valkey clustering

Author: wojcik-dorota

docs/products/valkey/concepts/valkey-cluster.md

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+---
+title: Aiven for Valkey™ clustering
+sidebar_label: Clustering
+---
+
+import RelatedPages from "@site/src/components/RelatedPages";
+
+Aiven for Valkey™ clustering provides a managed, scalable solution for distributed in-memory data storage with built-in high availability and automatic failover capabilities.
+
+## What is Valkey clustering?
+
+Valkey clustering distributes your data across multiple nodes (shards) to handle larger
+datasets and higher traffic loads than a single-node deployment can support. Each shard
+contains a portion of your data, and the cluster automatically routes requests to the
+appropriate shard.
+
+## Key features
+
+### High availability
+
+- **Automatic failover**: If a primary node fails, a replica is automatically promoted to
+  maintain service availability
+- **Read replicas**: Each shard includes at least one read replica for redundancy and
+  improved read performance
+- **Minimal downtime**: Designed to handle both expected maintenance and unexpected
+  failures with minimal service interruption
+
+### Scalability
+
+- **Horizontal scaling**: Add or remove nodes to handle changing workload requirements
+- **Online resharding**: Increase the number of shards without downtime as your data grows
+- **Flexible sizing**: Supports various instance sizes, including smaller 4 GB RAM
+  instances for cost optimization
+
+### Compatibility
+
+- **Cluster-enabled mode**: Fully compatible with existing Valkey/Redis cluster-aware
+  client libraries
+- **Standard protocols**: Works with your current applications without code changes
+
+## Architecture overview
+
+### Single shard deployment
+
+- **Initial configuration**: Starts with one primary node and two read replicas
+- **Use case**: Ideal for smaller datasets or applications with moderate traffic
+- **High availability**: Automatic failover to replicas if the primary fails
+
+### Multi-shard deployment
+
+- **Distributed data**: Data is automatically partitioned across multiple shards
+- **Independent replicas**: Each shard has its own set of replicas for redundancy
+- **Load distribution**: Requests are distributed across shards based on data location
+
+## Benefits
+
+### Performance
+
+- **Higher throughput**: Distribute read and write operations across multiple nodes
+- **Lower latency**: Data locality and load distribution reduce response times
+- **Read scaling**: Multiple replicas per shard increase read capacity
+
+### Reliability
+
+- **Fault tolerance**: Service continues even if individual nodes fail
+- **Automatic recovery**: Failed nodes are automatically replaced and synchronized
+- **Data protection**: Multiple copies of your data across different nodes
+
+### Operational simplicity
+
+- **Managed service**: Aiven handles cluster setup, maintenance, and scaling
+- **Automated operations**: Node discovery, failover, and resharding happen automatically
+- **Monitoring included**: Built-in metrics for performance and health monitoring
+
+## Use cases
+
+### High-traffic applications
+
+- Applications requiring more throughput than a single node can provide
+- Systems with high read/write ratios that benefit from multiple replicas
+- Services needing guaranteed uptime despite hardware failures
+
+### Large datasets
+
+- Data that exceeds the memory capacity of a single node
+- Applications requiring data partitioning for performance optimization
+- Systems that need to scale storage capacity horizontally
+
+### Mission-critical systems
+
+- Applications requiring high availability and automatic failover
+- Services that cannot tolerate single points of failure
+- Systems with strict uptime requirements
+
+## Getting started
+
+### Planning your deployment
+
+1. **Assess your requirements**: Determine your data size, traffic patterns, and
+   availability needs
+1. **Choose your configuration**: Start with a single shard for smaller workloads or
+   multiple shards for larger datasets
+1. **Select instance sizes**: Choose appropriate memory and compute resources for your
+   workload
+
+### Client configuration
+
+- Ensure your application uses a cluster-aware Valkey/Redis client library
+- Configure your client to discover and connect to cluster nodes automatically
+- Test failover behavior to ensure your application handles node changes gracefully
+
+## Limitations and considerations
+
+### Current scope
+
+- Backup and restore capabilities are planned for future releases
+- Some advanced features may have initial limitations during the preview phase
+
+### Performance factors
+
+- Network latency between shards can affect cross-shard operations
+- Resharding operations may temporarily impact performance
+- Client library choice can affect cluster performance and behavior
+
+<RelatedPages/>
+
+- [Get started with Aiven for Valkey](/docs/products/valkey/get-started)
+- [High availability concepts](/docs/products/valkey/concepts/high-availability)
+- [Performance monitoring](/docs/products/valkey/howto/monitor-performance)