Valkey

Valkey is an open source datastore that can be used high-performance data retrieval and key-value storage.

Platform.sh supports two different Valkey configurations:

• Persistent: to set up fast persistent storage for your application
• Ephemeral: to set up a non-persistent cache for your application

Use with Drupal

If you are using the Drupal framework, you can follow its guide for Valkey:

• Drupal

Supported versions

You can select the major and minor version.

Patch versions are applied periodically for bug fixes and the like. When you deploy your app, you always get the latest available patches.

Service types

Depending on your needs, you can set up Valkey as persistent or ephemeral.

Relationship reference

Example information available through the PLATFORM_RELATIONSHIPS environment variable or by running platform relationships.

Note that the information about the relationship can change when an app is redeployed or restarted or the relationship is changed. So your apps should only rely on the PLATFORM_RELATIONSHIPS environment variable directly rather than hard coding any values.

{
  "username": null,
  "scheme": "valkey",
  "service": "valkey",
  "fragment": null,
  "ip": "123.456.78.90",
  "hostname": "azertyuiopqsdfghjklm.valkey.service._.eu-1.platformsh.site",
  "port": 6379,
  "cluster": "azertyuiopqsdf-main-7rqtwti",
  "host": "valkey.internal",
  "rel": "valkey",
  "path": null,
  "query": [],
  "password": null,
  "type": "valkey:8.0",
  "public": false,
  "host_mapped": false
}

The format of the relationship is identical whether your Valkey service is ephemeral or persistent.

Persistent Valkey

By default, Valkey is an ephemeral service that stores data in memory. This allows for fast data retrieval, but also means data can be lost when a container is moved or shut down.

To solve this issue, configure your Valkey service as persistent. Persistent Valkey stores data on a disk, restoring it if the container restarts.

To switch from persistent to ephemeral Valkey, set up a new service with a different name.

Usage example

1. Configure the service

To define the service, use the valkey-persistent endpoint:

services:
  # The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
  <SERVICE_NAME>:
    type: valkey-persistent:<VERSION>

Note that changing the name of the service replaces it with a brand new service and all existing data is lost. Back up your data before changing the service.

2. Define the relationship

To define the relationship, use the valkey endpoint :

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  <APP_NAME>:
    # Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
    # The example below shows simplified configuration leveraging a default service
    # (identified from the relationship name) and a default endpoint.
    # See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
    relationships:
      <SERVICE_NAME>:

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  <APP_NAME>:
    # Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
    # The example below shows configuration with an explicitly set service name and endpoint.
    # See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
    relationships:
      <RELATIONSHIP_NAME>:
        service: <SERVICE_NAME>
        endpoint: valkey

For PHP, enable the extension for the service:

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  <APP_NAME>:
    # PHP extensions.
    runtime:
      extensions:
        - valkey 8.0
    # Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
    # The example below shows simplified configuration leveraging a default service
    # (identified from the relationship name) and a default endpoint.
    # See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
    relationships:
      <SERVICE_NAME>:

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  <APP_NAME>:
    # PHP extensions.
    runtime:
      extensions:
          - valkey 8.0
    # Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
    # The example below shows configuration with an explicitly set service name and endpoint.
    # See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
    relationships:
      <RELATIONSHIP_NAME>:
        service: <SERVICE_NAME>
        endpoint: valkey

Configuration example

Service definition

# The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
valkey:
  type: valkey-persistent:8.0
  disk: 256

App configuration

relationships:
  valkey:

relationships:
  valkey:
    service: valkey
    endpoint: valkey

Ephemeral Valkey

By default, Valkey is an ephemeral service that serves as a non-persistent cache. Ephemeral Valkey stores data only in memory and requires no disk space. When the service reaches its memory limit, it triggers a cache cleanup. To customize those cache cleanups, set up an eviction policy.

Make sure your app doesn’t rely on ephemeral Vedis for persistent storage as it can cause issues. For example, if a container is moved during region maintenance,the deploy and post_deploy hooks don’t run and an app that treats the cache as permanent shows errors.

To prevent data from getting lost when a container is moved or shut down, you can use the persistent Valkey configuration. Persistent Valkey provides a cache with persistent storage.

Usage example

1. Configure the service

To define the service, use the valkey endpoint:

# The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
<SERVICE_NAME>:
  type: valkey:8.0

Note that changing the name of the service replaces it with a brand new service and all existing data is lost. Back up your data before changing the service.

