Run Fly.io Apps with Serverless Redis

Fly.io is a great platform where you can distribute your application globally. When your application is global, your data needs to be global. You can run regular Redis as a Fly.io app but the problem is it is located in a single region. On the other hand, Upstash Redis Global Database perfectly fits Fly.io as it is globally replicated. Moreover, thanks to its REST based SDK, it does not have any connection problem in stateless runtime.

In this article, I will create a basic Node.js application which accesses Upstash Redis and deploy it to Fly.io platform.

Fly.io Setup

• Create a Fly.io account.
• Install flyctl and run flyctl auth login

Upstash Redis Setup

• Create a free Global Database on Upstash Console
• Copy the REST_URL and REST_TOKEN, you will use them in the next step.

Application Code

• Clone the hello world app: git clone https://github.com/fly-apps/hellonode-builtin
• Install dependencies: npm install express @upstash/redis
• Update the server.js and replace url and token:

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
const { Redis } = require("@upstash/redis");
 
const redis = new Redis({
  url: "REPLACE_HERE",
  token: "REPLACE_HERE",
});
 
app.get(["/", "/:name"], async (req, res) => {
  let greeting = "<h1>Hello From Node on Fly!</h1>";
  if (req.url !== "/favicon.ico") {
    const data = await redis.incr("count");
    res.send(greeting + "</br> Counter: " + data);
  } else {
    res.send("");
  }
});
 
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`HelloNode app listening on port ${port}!`));

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
const { Redis } = require("@upstash/redis");
 
const redis = new Redis({
  url: "REPLACE_HERE",
  token: "REPLACE_HERE",
});
 
app.get(["/", "/:name"], async (req, res) => {
  let greeting = "<h1>Hello From Node on Fly!</h1>";
  if (req.url !== "/favicon.ico") {
    const data = await redis.incr("count");
    res.send(greeting + "</br> Counter: " + data);
  } else {
    res.send("");
  }
});
 
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`HelloNode app listening on port ${port}!`));

Run and Deploy

• Run the application locally: node server.js

• Launch and deploy to fly.io: flyctl launch

• You can redeploy your app with flyctl deploy

• See your applications url with flyctl status

• You can also check your application from fly.io dashboard:

Closing Words

In this article, we have showcased how to use Upstash Redis on Fly.io application platform.

Feel free to reach out us on GitHub , Discord and Twitter for any issues or comments.