Connect to a Memcached instance

This page explains how to connect to a Memorystore for Memcached instance. You can connect to Memcached instances from Compute Engine VM instances, Google Kubernetes Engine clusters, Cloud Run functions, the App Engine flexible environment, and the App Engine standard environment.

Before you can access Memorystore with Cloud Run functions, you need follow the setup instructions at Connecting to internal resources in a VPC network.

Also, before you can access Memorystore with the App Engine standard environment, you need to follow the setup instructions at Connecting to internal resources in a VPC network.

Connecting to a Memcached instance from a Compute Engine VM

In order to connect to a Memcached instance, a Compute Engine VM instance must be located within the same project and region, and must also be connected to the same network or VPC network as the Memcached instance.

  1. Connect to a Linux VM. For steps to connect to a Linux VM, see Quickstart Using a Linux VM. If you used a Debian based image to create your VM instance as described in the quickstart, install telnet using apt-get:

    sudo apt-get install telnet

  2. From the terminal, telnet to the IP address of one of the Memcached nodes, replacing variables with appropriate values.

    telnet node-ip-address 11211

    If it works correctly, you should see the following output with the [bracketed-variables] replaced by your project's variables:

    Trying [node-ip-address]
Connected to [node-ip-address]

  3. In the telnet session, enter some Memcached commands:

    Enter:

    get greeting

    Result:

    END

    Enter:

    set greeting 1 0 11
hello world

    Result:

    STORED

    Enter:

    get greeting

    Result:

    VALUE greeting 1 11
hello world
END

Memorystore for Memcached supports standard open source Memcached libraries.

Connecting to a Memcached instance from a Google Kubernetes Engine cluster

You can connect to your Memcached instances using GKE clusters that are in the same region and connected to the same network as your instance.

  1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.
    Google Kubernetes Engine

  2. Click on the GKE cluster you'd like to connect from. If you don't already have a cluster, create one in the same zone and region as your Memcached instance with IP aliases enabled. For instructions on how to create a cluster with IP aliases enabled, see the Creating a VPC-native cluster.

  3. Click the Connect button to the right of your cluster's name, then click the Run in Cloud Shell button in the window that appears.

  4. Configure kubectl command line access by running the following command:

    gcloud container clusters get-credentials cluster-name --zone=cluster-zone --project=project-id

    • cluster-name is the name of your cluster.

    • cluster-zone is the zone your cluster is in. This must also be the zone your Memcached instance is in.

    • project-id is the project in which your cluster and your Memcached instance are located.

    If the command is successful, you should receive the following message:

    kubeconfig generated for cluster-name

    If you do not receive this message, make sure you entered the correct cluster information into the command.

  5. If your cluster is version 1.8 or higher and has IP aliases enabled, skip this step. If your cluster is version 1.7 or lower, or your version 1.8 or higher cluster doesn't have IP aliases enabled, follow these workaround steps before trying to connect to your instance:

  6. Use the following command to connect to a bash shell:

    kubectl run -i --tty busybox --image=busybox -- sh

  7. Telnet to your Memcached instance using one of your node's IP addresses and your instance's port number:

    telnet node-ip-address 11211

  8. In the telnet session, enter some Memcached commands:

    Enter:

    get greeting

    Result:

    END

    Enter:

    set greeting 1 0 11
hello world

    Result:

    STORED

    Enter:

    get greeting

    Result:

    VALUE greeting 1 11
hello world
END

Memorystore for Memcached supports standard open source Memcached libraries.

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