2. Define the relationship

To define the relationship, use the following configuration:

# Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
# The example below shows simplified configuration leveraging a default service
# (identified from the relationship name) and a default endpoint.
# See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
relationships:
  <SERVICE_NAME>:

# Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
# The example below shows configuration with an explicitly set service name and endpoint.
# See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
# Note that legacy definition of the relationship is still supported.
# More information: https://docs.platform.sh/create-apps/app-reference/single-runtime-image.html#relationships
relationships:
  <RELATIONSHIP_NAME>:
    service: <SERVICE_NAME>
    endpoint: valkey

For PHP, enable the extension for the service:

# PHP extensions.
runtime:
  extensions:
    - valkey

Configuration example

Service definition

# The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
valkey:
  type: valkey:8.0
  disk: 256

App configuration

relationships:
  valkey:

relationships:
  valkey:
    service: valkey
    endpoint: valkey

Restrict access to database replicas only

For security reasons, you can grant your app access to replicas instead of your actual database. To do so, when defining the relationship between your app and database, make sure you do the following:

1. Use the explicit endpoint syntax.
2. Add the -replica suffix to the name of the endpoint you want to use.

This results in the following configuration:

relationships:
  RELATIONSHIP_NAME:
    service: SERVICE_NAME
    endpoint: ENDPOINT_NAME-replica

For example, if you define a valkey-persistent database as follows:

postgresql:
  type: "valkey-persistent:8.0"
  disk: 2048
  configuration:
    databases:
      - main
      - legacy
    endpoints:
      admin:
        privileges:
          main: admin
          legacy: admin
      reporter:
        default_database: main
        privileges:
          main: ro

To create a replica of the valkey-persistent database and allow your app to connect to it through the admin endpoint with admin permissions, use the following configuration:

relationships:
  valkey-persistent:
    service: valkey-persistent
    endpoint: admin-replica

To create a replica of the valkey-persistent database and allow your app to connect to it through the reporter endpoint with read-only permissions instead, use the following configuration:

relationships:
  valkey-persistent:
    service: valkey-persistent
    endpoint: reporter-replica

Eviction policy

When Valkey reaches its memory limit, it triggers a cache cleanup. To customize those cache cleanups, set up an eviction policy such as the following:

services:
  # The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
  valkey:
    type: "valkey:8.0"
    configuration:
      maxmemory_policy: allkeys-lfu

The following table presents the possible values:

For more information on the different policies, see the official Valkey documentation.

Access your Valkey service

After you’ve configured your Valkey service, you can access it using either the Platform.sh CLI or through the Valkey CLI.

Platform.sh CLI

Unlike the Valkey CLI, connecting via the Platform.sh CLI does not require additional authentication steps if you are already authenticated in your terminal.

Access your Valkey service by running the command:

platform valkey

Valkey CLI

Retrieve the hostname and port you can connect to through the PLATFORM_RELATIONSHIPS environment variable. To do so, run the platform relationships command.

After you’ve retrieved the hostname and port, open an SSH session. To access your Valkey service, run the following command:

valkey-cli -h HOSTNAME -p PORT

If you have a Grid project, note that the CONFIG GET and CONFIG SET admin commands are restricted. To get the current configuration, run the following command:

valkey-cli -h HOSTNAME -p PORT info

Use Valkey as a handler for PHP sessions

A PHP session allows you to store different data for each user through a unique session ID. By default, PHP handles sessions using files. But you can use Valkey as a session handler, which means Valkey stores and retrieves the data saved into sessions.

To set up Valkey as your session handler, add a configuration similar to the following:

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  myapp:
    source:
      root: "myapp"

    type: "php:8.4"

    # PHP extensions.
    runtime:
      extensions:
        - valkey

    relationships:
      valkeysession:

    variables:
      php:
        session.save_handler: valkey
        session.save_path: "tcp://$SESSIONSTORAGE_HOSTNAME:$SESSIONSTORAGE_PORT"

    web:
      locations:
        '/':
          root: 'web'
          passthru: '/index.php'

services:
  # The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
  valkeysession:
    type: "valkey-persistent:8.0"

applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  myapp:
    source:
      root: "myapp"

    type: "php:8.4"

    # PHP extensions.
    runtime:
      extensions:
        - valkey

    # Relationships enable access from this app to a given service.
    # The example below shows configuration with an explicitly set service name and endpoint.
    # See the Application reference for all options for defining relationships and endpoints.
    relationships:
      valkeysession:
        service: valkeysession
        endpoint: valkey

    variables:
      php:
        session.save_handler: valkey
        session.save_path: "tcp://$VALKEYSSESSION_HOSTNAME:$VALKEYSSESSION_PORT"

    web:
      locations:
        '/':
          root: 'web'
          passthru: '/index.php'

services:
  # The name of the service container. Must be unique within a project.
  valkeysession:
    type: "valkey-persistent:8.0"

Migrate from Redis to Valkey

It is possible for a user to switch from redis-persistent to valkey-persistent without losing data. To make this switch, change the name of the service and keep the same name. For example:

my_service_name:
  type: redis-persistent:7.2
  disk: 256

Further resources

Documentation

• Valkey documentation
• Using Valkey with Drupal