Integrating Redis Cache into Laravel: Installation, Configuration, and Usage

Redis is an in‑memory key‑value store that supports strings, lists, sets, sorted sets, and hashes. Integrating Redis into a Laravel application can significantly improve performance for caching and other data‑intensive operations.

1. Download Redis extension

For Windows, simply download and extract the appropriate DLL. For Linux, compile the source and add redis.so to the PHP extensions.

2. Install the Predis client

Run the Composer command to add Predis to the project: composer require predis/predis 3. Configure Redis in Laravel

Edit config/database.php and add the following configuration for a single Redis instance:

<?php
return [
    'redis' => [
        'client' => env('REDIS_CLIENT', 'phpredis'),
        'default' => [
            'url' => env('REDIS_URL'),
            'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'username' => env('REDIS_USERNAME'),
            'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD'),
            'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', 6379),
            'database' => env('REDIS_DB', 0),
        ],
        'cache' => [
            'url' => env('REDIS_URL'),
            'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'username' => env('REDIS_USERNAME'),
            'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD'),
            'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', 6379),
            'database' => env('REDIS_CACHE_DB', 1),
        ],
    ],
];

4. Cluster configuration (optional)

For a Redis cluster, extend the configuration with options and clusters sections:

<?php
return [
    'redis' => [
        'client' => env('REDIS_CLIENT', 'phpredis'),
        'options' => [
            'cluster' => env('REDIS_CLUSTER', 'redis'),
        ],
        'clusters' => [
            'default' => [
                [
                    'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', 'localhost'),
                    'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD'),
                    'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', 6379),
                    'database' => 0,
                ],
                // add more nodes as needed
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

5. Basic Redis operations in Laravel

Use the Redis facade inside a controller:

<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

class IndexController extends Controller {
    public function index() {
        $key = 'laravel';
        // Redis::set($key, 'M0001'); // set a value
        $value = Redis::get($key);
        print_r($value); // outputs the stored value
    }
}

6. Transactional operations

Wrap multiple commands in a transaction to ensure atomicity:

<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

Redis::transaction(function ($redis) {
    $redis->incr('laravel_num', 1); // increment by 1
    $redis->incr('laravel_num', 2); // increment by 2
});
$result = Redis::get('laravel_num');
print_r($result); // should output 3

7. Lua scripting with Redis

Execute a Lua script via the eval method to perform conditional logic:

<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis;

$counter = Redis::eval(
    "local counter = redis.call('incr', KEYS[1])
" .
    "if counter > 10 then
" .
    "    redis.call('incr', KEYS[2])
" .
    "end
" .
    "return counter",
    2,
    'first',
    'second'
);
var_dump($counter);

After following these steps, you will have successfully downloaded and installed the Redis extension, added the Predis client, configured both single‑node and clustered connections, and performed basic, transactional, and scripted operations with Redis in a Laravel application.