Common troubleshooting steps and best practices with ElastiCache
The following topics provide troubleshooting advice for errors and issues that you could encounter when using ElastiCache. If you find an issue that isn't listed here, you can use the feedback button on this page to report it.
For more troubleshooting advice and answers to common support questions, visit the AWS Knowledge Center
Topics
Connection issues
If you are unable to connect to your ElastiCache cache, consider one of the following:
Using TLS: If you are experiencing a hung connection when trying to connect to your ElastiCache endpoint, you may not be using TLS in your client. If you are using ElastiCache Serverless, encryption in transit is always enabled. Make sure that your client is using TLS to connect to the cache. Learn more about connecting to a TLS enabled cache.
VPC: ElastiCache caches are accessible only from within a VPC. Ensure that the EC2 instance from which you are accessing the cache and the ElastiCache cache are created in the same VPC. Alternatively, you must enable VPC peering between the VPC where your EC2 instance resides and the VPC where you are creating your cache.
Security groups: ElastiCache uses security groups to control access to your cache. Consider the following:
Make sure that the security group used by your ElastiCache cache allows inbound access to it from your EC2 instance. See here to learn how to setup inbound rules in your security group correctly.
Make sure that the security group used by your ElastiCache cache allows access to your cache’s ports ( 6379 and 6380 for serverless, and 6379 by default for self-designed). ElastiCache uses these ports to accept Valkey or Redis OSS commands. Learn more about how to setup port access here.
If connection continues to be difficult, see Persistent connection issues for other steps.
Valkey or Redis OSS client errors
ElastiCache Serverless is only accessible using clients that support the Valkey or Redis OSS cluster mode protocol. Self-designed clusters can be accessed from clients in either mode, depending on the cluster configuration.
If you are experiencing errors in your client, consider the following:
Cluster mode: If you are experiencing CROSSLOT errors or errors with the SELECT
command, you may be trying to access a Cluster Mode Enabled cache with a Valkey or Redis OSS client that does not support the Cluster protocol. ElastiCache Serverless only supports clients that support the Valkey or Redis OSS cluster protocol. If you want to use Valkey or Redis OSS in “Cluster Mode Disabled” (CMD), then you must design your own cluster. CROSSLOT errors: If you are experiencing the
ERR CROSSLOT Keys in request don't hash to the same sloterror, you may be attempting to access keys that do not belong to the same slot in a Cluster mode cache. As a reminder, ElastiCache Serverless always operates in Cluster Mode. Multi-key operations, transactions, or Lua scripts involving multiple keys are allowed only if all the keys involved are in the same hash slot.
For additional best practices around configuring Valkey or Redis OSS clients, please review this blog post
Troubleshooting high latency in ElastiCache Serverless
If your workload appears to experience high latency, you can analyze the CloudWatch SuccessfulReadRequestLatency and SuccessfulWriteRequestLatency metrics to check if the latency is related to ElastiCache Serverless. These metrics measure latency which is internal to ElastiCache Serverless - client side latency and network trip times between your client and the ElastiCache Serverless endpoint are not included.
Troubleshooting client-side latency
If you notice elevated latency on the client side but no corresponding increase in CloudWatch SuccessfulReadRequestLatency and SuccessfulWriteRequestLatency metrics which measure the server-side latency, consider the following:
Ensure the security group allows access to ports 6379 and 6380: ElastiCache Serverless uses the 6379 port for the primary endpoint and the 6380 port for the reader endpoint. Some clients establish connectivity to both ports for every new connection, even if your application is not using the Read from Replica feature. If your security group does not allow inbound access to both ports, then connection establishment can take longer. Learn more about how to setup port access here.
Troubleshooting server-side latency
Some variability and occasional spikes should not be a cause for concern. However, if the Average statistic shows a sharp increase and persists, you should check the AWS Health Dashboard and your Personal Health Dashboard for more information. If necessary, consider opening a support case with AWS Support.
Consider the following best practices and strategies to reduce latency:
Enable Read from Replica: If your application allows it, we recommend enabling the “Read from Replica” feature in your Valkey or Redis OSS client to scale reads and achieve lower latency. When enabled, ElastiCache Serverless attempts to route your read requests to replica cache nodes that are in the same Availability Zone (AZ) as your client, thus avoiding cross-AZ network latency. Note, that enabling the Read from Replica feature in your client signifies that your application accepts eventual consistency in data. Your application may receive older data for some time if you attempt to read after writing to a key.
