Caches

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Introduction

Vapor allows you to easily create and manage scalable Redis clusters directly from the Vapor UI or using the Vapor CLI. AWS requires all cache clusters to be private, meaning Vapor will place any application that uses them in a network with a NAT Gateway.

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Creating Caches

You may create caches using the Vapor UI or using the cache CLI command. When using the CLI command, the command will prompt you for more details about the cache such as its desired performance class:

vapor cache my-application-cache

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Using Caches

To attach a cache to an environment, add a cache key to the environment’s configuration in your vapor.yml file. The value of this key should be the name of the cache. When the environment is deployed, Vapor will automatically inject the necessary Laravel environment variables for connecting to the cache, allowing your application to start using it immediately:

id: 3
name: vapor-app
environments:
    production:
        cache: my-application-cache
        build:
            - 'composer install --no-dev'
        deploy:
            - 'php artisan migrate --force'

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Connecting To Caches Locally

To connect to your cache cluster from your local machine, you can use a Vapor jumpbox in combination with the cache:tunnel CLI command. Jumpboxes are small, SSH-accessible servers placed within your private network.

After creating a jumpbox in your cache’s network, you can use the cache:tunnel command:

vapor cache:tunnel my-application-cache

This command will make your Redis cache cluster available on localhost:6378, allowing you to access it with the Redis management tool of your choice, such as Medis.

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Scaling Caches

You may scale caches via the Vapor UI’s cache detail screen or the cache:scale CLI command. When scaling a cache, you will be prompted to specify the number of “nodes” you wish to scale up or down to. When scaling a cache via the CLI, you should specify your desired number of nodes when executing the cache:scale command.

Think of each node as a cache server with the performance specs you specified when the cache was created. Cache keys will automatically be sharded across all of your available nodes. Scaling a cache should not typically cause downtime:

vapor cache:scale my-application-cache 5

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Metrics

A variety of cache performance metrics are available via the Vapor UI’s cache detail screen or using the cache:metrics CLI command:

vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 5m
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 30m
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 1h
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 8h
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 1d
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 3d
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 7d
vapor cache:metrics my-application-cache 1M

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DynamoDB Caches

When you create a project, Vapor will ensure that an auto-scaling DynamoDB cache table is created in that project’s region. Then, during deployment, Vapor will automatically populate the environment variables required to interact with this cache using Laravel’s built-in dynamodb cache driver. All you need to do is start using it within your Laravel application!

If no Redis cache is attached to the environment, the DynamoDB cache will automatically be set as the default cache driver. These caches, while not as performant as Redis clusters, provide a very low-cost alternative for applications with light caching requirements.

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Deleting Caches

Caches may be deleted via the Vapor UI or using the cache:delete CLI command:

vapor cache:delete my-application-cache