Test Redis

Perform Redis baseline testing on GCP SUSE VMs

This section shows you how to perform baseline testing for Redis running on a GCP SUSE Arm64 VM, focusing on data insertion, retrieval, and search performance.

Prerequisites

This command launches the Redis server process in the background. It allows you to run subsequent commands in the same terminal session while Redis continues running.

Start the Redis service:

    

        
        
redis-server &

    

Check if Redis is active and responding to commands:

    

        
        
redis-cli ping

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        PONG

        
    

Insert sample data

Populate the Redis database with a sample dataset to validate insertion performance and data persistence. You create 10,000 key-value pairs using a simple shell loop and verify that the data has been successfully stored.

Use redis-cli to insert 10,000 sample key-value pairs:

    

        
        
for i in $(seq 1 10000); do
  redis-cli SET key:$i "value-$i" > /dev/null
done

    

• This command iterates through numbers 1 to 10,000, setting each as a Redis key in the format key:<number> with the corresponding value "value-<number>".
• The > /dev/null part suppresses command output to make the insertion process cleaner and faster.
• The > /dev/null part suppresses command output to make the insertion process cleaner and faster.

Verify data storage count:

    

        
        
redis-cli DBSIZE

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        (integer) 10000

        
    

This confirms that all key-value pairs were inserted successfully.

Verify sample data retrieval

Fetch one of the inserted keys to confirm data correctness:

Verify sample data retrieval:

    

        
        
redis-cli GET key:5000

    

• The GET command retrieves the value of a given key.
• If Redis returns "value-5000", it confirms that data insertion worked properly and the database is responding as expected.

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        "value-5000"

        
    

Perform basic data search tests

This step verifies Redis’s ability to retrieve specific data efficiently using unique keys. The GET command fetches the value associated with a given key from Redis.

Verify Redis’s ability to retrieve specific data efficiently using unique keys. The GET command fetches the value associated with a given key from Redis.

Test this by retrieving a known key-value pair:

    

        
        
redis-cli GET key:1234

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        "value-1234"

        
    

This confirms that Redis is storing and retrieving data correctly from memory.

Search for multiple keys using pattern matching

This test demonstrates how Redis can locate multiple keys that match a pattern, useful for exploratory queries or debugging.

Use the KEYS command to search for keys matching a pattern:

    

        
        
redis-cli KEYS "key:1*"

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
           1) "key:1392"
   2) "key:1076"
   3) "key:1683"
   4) "key:1490"
   5) "key:117"
   6) "key:1293"
   7) "key:1791"
   8) "key:1891"
   9) "key:1543"
..........

        
    

Production-safe searching with SCAN

Use the SCAN command for larger datasets — it is non-blocking and iterates safely.

    

        
        
redis-cli SCAN 0 MATCH "key:1*" COUNT 100

    

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        1) "9792"
2) 1) "key:151"
   2) "key:1845"
   3) "key:1397"
   4) "key:1501"
   5) "key:1994"
   6) "key:1475"
   7) "key:1522"
   8) "key:1884"

        
    

Redis will return a cursor value (for example, 9792).
Continue scanning by reusing the cursor until it returns 0, meaning the iteration is complete.

Measure data retrieval performance

Measure how quickly Redis can retrieve a single key from memory, helping to establish a baseline for data access latency on the Arm-based VM.

Time Single Key Lookup: Redis operations are extremely fast since data is stored in-memory. To quantify this, the Unix time command is used to measure the latency of retrieving a single key using redis-cli.

    

        
        
(time redis-cli GET key:9000) 2>&1

    

This command measures three time metrics:

• real – Total elapsed time (wall-clock time)
• user – Time spent in user mode
• sys – Time spent in kernel mode

You should see an output similar to:

    

        
        "value-9000"

real    0m0.002s
user    0m0.002s
sys     0m0.000s

        
    

These results show that Redis retrieves data almost instantly (in milliseconds or microseconds), confirming that the instance is performing efficiently under baseline conditions.