Ensure your application is deployed in the same AZs as your cache: You may observe higher client side latency if your application is not deployed in the same AZs as your cache. When you create a serverless cache you can provide the subnets from where your application will access the cache, and ElastiCache Serverless creates VPC Endpoints in those subnets. Ensure that your application is deployed in the same AZs. Otherwise, your application may incur a cross-AZ hop when accessing the cache resulting in higher client side latency.
Reuse connections: ElastiCache Serverless requests are made via a TLS enabled TCP connection using the RESP protocol. Initiating the connection (including authenticating the connection, if configured) takes time so the latency of the first request is higher than typical. Requests over an already initialized connection deliver ElastiCache’s consistent low latency. For this reason, you should consider using connection pooling or reusing existing Valkey or Redis OSS connections.
Scaling speed: ElastiCache Serverless automatically scales as your request rate grows. A sudden large increase in request rate, faster than the speed at which ElastiCache Serverless scales, may result in elevated latency for some time. ElastiCache Serverless can typically increase its supported request rate quickly, taking up to 10-12 minutes to double the request rate.
Inspect long running commands: Some Valkey or Redis OSS commands, including Lua scripts or commands on large data structures, may run for a long time. To identify these commands, ElastiCache publishes command level metrics. With ElastiCache Serverless you can use the
BasedECPUsmetrics.Throttled Requests: When requests are throttled in ElastiCache Serverless, you may experience an increase in client side latency in your application. When requests are throttled in ElastiCache Serverless, you should see an increase in the
ThrottledRequestsElastiCache Serverless metric. Review the section below for troubleshooting throttled requests.Uniform distribution of keys and requests: In ElastiCache with Valkey and Redis OSS, an uneven distribution of keys or requests per slot can result in a hot slot which can result in elevated latency. ElastiCache Serverless supports up to 30,000 ECPUs/second (90,000 ECPUs/second when using Read from Replica) on a single slot, in a workload that executes simple SET/GET commands. We recommend evaluating your key and request distribution across slots and ensuring a uniform distribution if your request rate exceeds this limit.
Troubleshooting throttling issues in ElastiCache Serverless
In service-oriented architectures and distributed systems, limiting the rate at which API calls are processed by various service components is called throttling. This smooths spikes, controls for mismatches in component throughput, and allows for more predictable recoveries when there's an unexpected operational event. ElastiCache Serverless is designed for these types of architectures, and most Valkey or Redis OSS clients have retries built in for throttled requests. Some degree of throttling is not necessarily a problem for your application, but persistent throttling of a latency-sensitive part of your data workflow can negatively impact user experience and reduce the overall efficiency of the system.
When requests are throttled in ElastiCache Serverless, you should see an increase in the ThrottledRequests ElastiCache Serverless metric. If you are noticing a high number of throttled requests, consider the following:
Scaling speed: ElastiCache Serverless automatically scales as you ingest more data or grow your request rate.If your application scales faster than the speed at which ElastiCache Serverless scales, then your requests may get throttled while ElastiCache Serverless scales to accommodate your workload. ElastiCache Serverless can typically increase the storage size quickly, taking up to 10-12 minutes to double the storage size in your cache.
Uniform distribution of keys and requests: In ElastiCache with Valkey or Redis OSS, an uneven distribution of keys or requests per slot can result in a hot slot. A hot slot can result in throttling of requests if the request rate to a single slot exceeds 30,000 ECPUs/second, in a workload that executes simple SET/GET commands.
Read from Replica: If you application allows it, consider using the “Read from Replica“ feature. Most Valkey or Redis OSS clients can be configured to ”scale reads“ to direct reads to replica nodes. This feature enables you to scale read traffic. In addition ElastiCache Serverless automatically routes read from replica requests to nodes in the same Availability Zone as your application resulting in lower latency. When Read from Replica is enabled, you can achieve up to 90,000 ECPUs/second on a single slot, for workloads with simple SET/GET commands.
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