Quickstart: Use Azure Cache for Redis in Java with Jedis Redis client

Article
03/19/2025

In this quickstart, you incorporate Azure Cache for Redis into a Java app using the Jedis Redis client. Your cache is a secure, dedicated cache that is accessible from any application within Azure.

Clone the repo Java quickstart on GitHub.

Prerequisites

Azure subscription - create one
Apache Maven

Create an Azure Cache for Redis instance

To create a cache, sign in to the Azure portal and select Create a resource.
On the Get Started page, type Azure Cache for Redis in the search box. Then, select Create.

On the New Redis Cache page, configure the settings for your cache.

Setting	Choose a value	Description
Subscription	Drop down and select your subscription.	The subscription under which to create this new Azure Cache for Redis instance.
Resource group	Drop down and select a resource group, or select Create new and enter a new resource group name.	Name for the resource group in which to create your cache and other resources. By putting all your app resources in one resource group, you can easily manage or delete them together.
DNS name	Enter a unique name.	The cache name must be a string between 1 and 63 characters that contain only numbers, letters, or hyphens. The name must start and end with a number or letter, and can't contain consecutive hyphens. Your cache instance's host name is <DNS name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn.
Location	Drop down and select a location.	Select a region near other services that use your cache.
Cache SKU	Drop down and select a SKU.	The SKU determines the size, performance, and features parameters that are available for the cache. For more information, see Azure Cache for Redis Overview.
Cache size	Drop down and select a size of your cache	For more information, see Azure Cache for Redis Overview.

Select the Networking tab or select the Networking button at the bottom of the page.
In the Networking tab, select your connectivity method.
Select the Next: Advanced tab or select the Next: Advanced button on the bottom of the page to see the Advanced tab.
- For Basic or Standard caches, toggle the selection for a non-TLS port. You can also select if you want to enable Microsoft Entra Authentication.
- For a Premium cache, configure the settings for non-TLS port, clustering, managed identity, and data persistence. You can also select if you want to enable Microsoft Entra Authentication.
Select the Next: Tags tab or select the Next: Tags button at the bottom of the page.
Optionally, in the Tags tab, enter the name and value if you wish to categorize the resource.
Select Review + create. You're taken to the Review + create tab where Azure validates your configuration.
After the green Validation passed message appears, select Create.

It takes a while for a cache to create. You can monitor progress on the Azure Cache for Redis Overview page. When Status shows as Running, the cache is ready to use.

Retrieve host name, ports, and access keys from the Azure portal

To connect your Azure Cache for Redis server, the cache client needs the host name, ports, and a key for the cache. Some clients might refer to these items by slightly different names. You can get the host name, ports, and keys from the Azure portal.

To get the access keys, select Authentication from the Resource menu. Then, select the Access keys tab.
To get the host name and ports for your cache, select Overview from the Resource menu. The host name is of the form <DNS name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn.

Set up the working environment

The following steps show you how to set up the working environment for the Java app. You can choose to authenticate with Azure Cache for Redis using Microsoft Entra ID (recommended) or access keys.

Microsoft Entra ID authentication (recommended)
Access key authentication

export REDIS_CACHE_HOSTNAME=<your-host-name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn
export USER_NAME=<user-name>
export REDIS_CACHE_PORT=6380

Replace the placeholders with the following values:

<your-host-name>: The DNS host name. To get the host name and ports for your cache, select Overview from the Resource menu. The host name is of the form <DNS name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn.
<user-name>: Object ID of your managed identity or service principal.

You can get the user name by using the following steps:
1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your Azure Cache for Redis instance.
2. On the navigation pane, select Data Access Configuration.
3. On the Redis Users tab, find the Username column.

export REDIS_CACHE_HOSTNAME=<your-host-name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn
export REDIS_CACHE_KEY=<your-primary-access-key>
export REDIS_CACHE_PORT=6380

Replace the placeholders with the following values:

<your-host-name>: The DNS host name. To get the host name and ports for your cache, select Overview from the Resource menu. The host name is of the form <DNS name>.redis.cache.chinacloudapi.cn.
<your-primary-access-key>: The primary access key. To get the access keys, select Authentication from the Resource menu. Then, select the Access keys tab.

Create a new Java app

Use maven to generate a new quickstart app:

mvn archetype:generate \
    -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes \
    -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart \
    -DarchetypeVersion=1.3 \
    -DinteractiveMode=false \
    -DgroupId=example.demo \
    -DartifactId=redis-jedis-test \
    -Dversion=1.0

Change to the new redis-jedis-test project directory.

Open the pom.xml file. In the file, you see a dependency for Jedis:

Microsoft Entra ID authentication (recommended)
Access key authentication

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.azure</groupId>
    <artifactId>azure-identity</artifactId>
    <version>1.15.0</version> <!-- {x-version-update;com.azure:azure-identity;dependency} -->
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>redis.clients</groupId>
    <artifactId>jedis</artifactId>
    <version>5.2.0</version> <!-- {x-version-update;redis.clients:jedis;external_dependency} -->
</dependency>

Important

Microsoft recommends using Microsoft Entra ID authentication for the most secure authentication experience instead of using passwords or access keys. The authentication described in this section of the article uses access keys, which require a very high degree of trust in the application and carries risks not present when using Microsoft Entra ID. Use the approach in this document only when Microsoft Entra ID authentication is not viable.

<dependency>
    <groupId>redis.clients</groupId>
    <artifactId>jedis</artifactId>
    <version>5.2.0</version> <!-- {x-version-update;redis.clients:jedis;external_dependency} -->
</dependency>

Close the pom.xml file.

