Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Actions (Async Tasks)

Actions in Redis Enterprise represent asynchronous operations or tasks that are running or have completed. The action commands allow you to monitor and manage these background operations.

Overview

Many Redis Enterprise operations are asynchronous, returning an action ID that can be used to track progress. Actions include database creation/deletion, backup operations, imports/exports, and cluster maintenance tasks.

Available Commands

List All Actions

List all actions in the cluster with optional filtering:

# List all actions
redisctl enterprise action list

# Filter by status
redisctl enterprise action list --status completed
redisctl enterprise action list --status running

# Filter by type
redisctl enterprise action list --type bdb_backup

# Combine filters
redisctl enterprise action list --status running --type bdb_import

# Output as table
redisctl enterprise action list -o table

Get Action Details

Get detailed information about a specific action:

# Get action by UID
redisctl enterprise action get <action_uid>

# Get action with specific fields using JMESPath
redisctl enterprise action get <action_uid> -q "status"

Check Action Status

Quick status check for an action (returns just the status field):

redisctl enterprise action status <action_uid>

Cancel Running Action

Cancel a running action:

redisctl enterprise action cancel <action_uid>

List Actions for Database

List all actions for a specific database:

redisctl enterprise action list-for-bdb <bdb_uid>

# Filter by status for specific database
redisctl enterprise action list-for-bdb <bdb_uid> --status running

Action Types

Common action types you'll encounter:

  • bdb_create - Database creation
  • bdb_delete - Database deletion
  • bdb_update - Database configuration update
  • bdb_backup - Database backup operation
  • bdb_import - Database import operation
  • bdb_export - Database export operation
  • crdb_create - Active-Active database creation
  • node_join - Node joining cluster
  • cluster_recovery - Cluster recovery operation

Action Statuses

Actions can have the following statuses:

  • queued - Action is queued for execution
  • running - Action is currently executing
  • completed - Action completed successfully
  • failed - Action failed with errors
  • canceled - Action was canceled

Examples

Monitor Database Creation

# Create a database (returns action_uid)
ACTION_UID=$(redisctl enterprise database create --data @db.json -q "action_uid")

# Check status
redisctl enterprise action status $ACTION_UID

# Get full details when complete
redisctl enterprise action get $ACTION_UID

List Recent Failed Actions

# List failed actions in table format
redisctl enterprise action list --status failed -o table

# Get details of a failed action
redisctl enterprise action get <failed_action_uid> -q "{error: error_message, started: start_time}"

Cancel Long-Running Import

# List running imports
redisctl enterprise action list --status running --type bdb_import

# Cancel specific import
redisctl enterprise action cancel <import_action_uid>

Monitor All Database Actions

# Watch all actions for a database
watch -n 5 "redisctl enterprise action list-for-bdb 1 -o table"

Integration with Async Operations

The action commands work seamlessly with the --wait flag available on create/update/delete operations:

# This uses action monitoring internally
redisctl enterprise database create --data @db.json --wait

# Equivalent to manually monitoring:
ACTION_UID=$(redisctl enterprise database create --data @db.json -q "action_uid")
while [ "$(redisctl enterprise action status $ACTION_UID)" = "running" ]; do
  sleep 5
done

API Versions

The action commands support both v1 and v2 API endpoints:

  • v2 endpoints (/v2/actions) are preferred when available
  • v1 endpoints (/v1/actions) are used as fallback
  • Both return the same data structure

Best Practices

  1. Always check action status for async operations before proceeding
  2. Use filtering to reduce output when listing many actions
  3. Save action UIDs from create/update operations for tracking
  4. Set up monitoring for critical long-running actions
  5. Check failed actions for error details to diagnose issues