verify Redis is running by running this command and checking for the “PONG” response:

   redis-cli ping

Firewall restriction

Firewall restriction is another common reason that can trigger the “could not connect to Redis connection refused”.

By default, the Redis server listens to the TCP port 6379. If another application is using the port or if the firewall restrictions block the port, the connection refused error can be triggered.

We can fix this with these steps:

1. To begin with, check the firewall configuration and make sure the Redis port (6379) is open.
2. If another application is using the Redis port, we have to stop that application or configure Redis to use a different port.

Resource usage 

Redis uses the main memory to store the data. Thus if the resource in the server is not sufficient for the process to run, it may get terminated abruptly.

When the status of the Redis process is down, it triggers the could not connect to Redis error. We could confirm if it is running with the ps command.

ps -aux | grep redis

Our Support Engineers analyze the Redis log file to confirm if the service is repeatedly flapping in the server. From a simultaneous analysis of other log files, we confirm if any other process is consuming resources in the server and is causing Redis to terminate.

Ensure the server has enough resources (RAM, CPU) for Redis to operate.

Alternate reasons

Apart from the reasons mentioned above some settings in the Redis configuration file could also result in the connection failed error. The default location for the configuration file in Ubuntu 18 is  /etc/redis/redis.conf.

Some of the reasons that may trigger the connection refused error include:

• The password is set in the Redis configuration file. To fix it, comment the following line.
  #requirepass <some pass if any>
• If the IP binding is not open for access from the internet in the config. Commenting the following lines will fix the issue.
  # bind 127.0.0.1 ::1
• Verify that the correct Redis port settings are configured. The default port is usually 6379.
• If the issue recurs, we can try changing the port number in the Redis configuration file to a different value and then restart Redis.

Restart Redis Server

1. If none of the above steps resolve the issue, we can try restarting the Redis server.
2. We can stop the Redis server as seen here:
   • For Linux:
     sudo systemctl stop redis
   • For macOS:
     brew services stop

Then, wait for a few seconds before starting the Redis server again

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Conclusion

In short, a number of reasons can trigger the “Could not connect to Redis connection refused” error. This ranges from firewall restrictions to resource limitations. Today we discussed how our Support Engineers fix the error in each scenario.