Building a Redis Platform on Kubernetes

Kakaopay Securities operates a hybrid architecture using both AWS and IDC. To streamline platform operations, instead of managed services like Amazon ElastiCache, they built a Kubernetes-based Redis platform that could provide a unified architecture.

The core goals of the build were to secure stability, performance, automation (Redis as a Service), resource efficiency, operational convenience, and diversity. Through this, they aim for a self-service environment where service development teams can configure Redis with the specs they need on their own.

For network performance and management convenience, HostNetwork settings were applied.

• Improved network performance: Reduced the network overhead caused by Redis Cluster's Fully Connected Mesh Topology, increasing communication speed.
• Direct communication and external access: Simplified management through direct connections between Pods, and solved the problem of external clients being unable to reach internal Pod IPs during Redis Cluster Redirect by using Node IPs instead.

For external application connections, endpoints were configured using HAProxy and Headless Service. In particular, in the Redis Sentinel environment, HAProxy was placed in front to implement high availability (HA) and load balancing. HAProxy performs the role of distinguishing between Master and Replica through Health Check and delivering traffic appropriately.