If you’ve come across older Redis installation guides, you’ll probably notice they use SysV init (init.d) scripts located in /etc/init.d. While that worked well on older versions of Ubuntu and Debian, modern Linux distributions have adopted systemd as the standard service manager.

In this guide, we’ll replace the legacy init.d approach with a native systemd service, which provides better reliability, automatic restarts, improved logging, and easier service management.

Why Use systemd?

systemd has been the default init system on Ubuntu for many years and offers several advantages over traditional init scripts:

• Faster and more reliable service startup
• Automatic service restart on failure
• Integrated logging through journalctl
• Better dependency management
• Improved security features
• Simplified service management with systemctl

For new Redis installations, using a native systemd service is the recommended approach.

---

Step 1: Create a systemd Service File

Create a new service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/redis.service

Paste the following configuration:

[Unit]
Description=Redis In-Memory Data Store
Documentation=https://redis.io/docs/
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
User=redis
Group=redis

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/redis-server /etc/redis.conf --supervised systemd
ExecStop=/usr/bin/redis-cli shutdown

Restart=always
RestartSec=5

RuntimeDirectory=redis
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755

LimitNOFILE=65535

# Security hardening
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateTmp=true
ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=true
ReadWritePaths=/var/lib/redis /var/log/redis

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: If you installed Redis using Ubuntu’s package manager (apt), the Redis binaries are typically located in /usr/bin/ rather than /usr/local/bin/. Update the ExecStart and ExecStop paths accordingly if necessary.

---

Step 2: Update Redis Configuration

Edit your Redis configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/redis.conf

Ensure the following settings are present:

supervised systemd
daemonize no
pidfile /run/redis/redis-server.pid

These settings allow systemd to manage the Redis process directly instead of Redis running as a background daemon.

---

Step 3: Reload systemd

After creating the service file, reload the systemd configuration:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

---

Step 4: Enable Redis at Boot

Enable the service so it starts automatically whenever the server boots:

sudo systemctl enable redis

---

Step 5: Start the Service

Start Redis:

sudo systemctl start redis

Verify it’s running:

sudo systemctl status redis

You should see an output indicating that the service is active (running).

---

Managing Redis

Start Redis

sudo systemctl start redis

Stop Redis

sudo systemctl stop redis

Restart Redis

sudo systemctl restart redis

Reload Configuration

sudo systemctl reload redis

Check Service Status

sudo systemctl status redis

---

Viewing Redis Logs

One of the biggest improvements with systemd is centralized logging.

To view recent Redis logs:

journalctl -u redis

To watch logs in real time:

journalctl -u redis -f

This makes troubleshooting significantly easier than searching through multiple log files.

---

Testing Redis

Verify that Redis is responding correctly:

redis-cli ping

Expected output:

PONG

---

Troubleshooting

Service fails to start

Check the service status:

sudo systemctl status redis

Then review the logs:

journalctl -xeu redis

“redis” user does not exist

If you built Redis from source, create a dedicated service account:

sudo adduser --system --group --no-create-home redis

Binary not found

Verify the Redis binary location:

which redis-server
which redis-cli

Update the ExecStart and ExecStop paths in the service file if they differ from the defaults.

---

Conclusion

The old /etc/init.d/redis-server startup script served its purpose for earlier Ubuntu releases, but it has been superseded by systemd on modern Linux distributions.

Using a native systemd service gives you automatic startup, better logging, improved process management, automatic restarts after failures, and enhanced security. Whether you’re deploying Redis on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, or newer, this is the recommended method for running Redis in production.

If you’re following an older Redis installation tutorial that references /etc/init.d, you can safely replace it with the systemd service described above for a cleaner and more reliable setup.