Azure Redis Cache is a distributed, managed cache that helps you build highly scalable and responsive applications by providing super-fast access to your data. The new Premium-tier is an Enterprise ready tier, which includes all the Standard-tier features and more, such as better performance, bigger workloads, disaster recovery, import/export, and enhanced security. Continue reading to learn more about the additional features of the Premium cache tier.
Better performance over Standard or Basic tier. Caches in the Premium tier are deployed on hardware which has faster processors and gives better performance compared to the Basic or Standard Tier. Premium tier Caches have higher throughput and lower latencies.1
Throughput for the same sized Cache is higher in Premium as compared to Standard tier. For example, the throughput of a 53 GB P4 (Premium) cache is 250K requests per second as compared to 150K for C6 (Standard).
For more information about size, throughput, and bandwidth with premium caches, see Azure Redis Cache FAQ
The Premium tier allows you to persist the cache data in an cc. In a Basic/Standard cache, all the data is stored only in memory. In case of underlying infrastructure issues, there can be potential data loss. We recommend using the Redis data persistence feature in the Premium tier to increase resiliency against data loss. Azure Redis Cache offers RDB and AOF (coming soon) options in Redis persistence.
For instructions on configuring persistence, see How to configure persistence for a Premium Azure Redis Cache.
If you want to create caches larger than 53 GB or want to share data across multiple Redis nodes, you can use Redis clustering which is available in the Premium tier. Each node consists of a primary/replica cache pair managed by Azure for high availability.
Redis clustering gives you maximum scale and throughput. Throughput increases linearly as you increase the number of shards (nodes) in the cluster. Eg. If you create a P4 cluster of 10 shards, then the available throughput is 250K *10 = 2.5 Million requests per second. Please see the Azure Redis Cache FAQ for more details about size, throughput, and bandwidth with premium caches.
To get started with clustering, see How to configure clustering for a Premium Azure Redis Cache.
Caches created in the Basic or Standard tier are accessible on the public internet. Access to the Cache is restricted based on the access key. With the Premium tier, you can further ensure that only clients within a specified network can access the Cache. You can deploy Redis Cache in an Azure Virtual Network (VNet). You can use all the features of VNet such as subnets, access control policies, and other features to further restrict access to Redis.
For more information, see How to configure Virtual Network support for a Premium Azure Redis Cache.
Import/Export is an Azure Redis Cache data management operation which allows you to import data into Azure Redis Cache or export data from Azure Redis Cache by importing and exporting a Redis Cache Database (RDB) snapshot from a premium cache to a page blob in an Azure Storage Account. This enables you to migrate between different Azure Redis Cache instances or populate the cache with data before use.
Import can be used to bring Redis compatible RDB file(s) from any Redis server running in any cloud or environment, including Redis running on Linux, Windows, or any cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services and others. Importing data is an easy way to create a cache with pre-populated data. During the import process, Azure Redis Cache loads the RDB files from Azure storage into memory and then inserts the keys into the cache.
Export allows you to export the data stored in Azure Redis Cache to Redis compatible RDB file(s). You can use this feature to move data from one Azure Redis Cache instance to another or to another Redis server. During the export process, a temporary file is created on the VM that hosts the Azure Redis Cache server instance, and the file is uploaded to the designated storage account. When the export operation completes with either a status of success or failure, the temporary file is deleted.
For more information, see How to import data into and export data from Azure Redis Cache.
The premium tier allows you to reboot one or more nodes of your cache on-demand. This allows you to test your application for resiliency in the event of a failure. You can reboot the following nodes.
For more information, see Reboot and Reboot FAQ.
Note
Reboot functionality is now enabled for all Azure Redis Cache tiers.
The scheduled updates feature allows you to designate a maintenance window for your cache. When the maintenance window is specified, any Redis server updates are made during this window. To designate a maintenance window, select the desired days and specify the maintenance window start hour for each day. Note that the maintenance window time is in UTC.
For more information, see Schedule updates and Schedule updates FAQ.
Note
Only Redis server updates are made during the scheduled maintenance window. The maintenance window does not apply to Azure updates or updates to the VM operating system.
Geo-replication provides a mechanism for linking two Premium tier Azure Redis Cache instances. One cache is designated as the primary linked cache, and the other as the secondary linked cache. The secondary linked cache becomes read-only, and data written to the primary cache is replicated to the secondary linked cache. This functionality can be used to replicate a cache across Azure regions.
For more information, see How to configure Geo-replication for Azure Redis Cache.
To scale to the premium tier, simply choose one of the premium tiers in the Change pricing tier blade. You can also scale your cache to the premium tier using PowerShell and CLI. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Scale Azure Redis Cache and How to automate a scaling operation.
Create a cache and explore the new premium tier features.
Source: Introduction to the Azure Redis Cache Premium tier | Microsoft Docs