How-To: Configure state store and pub/sub message broker

Configure state store and pub/sub message broker components for Dapr

In order to get up and running with the state and pub/sub building blocks two components are needed:

  1. A state store component for persistence and restoration
  2. As pub/sub message broker component for async-style message delivery

A full list of supported components can be found here:

The rest of this page describes how to get up and running with Redis.

Self-hosted mode

When initialized in self-hosted mode, Dapr automatically runs a Redis container and sets up the required component yaml files. You can skip this page and go to next steps

Create a Redis store

Dapr can use any Redis instance - either containerized on your local dev machine or a managed cloud service. If you already have a Redis store, move on to the configuration section.

Redis is automatically installed in self-hosted environments by the Dapr CLI as part of the initialization process. You are all set and can skip to the [next steps](next steps)

You can use Helm to quickly create a Redis instance in our Kubernetes cluster. This approach requires Installing Helm v3.

  1. Install Redis into your cluster:

    1. helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
    2. helm repo update
    3. helm install redis bitnami/redis

    Note that you will need a Redis version greater than 5, which is what Dapr’s pub/sub functionality requires. If you’re intending on using Redis as just a state store (and not for pub/sub) a lower version can be used.

  2. Run kubectl get pods to see the Redis containers now running in your cluster:

    1. $ kubectl get pods 
    2. NAME             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    3. redis-master-0   1/1     Running   0          69s
    4. redis-slave-0    1/1     Running   0          69s
    5. redis-slave-1    1/1     Running   0          22s

Note that the hostname is redis-master.default.svc.cluster.local:6379, and a Kubernetes secret, redis, is created automatically.

This method requires having an Azure Subscription.

  1. Open the Azure Portal to start the Azure Redis Cache creation flow. Log in if necessary.
  2. Fill out the necessary information
    • Dapr pub/sub uses Redis streams that was introduced by Redis 5.0. If you would like to use Azure Redis Cache for pub/sub make sure to set the version to (PREVIEW) 6.
  3. Click “Create” to kickoff deployment of your Redis instance.
  4. You’ll need the hostname of your Redis instance, which you can retrieve from the “Overview” in Azure. It should look like xxxxxx.redis.cache.windows.net:6380. Note this for later.

  5. Once your instance is created, you’ll need to grab your access key. Navigate to “Access Keys” under “Settings” and create a Kubernetes secret to store your Redis password:

    1. kubectl create secret generic redis --from-literal=redis-password=*********
  1. Visit AWS Redis to deploy a Redis instance
  2. Note the Redis hostname in the AWS portal for use later

  3. Create a Kubernetes secret to store your Redis password:

    1. kubectl create secret generic redis --from-literal=redis-password=*********
  1. Visit GCP Cloud MemoryStore to deploy a MemoryStore instance
  2. Note the Redis hostname in the GCP portal for use later

  3. Create a Kubernetes secret to store your Redis password:

    1. kubectl create secret generic redis --from-literal=redis-password=*********

Configure Dapr components

Dapr uses components to define what resources to use for building block functionality. These steps go through how to connect the resources you created above to Dapr for state and pub/sub.

In self-hosted mode, component files are automatically created under:

  • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.dapr\components\
  • Linux/MacOS: $HOME/.dapr/components

For Kubernetes, files can be created in any directory, as they are applied with kubectl.

Create State store component

Create a file named redis-state.yaml, and paste the following:

  1. apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
  2. kind: Component
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: statestore
  5.   namespace: default
  6. spec:
  7.   type: state.redis
  8.   version: v1
  9.   metadata:
  10.   - name: redisHost
  11.     value: <REPLACE WITH HOSTNAME FROM ABOVE - for Redis on Kubernetes it is redis-master.default.svc.cluster.local:6379>
  12.   - name: redisPassword
  13.     secretKeyRef:
  14.       name: redis
  15.       key: redis-password

This example uses the the kubernetes secret that was created when setting up a cluster with the above instructions.

Other stores

If using a state store other than Redis, refer to the supported state stores for information on what options to set.

Create Pub/sub message broker component

Create a file called redis-pubsub.yaml, and paste the following:

  1. apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
  2. kind: Component
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: pubsub
  5.   namespace: default
  6. spec:
  7.   type: pubsub.redis
  8.   version: v1
  9.   metadata:
  10.   - name: redisHost
  11.     value: <REPLACE WITH HOSTNAME FROM ABOVE - for Redis on Kubernetes it is redis-master.default.svc.cluster.local:6379>
  12.   - name: redisPassword
  13.     secretKeyRef:
  14.       name: redis
  15.       key: redis-password

This example uses the the kubernetes secret that was created when setting up a cluster with the above instructions.

Other stores

If using a pub/sub message broker other than Redis, refer to the supported pub/sub message brokers for information on what options to set.

Hard coded passwords (not recommended)

For development purposes only you can skip creating kubernetes secrets and place passwords directly into the Dapr component file:

  1. apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
  2. kind: Component
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: statestore
  5.   namespace: default
  6. spec:
  7.   type: state.redis
  8.   version: v1
  9.   metadata:
  10.   - name: redisHost
  11.     value: <HOST>
  12.   - name: redisPassword
  13.     value: <PASSWORD>
  1. apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
  2. kind: Component
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: pubsub
  5.   namespace: default
  6. spec:
  7.   type: pubsub.redis
  8.   version: v1
  9.   metadata:
  10.   - name: redisHost
  11.     value: <HOST>
  12.   - name: redisPassword
  13.     value: <PASSWORD>

Apply the configuration

By default the Dapr CLI creates a local Redis instance when you run dapr init. However, if you want to configure a different Redis instance you can either:

  • Update the existing component files or create new ones in the default components directory
    • Linux/MacOS: $HOME/.dapr/components
    • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.dapr\components
  • Create a new components directory in your app folder containing the YAML files and provide the path to the dapr run command with the flag --components-path

Self-hosted slim mode

If you initialized Dapr in slim mode (without Docker) you need to manually create the default directory, or always specify a components directory using --components-path.

Run kubectl apply -f <FILENAME> for both state and pubsub files:

  1. kubectl apply -f redis-state.yaml
  2. kubectl apply -f redis-pubsub.yaml

Next steps

Last modified March 18, 2021: Merge pull request #1321 from dapr/aacrawfi/logos (9a399d5)