redlock

What is redlock?

Redlock is a distributed lock manager for Node.js using Redis. It implements the Redlock algorithm, which is a method for achieving distributed mutual exclusion. This is useful for ensuring that only one process can access a shared resource at a time, even in a distributed system.

What are redlock's main functionalities?

Acquiring a Lock

This feature allows you to acquire a lock on a resource. The lock is held for a specified duration (2000 ms in this example). If the lock is successfully acquired, you can perform your operations and then release the lock.

const Redlock = require('redlock');
const redis = require('redis');
const client = redis.createClient();
const redlock = new Redlock([client]);

redlock.lock('locks:resource', 2000).then(function(lock) {
  // Do something with the lock
  console.log('Lock acquired');
  // Release the lock
  return lock.unlock();
}).catch(function(err) {
  console.error('Failed to acquire lock', err);
});

Extending a Lock

This feature allows you to extend the duration of an existing lock. This is useful if you need more time to complete your operations while holding the lock.

const Redlock = require('redlock');
const redis = require('redis');
const client = redis.createClient();
const redlock = new Redlock([client]);

redlock.lock('locks:resource', 2000).then(function(lock) {
  // Extend the lock
  return lock.extend(2000);
}).then(function(lock) {
  console.log('Lock extended');
  // Release the lock
  return lock.unlock();
}).catch(function(err) {
  console.error('Failed to extend lock', err);
});

Handling Lock Failures

This feature demonstrates how to handle failures when acquiring or maintaining a lock. If an error occurs, it is caught and handled appropriately.

const Redlock = require('redlock');
const redis = require('redis');
const client = redis.createClient();
const redlock = new Redlock([client]);

redlock.lock('locks:resource', 2000).then(function(lock) {
  // Do something with the lock
  console.log('Lock acquired');
  // Simulate a failure
  throw new Error('Something went wrong');
}).catch(function(err) {
  console.error('Failed to acquire or maintain lock', err);
});

Other packages similar to redlock

node-redlock

node-redlock is another implementation of the Redlock algorithm for Node.js. It provides similar functionality to the redlock package, allowing you to acquire, extend, and release distributed locks using Redis. The main difference is in the API design and some additional features like automatic retry mechanisms.

redis-lock

redis-lock is a simpler package for distributed locking using Redis. It provides basic lock and unlock functionality but does not implement the full Redlock algorithm. It is easier to use but may not be as robust in a highly distributed environment.

redlock-js

redlock-js is another package that implements the Redlock algorithm. It offers similar features to the redlock package, including acquiring, extending, and releasing locks. It also provides additional configuration options for customizing the lock behavior.

README

Redlock

This is a node.js implementation of the redlock algorithm for distributed redis locks. It provides strong guarantees in both single-redis and multi-redis environments, and provides fault tolerance through use of multiple independent redis instances or clusters.

• Installation
• Usage (Promise Style)
• Usage (Disposer Style)
• Usage (Callback Style)
• Locking multiple resources
• API Docs

High-Availability Recommendations

• Use at least 3 independent servers or clusters
• Use an odd number of independent redis servers for most installations
• Use an odd number of independent redis clusters for massive installations
• When possible, distribute redis nodes across different physical machines

Using Cluster/Sentinel

Please make sure to use a client with built-in cluster support, such as ioredis.

It is completely possible to use a single redis cluster or sentinal configuration by passing one preconfigured client to redlock. While you do gain high availability and vastly increased throughput under this scheme, the failure modes are a bit different, and it becomes theoretically possible that a lock is acquired twice:

Assume you are using eventually-consistent redis replication, and you acquire a lock for a resource. Immediately after acquiring your lock, the redis master for that shard crashes. Redis does its thing and fails over to the slave which hasn't yet synced your lock. If another process attempts to acquire a lock for the same resource, it will succeed!

This is why redlock allows you to specify multiple independent nodes/clusters: by requiring consensus between them, we can safely take out or fail-over a minority of nodes without invalidating active locks.

To learn more about the the algorithm, check out the redis distlock page.

How do I check if something is locked?

