Database Migration

Cloning a Service to Another Provider or Region

Migrating or cloning services across cloud providers or geographic regions is a critical part of modern infrastructure management. Whether you’re optimizing for latency, preparing for disaster recovery, meeting regulatory requirements, or simply switching providers, a well-planned migration ensures continuity, performance, and data integrity. This guide outlines a structured methodology for service migration, applicable to most cloud-native environments.

Pre-Migration Preparation

Before initiating a migration, thorough planning and preparation are essential. This helps avoid unplanned downtime, data loss, or misconfiguration during the move:

Cloning Execution

The first step in executing a clone is to replicate the configuration of the original service in the target environment. This involves deploying the same container image or service binary using the same runtime settings. If you’re using Kubernetes or container orchestrators, this can be done via Helm charts or declarative manifests. Pay close attention to environment variables, secrets, mounted paths, storage class definitions, and health check configurations to ensure a consistent runtime environment.

Next, you’ll need to migrate any persistent data tied to the service. For file-based storage, tools like rsync or rclone are effective for copying volume contents over SSH or cloud storage backends. It’s crucial to verify compatibility across disk formats, database versions, and encoding standards to avoid corruption or mismatched behavior.

After replicating the environment and data, it’s important to validate the new service in isolation. This means confirming that all application endpoints respond as expected, background tasks or cron jobs are functioning, and third-party integrations (e.g., payment gateways, S3 buckets) are accessible. You should test authentication flows, data read/write operations, and retry logic to ensure the new service is functionally identical. Use observability tools to monitor resource consumption and application logs during this stage.

Once validation is complete, configure DNS and route traffic to the new environment. This might involve updating DNS A or CNAME records, changing cloud load balancer configurations, or applying new firewall rules. For high-availability setups, consider using health-based routing or weighted DNS to gradually transition traffic from the old instance to the new one.

Post-Migration Validation and Optimization

Once the new environment is live and receiving traffic, focus on optimizing and securing the setup:

Benefits of Cloning

Cloning a database service, particularly for engines like Redis offers several operational and strategic advantages. It allows teams to test schema migrations, version upgrades, or major application features in an isolated environment without affecting production. By maintaining a cloned copy, developers and QA teams can work against realistic data without introducing risk.

Cloning also simplifies cross-region redundancy setups. A replica in another region can be promoted quickly if the primary region experiences an outage. For compliance or analytics purposes, cloned databases allow for read-only access to production datasets, enabling safe reporting or data processing without interrupting live traffic.

Additionally, rather than building a new environment from scratch, you can clone the database into another provider, validate it, and cut over with minimal disruption. This helps maintain operational continuity and reduces the effort needed for complex migrations.

Database Migration Services for Redis

Elestio provides a streamlined and reliable approach for migrating Redis instances from various environments such as on-premises servers, self-managed cloud deployments, or other managed services into its fully managed Redis platform. This migration process is designed to ensure data consistency, minimize downtime, and simplify the operational complexity of managing Redis infrastructure.

Key Steps in Migrating to Elestio

Pre-Migration Preparation

Before initiating your Redis migration, proper preparation is essential to ensure a seamless and error-free transition:

Initiating the Migration Process

With the target environment ready, proceed with the Redis migration using the Elestio migration interface:

  1. Access the Migration Tool: Navigate to your Redis service overview on the Elestio dashboard. Select the “Migrate Database” option to initiate the guided migration workflow.
  2. Configure Migration Settings: A prompt will appear to confirm that the target Redis instance has sufficient memory and disk capacity to receive the source data. Once verified, click “Get started” to begin.
  3. Validate Source Redis Connection: Enter the connection details for your existing Redis instance, including:

    • Hostname – IP address or domain of the source Redis server

    • Port – Default Redis port is 6379, but on Elestio it is configured as 26379

    • Password – If your Redis instance is secured with authentication

    • Database Number – (Optional) If using a specific logical database within Redis

Click “Run Check” to validate the source connection. This ensures Elestio can securely access and read from your Redis instance. These details are typically available in your current Redis deployment configuration or environment variables.

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4. Execute the Migration: If all checks pass successfully, start the migration by selecting “Start migration.” Elestio will begin transferring the in-memory dataset and persistent data (if applicable) into the new environment. Real-time logs and progress indicators will help you monitor the operation, making it easy to identify and resolve any issues promptly.