Open App.java and see the code with the following code:

Microsoft Entra ID authentication (recommended)
Access key authentication

package example.demo;

import com.azure.identity.DefaultAzureCredential;
import com.azure.identity.DefaultAzureCredentialBuilder;
import com.azure.core.credential.TokenRequestContext;
import redis.clients.jedis.DefaultJedisClientConfig;
import redis.clients.jedis.Jedis;

/**
 * Redis test
 *
 */
public class App
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {

        boolean useSsl = true;

        //Construct a Token Credential from Identity library, e.g. DefaultAzureCredential / ClientSecretCredential / Client CertificateCredential / ManagedIdentityCredential etc.
        DefaultAzureCredential defaultAzureCredential = new DefaultAzureCredentialBuilder().build();

        // Fetch a Microsoft Entra token to be used for authentication. This token will be used as the password.
                String token = defaultAzureCredential
                        .getToken(new TokenRequestContext()
                                .addScopes("https://redis.azure.com/.default")).block().getToken();

        String cacheHostname = System.getenv("REDIS_CACHE_HOSTNAME");
        String username = System.getenv("USER_NAME");
        int port = Integer.parseInt(System.getenv().getOrDefault("REDIS_CACHE_PORT", "6380"));

        // Connect to the Azure Cache for Redis over the TLS/SSL port using the key.
        Jedis jedis = new Jedis(cacheHostname, port, DefaultJedisClientConfig.builder()
                .password(token) // Microsoft Entra access token as password is required.
                .user(username) // Username is Required
                .ssl(useSsl) // SSL Connection is Required
                .build());
        // Perform cache operations using the cache connection object...

        // Simple PING command
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : Ping" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.ping());

        // Simple get and put of integral data types into the cache
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : GET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.get("Message"));

        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : SET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.set("Message", "Hello! The cache is working from Java!"));

        // Demonstrate "SET Message" executed as expected...
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : GET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.get("Message"));

        // Get the client list, useful to see if connection list is growing...
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : CLIENT LIST" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.clientList());

        jedis.close();
    }
}

package example.demo;

import redis.clients.jedis.DefaultJedisClientConfig;
import redis.clients.jedis.Jedis;

/**
 * Redis test
 *
 */
public class App
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {

        boolean useSsl = true;
        String cacheHostname = System.getenv("REDIS_CACHE_HOSTNAME");
        String cachekey = System.getenv("REDIS_CACHE_KEY");
        int port = Integer.parseInt(System.getenv().getOrDefault("REDIS_CACHE_PORT", "6380"));

        // Connect to the Azure Cache for Redis over the TLS/SSL port using the key.
        Jedis jedis = new Jedis(cacheHostname, port, DefaultJedisClientConfig.builder()
            .password(cachekey)
            .ssl(useSsl)
            .build());

        // Perform cache operations using the cache connection object...

        // Simple PING command
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : Ping" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.ping());

        // Simple get and put of integral data types into the cache
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : GET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.get("Message"));

        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : SET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.set("Message", "Hello! The cache is working from Java!"));

        // Demonstrate "SET Message" executed as expected...
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : GET Message" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.get("Message"));

        // Get the client list, useful to see if connection list is growing...
        System.out.println( "\nCache Command  : CLIENT LIST" );
        System.out.println( "Cache Response : " + jedis.clientList());

        jedis.close();
    }
}

This code shows you how to connect to an Azure Cache for Redis instance using the cache host name and key environment variables. The code also stores and retrieves a string value in the cache. The PING and CLIENT LIST commands are also executed.

Close the App.java file.

Build and run the app

Execute the following Maven command to build and run the app:

mvn compile exec:java -D exec.mainClass=example.demo.App

In the following output, you can see that the Message key previously had a cached value. The value was updated to a new value using jedis.set. The app also executed the PING and CLIENT LIST commands.

Cache Command  : Ping
Cache Response : PONG

Cache Command  : GET Message
Cache Response : Hello! The cache is working from Java!

Cache Command  : SET Message
Cache Response : OK

Cache Command  : GET Message
Cache Response : Hello! The cache is working from Java!

Cache Command  : CLIENT LIST
Cache Response : id=777430 addr=             :58989 fd=22 name= age=1 idle=0 flags=N db=0 sub=0 psub=0 multi=-1 qbuf=0 qbuf-free=32768 obl=0 oll=0 omem=0 ow=0 owmem=0 events=r cmd=client numops=6

Clean up resources

If you plan to continue with the next tutorial, you can keep the resources created in this quickstart and reuse them.

Otherwise, if you're finished with the quickstart sample application, you can delete the Azure resources created in this quickstart to avoid charges.

Important

Deleting a resource group is irreversible and that the resource group and all the resources in it are permanently deleted. Make sure that you do not accidentally delete the wrong resource group or resources. If you created the resources for hosting this sample inside an existing resource group that contains resources you want to keep, you can delete each resource individually instead of deleting the resource group.

Sign in to the Azure portal and select Resource groups.
In the Filter by name textbox, type the name of your resource group. The instructions for this article used a resource group named TestResources. On your resource group in the result list, select Test Resources then Delete resource group.
Type the name of your resource group to confirm deletion and then select Delete.

After a few moments, the resource group and all of its contained resources are deleted.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you learned how to use Azure Cache for Redis from a Java application. Continue to the next quickstart to use Azure Cache for Redis with an ASP.NET web app.