Redlock cannot tell you with certainty if a resource is currently locked. For example, if you are on the smaller side of a network partition you will fail to acquire a lock, but you don't know if the lock exists on the other side; all you know is that you can't guarantee exclusivity on yours.

That said, for many tasks it's sufficient to attempt a lock with retryCount=0, and treat a failure as the resource being "locked" or (more correctly) "unavailable",

With retryCount=-1 there will be unlimited retries until the lock is aquired.

Installation

npm install --save redlock

Configuration

Redlock can use node redis, ioredis or any other compatible redis library to keep its client connections.

A redlock object is instantiated with an array of at least one redis client and an optional options object. Properties of the Redlock object should NOT be changed after it is first used, as doing so could have unintended consequences for live locks.

var client1 = require('redis').createClient(6379, 'redis1.example.com');
var client2 = require('redis').createClient(6379, 'redis2.example.com');
var client3 = require('redis').createClient(6379, 'redis3.example.com');
var Redlock = require('redlock');

var redlock = new Redlock(
	// you should have one client for each independent redis node
	// or cluster
	[client1, client2, client3],
	{
		// the expected clock drift; for more details
		// see http://redis.io/topics/distlock
		driftFactor: 0.01, // time in ms

		// the max number of times Redlock will attempt
		// to lock a resource before erroring
		retryCount:  10,

		// the time in ms between attempts
		retryDelay:  200, // time in ms

		// the max time in ms randomly added to retries
		// to improve performance under high contention
		// see https://www.awsarchitectureblog.com/2015/03/backoff.html
		retryJitter:  200 // time in ms
	}
);

Error Handling

Because redlock is designed for high availability, it does not care if a minority of redis instances/clusters fail at an operation. If you want to write logs or take another action when a redis client fails, you can listen for the clientError event:

// ...

redlock.on('clientError', function(err) {
	console.error('A redis error has occurred:', err);
});

// ...

Usage (promise style)

Locking & Unlocking

// the string identifier for the resource you want to lock
var resource = 'locks:account:322456';

// the maximum amount of time you want the resource locked in milliseconds,
// keeping in mind that you can extend the lock up until
// the point when it expires
var ttl = 1000;

redlock.lock(resource, ttl).then(function(lock) {

	// ...do something here...

	// unlock your resource when you are done
	return lock.unlock()
	.catch(function(err) {
		// we weren't able to reach redis; your lock will eventually
		// expire, but you probably want to log this error
		console.error(err);
	});
});

Locking and Extending

redlock.lock('locks:account:322456', 1000).then(function(lock) {

	// ...do something here...

	// if you need more time, you can continue to extend
	// the lock as long as you never let it expire

	// this will extend the lock so that it expires
	// approximitely 1s from when `extend` is called
	return lock.extend(1000).then(function(lock){

		// ...do something here...

		// unlock your resource when you are done
		return lock.unlock()
		.catch(function(err) {
			// we weren't able to reach redis; your lock will eventually
			// expire, but you probably want to log this error
			console.error(err);
		});
	});
});

Usage (disposer style)

Locking & Unlocking

var using = require('bluebird').using;

// the string identifier for the resource you want to lock
var resource = 'locks:account:322456';

// the maximum amount of time you want the resource locked,
// keeping in mind that you can extend the lock up until
// the point when it expires
var ttl = 1000;

// if we weren't able to reach redis, your lock will eventually
// expire, but you probably want to do something like log that
// an error occurred; if you don't pass a handler, this error
// will be ignored
function unlockErrorHandler(err) {
	console.error(err);
}

using(redlock.disposer(resource, ttl, unlockErrorHandler), function(lock) {

	// ...do something here...

}); // <-- unlock is automatically handled by bluebird

Locking and Extending

using(redlock.disposer('locks:account:322456', 1000, unlockErrorHandler), function(lock) {

	// ...do something here...

	// if you need more time, you can continue to extend
	// the lock as long as you never let it expire

	// this will extend the lock so that it expires
	// approximitely 1s from when `extend` is called
	return lock.extend(1000).then(function(extended){

		// Note that redlock modifies the original lock,
		// so the vars `lock` and `extended` point to the
		// exact same object

		// ...do something here...