Post-Migration Validation and Optimization

Once the Redis migration is complete, it’s critical to validate the deployment and ensure the new instance performs optimally:

Benefits of Using Elestio for Redis

Migrating Redis to Elestio delivers several operational and strategic benefits:

Manual Redis Migration Using redis-cli and RDB Files

Manual migrations using Redis’s built-in tools, such as redis-cli and RDB (Redis Database) files, are ideal for users who require full control over data export and import particularly during transitions between providers, Redis version upgrades, or importing existing self-managed Redis datasets into Elestio’s managed environment. This guide walks through the process of performing a manual migration to and from Elestio Redis services using command-line tools, ensuring data portability, consistency, and transparency at every step.

When to Use Manual Migration

Manual migration using native Redis tools is well-suited for scenarios that demand complete control over the migration process. It is especially useful when transferring data from a self-hosted Redis instance, an on-premises server, or another cloud provider into Elestio’s managed Redis service. This method supports one-time imports without requiring persistent connections between source and destination systems.

It also provides a reliable approach for performing version upgrades. Because RDB files contain a snapshot of the dataset in a portable format, they can be restored into newer Redis versions with minimal compatibility issues. When Elestio’s built-in tools are not applicable such as in migrations from isolated environments or selective key transfers manual migration becomes the preferred option. It also enables offline backup archiving, providing users with transportable and restorable datasets independent of platform-specific formats.

Performing the Migration

Prepare the Environments

Before starting the migration, ensure that Redis is properly installed on both the source system and your Elestio service. The source Redis server must allow access (if remote) and have a user with sufficient privileges to export the dataset, including read access to all relevant keys and data types.

On the Elestio side, provision a Redis service through the dashboard. Once it’s active, retrieve the connection credentials from the Database Info section. This includes host, port, and password. Verify that your public IP is allowed under Cluster Overview > Security > Limit access per IP, or the Redis port will not be reachable.

Create a Backup Using RDB

Use Redis’s RDB snapshotting method to create a backup of the dataset. This process serializes the current state of your Redis database into a binary .rdb file.

To trigger a manual snapshot, run:

redis-cli -h <source_host> -p <source_port> SAVE

Once the command completes, locate the resulting dump.rdb file on the source system. This is typically stored in /var/lib/redis/ or a path defined in your Redis configuration.

Alternatively, you can generate an RDB file using:

redis-cli --rdb backup.rdb

This creates a portable snapshot of the entire dataset without modifying the source instance’s configuration.

Transfer the Dump File to the Target

If your local system differs from the one with access to Elestio’s Redis service, transfer the dump file using a secure file transfer tool such as SCP:

scp backup.rdb user@host:/path/to/restore-system/

Ensure the file is available on the system you will use to perform the restore. You do not need to upload the RDB file directly to the Elestio service restores are performed remotely using Redis commands.

Restore the Dataset to Elestio

To restore data into Elestio, start a temporary local Redis instance using the dump file:

redis-server --dbfilename dump.rdb --dir /path/to/rdb/

This allows you to access the original dataset locally. Then, connect to both the local and Elestio Redis instances and copy keys using redis-cli. For example:

redis-cli -h <source_host> --scan | while read key; do
  redis-cli -h <source_host> DUMP "$key" | \
  redis-cli -h <elestio_host> -p <elestio_port> -a <elestio_password> RESTORE "$key" 0 -
done

This approach reads each key from the source instance and restores it to the Elestio-managed Redis instance. Ensure that both instances are reachable and that no firewall or access rules block communication.

For large datasets or environments with complex key structures, consider using community tools like redis-copy or redis-migrate-tool to streamline key transfers.

Validate the Migration

After completing the import, verify that the migration was successful by connecting to the Elestio Redis instance and inspecting the dataset.

Start by checking the total key count:

redis-cli -h <elestio_host> -p <elestio_port> -a <elestio_password> DBSIZE

Review specific keys to confirm data consistency:

redis-cli -h <elestio_host> -p <elestio_port> -a <elestio_password> KEYS *

Also verify the integrity of sets, hashes, lists, and sorted sets if used in your application. Ensure that your application connects to the new Redis instance without issues and performs expected operations.

If you’ve updated environment variables or configuration files, confirm that your changes are reflected in the application deployment.

Benefits of Manual Migration

Manual Redis migration using redis-cli and RDB files offers several important advantages: