Local ElastiCache for integration tests

Run local ElastiCache for integration tests with fakecloud. 75 operations, real Redis/Valkey/Memcached via Docker, replication groups, serverless caches. Free, no account required.

Need local ElastiCache for integration tests? Use fakecloud.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/faiscadev/fakecloud/main/install.sh | bash
fakecloud

Point your AWS SDK at http://localhost:4566. Docker required because fakecloud runs real Redis / Valkey / Memcached.

Why fakecloud for ElastiCache

• 75 ElastiCache operations at 100% conformance — cache clusters, replication groups, global replication groups, serverless caches and snapshots, subnet groups, users / user groups, failover, tagging.
• Real Redis, Valkey, and Memcached. fakecloud pulls real Redis / Valkey / Memcached Docker images and runs them as the ElastiCache node. Your LPUSH, ZADD, XADD, streams, pub/sub, Lua scripts — all work because the engine is real. Memcached gets a real memcached:1.6-alpine container with the full text and binary protocols.
• Real ACL enforcement. CreateUser / ModifyUser push ACL SETUSER into the live Redis container, so unauthorized commands are rejected by the real engine — not by a stub.
• Real parameter group changes. ModifyCacheParameterGroup runtime-tunable parameters (e.g. maxmemory-policy, timeout) are pushed to the live container via CONFIG SET and take effect immediately.
• Real Memcached Auto Discovery. Multi-node Memcached clusters expose a real ConfigurationEndpoint that speaks config get cluster, so the official ElastiCache cluster clients discover the live nodes the same way they do against AWS.
• Snapshot / restore round-trips real data. CreateSnapshot dumps a real RDB file; RestoreReplicationGroupFromSnapshot seeds the replacement container with that RDB, so test fixture keys survive snapshot/restore cycles.
• Encryption + logging persist. AtRestEncryptionEnabled, TransitEncryptionEnabled, TransitEncryptionMode, AuthTokenEnabled, KmsKeyId, LogDeliveryConfigurations, MultiAZ, AutomaticFailover, DataTiering, NetworkType, IpDiscovery, snapshot / maintenance windows, and node-group topology all round-trip through DescribeReplicationGroups.
• Endpoint works. DescribeCacheClusters returns a real connectable host. Your application connects with a regular Redis client (redis-py, ioredis, lettuce, go-redis).
• Paid on LocalStack; free here. ElastiCache has always been LocalStack Pro-only.
• No account, no auth token, no paid tier. AGPL-3.0.

Create a Redis cluster

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache create-cache-cluster \
  --cache-cluster-id mycache \
  --engine redis \
  --cache-node-type cache.t3.micro \
  --num-cache-nodes 1

Get the endpoint:

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache describe-cache-clusters \
  --cache-cluster-id mycache \
  --show-cache-node-info \
  --query 'CacheClusters[0].CacheNodes[0].Endpoint'

Connect:

redis-cli -h <endpoint> -p 6379

Real Redis — all commands work, including CLIENT LIST, INFO, CONFIG GET, modules.

Valkey

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache create-cache-cluster \
  --cache-cluster-id mycache \
  --engine valkey \
  --cache-node-type cache.t3.micro \
  --num-cache-nodes 1

Valkey is API-compatible with Redis.

Replication groups

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache create-replication-group \
  --replication-group-id my-rg \
  --replication-group-description "test rg" \
  --engine redis \
  --cache-node-type cache.t3.micro \
  --num-node-groups 1 \
  --replicas-per-node-group 1

Real primary + replica nodes via Redis replication.

Memcached

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache create-cache-cluster \
  --cache-cluster-id mymc \
  --engine memcached \
  --cache-node-type cache.t3.micro \
  --num-cache-nodes 1

Real memcached text protocol — set, get, delete, stats, CAS, all work. AWS does not support replication groups or serverless caches for Memcached, and neither does fakecloud.

Serverless caches

aws --endpoint-url http://localhost:4566 elasticache create-serverless-cache \
  --serverless-cache-name myserverless \
  --engine redis

In tests

import { ElastiCacheClient, CreateCacheClusterCommand, DescribeCacheClustersCommand } from '@aws-sdk/client-elasticache';
import { createClient } from 'redis';

const ec = new ElastiCacheClient({ endpoint: 'http://localhost:4566' });

beforeAll(async () => {
  await ec.send(new CreateCacheClusterCommand({
    CacheClusterId: 'test',
    Engine: 'redis',
    CacheNodeType: 'cache.t3.micro',
    NumCacheNodes: 1,
  }));
  // ... poll for "available" ...
});

test('app caches via real redis behind ElastiCache emulation', async () => {
  const redis = createClient({ url: 'redis://localhost:6379' });
  await redis.connect();
  await redis.set('key', 'value');
  expect(await redis.get('key')).toBe('value');
});

How it differs from alternatives

Links

• Install: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/faiscadev/fakecloud/main/install.sh | bash
• Repo: github.com/faiscadev/fakecloud
• Related: Local RDS for tests, Fake AWS server for tests