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Redis connection refused or timeout

App cannot reach Redis — network, auth, maxclients, or wrong host.

Reviewed: ·Tested on: Kubernetes 1.29, Terraform 1.8, Ubuntu 22.04

Symptoms

  • ECONNREFUSED to Redis host:6379
  • NOAUTH Authentication required
  • Redis timeout under load

1Verify Redis is listening

redis-cli -h <host> -p 6379 ping
kubectl get svc -n <ns> | grep redis
kubectl get endpoints -n <ns> | grep redis
Redis ping snippet →

2From app pod — DNS and port

kubectl exec -it <app-pod> -n <ns> -- sh -c 'nc -zv redis-svc 6379 || telnet redis-svc 6379'
kubectl exec -it <app-pod> -n <ns> -- env | grep -i redis

3Auth and capacity

redis-cli -h <host> -a '<password>' ping
redis-cli -h <host> INFO clients
redis-cli -h <host> CONFIG GET maxclients

Related

rediskubernetesdockerk8s-redisnode-redis-mongo-compose