	});
}); // <-- unlock is automatically handled by bluebird

Usage (callback style)

Locking & Unlocking

// the string identifier for the resource you want to lock
var resource = 'locks:account:322456';

// the maximum amount of time you want the resource locked,
// keeping in mind that you can extend the lock up until
// the point when it expires
var ttl = 1000;

redlock.lock(resource, ttl, function(err, lock) {

	// we failed to lock the resource
	if(err) {
		// ...
	}

	// we have the lock
	else {


		// ...do something here...


		// unlock your resource when you are done
		lock.unlock(function(err) {
			// we weren't able to reach redis; your lock will eventually
			// expire, but you probably want to log this error
			console.error(err);
		});
	}
});

Locking and Extending

redlock.lock('locks:account:322456', 1000, function(err, lock) {

	// we failed to lock the resource
	if(err) {
		// ...
	}

	// we have the lock
	else {


		// ...do something here...


		// if you need more time, you can continue to extend
		// the lock as long as you never let it expire

		// this will extend the lock so that it expires
		// approximitely 1s from when `extend` is called
		lock.extend(1000, function(err, lock){

			// we failed to extend the lock on the resource
			if(err) {
				// ...
			}


			// ...do something here...


			// unlock your resource when you are done
			lock.unlock();
		}
	}
});

Locking multiple resources

Multiple resources can be locked by providing an Array of strings to Redlock.prototype.lock call. Internally a single attempt is made to redis by evaluating script which executes lock statements. For more details about atomicity of scripts please see redis reference.

There are however some limitations of which you need to be aware of:

• When requesting a lock it will fail if any of requested resources is already set
• If lock attempt fails for any resource (due to whatever reason) an attempt for removing already set resources is made. However there are no guarantees that it will succeed (redis doesn't provide them)
• Releasing lock will fail if any of requested resources is missing
• Extending lock will fail if any of requested resources is missing

Example:

redlock.lock(['locks:account:322456', 'locks:account:322457', 'locks:account:322458'], 1000).then(function(lock) {

	// ...do something here...

	// if you need more time, you can continue to extend
	// the lock as long as you never let it expire

	// this will extend the lock so that it expires
	// approximitely 1s from when `extend` is called
	return lock.extend(1000).then(function(lock){

		// ...do something here...

		// unlock your resource when you are done
		return lock.unlock()
		.catch(function(err) {
			// we weren't able to reach redis; your lock will eventually
			// expire, but you probably want to log this error
			console.error(err);
		});
	});
});

API Docs

Redlock.prototype.lock(resource, ttl, ?callback) => Promise<Lock>

• resource (string or string[]) resource(s) to be locked
• ttl (number) time in ms until the lock expires
• callback (function) callback returning:
  • err (Error)
  • lock (Lock)

Redlock.prototype.unlock(lock, ?callback) => Promise

• lock (Lock) lock to be released
• callback (function) callback returning:
  • err (Error)

Redlock.prototype.extend(lock, ttl, ?callback) => Promise<Lock>

• lock (Lock) lock to be extended
• ttl (number) time in ms to extend the lock's expiration
• callback (function) callback returning:
  • err (Error)
  • lock (Lock)

Redlock.prototype.disposer(resource, ttl, ?unlockErrorHandler)

• resource (string or string[]) resource(s) to be locked
• ttl (number) time in ms to extend the lock's expiration
• callback (function) error handler called with:
  • err (Error)

Redlock.prototype.quit(?callback) => Promise<*[]>

• callback (function) error handler called with:
  • err (Error)
  • *[] results of calling .quit() on each client

Lock.prototype.unlock(?callback) => Promise

• callback (function) callback returning:
  • err (Error)

Lock.prototype.extend(ttl, ?callback) => Promise<Lock>

• ttl (number) time from now in ms to set as the lock's new expiration
• callback (function) callback returning:
  • err (Error)
  • lock (Lock)

Changelog

v4.1.0

• Update scripts for compatibility with LUA 5.2 (via #63).