Install guide · Ubuntu 24.04 (noble)printed 29 Oct 2026, 02:23 UTC

Install Valkey 9.1 on Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 24.04 ships Valkey 7.2.13. The current release is 9.1.3. freshdeb builds it for noble from upstream's release with Debian's packaging, so it replaces the distribution's package in place and updates with apt upgrade like the rest of the system.

Ubuntu 24.04 ships: 7.2.137.2.13+dfsg1-0ubuntu0.1
v9.1: 9.1.3stays on 9.1.x, patch releases only. Currently 9.1.3, upstream support until May 2031.
v9.0: 9.0.7stays on 9.0.x, patch releases only. Currently 9.0.7, upstream support until Oct 2028.
v8.1: 8.1.11stays on 8.1.x, patch releases only. Currently 8.1.11, upstream support until Mar 2030.
v8.0: 8.0.12stays on 8.0.x, patch releases only. Currently 8.0.12, upstream support until Sep 2027.
Built for: amd64 and arm64, natively

1Trust the signing key (once per machine)

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.freshdeb.com/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

Fingerprint 3BBD F03A 9C0B F890 F8CA 9510 7595 CC55 468F 3161. How to verify.

2Add the source for noble

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freshdeb-valkey.sources >/dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.freshdeb.com/valkey
Suites: noble
Components: v9
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF

v9 follows the newest 9.x line, currently 9.1 (9.1.3). Upgrades to newer lines arrive on their own. Other components: v9.1, v9.0, v8, v8.1, v8.0, listed with the versions.

3Install

sudo apt update && sudo apt install valkey-server
apt policy valkey-server   # expect 9.1.3-3+freshdeb~ubuntu24.04

Already on Ubuntu 24.04's Valkey? The same command upgrades it: the freshdeb version sorts higher. What's different from Debian's package.

Upgrading from Valkey 7.2.13

What changed between Ubuntu 24.04's 7.2.13 and 9.1.3 that you may notice. Configuration and data stay where Debian put them.

Since 8.0: A nested MULTI or WATCH aborts the transaction, BITCOUNT and BITPOS answer invalid arguments with an error instead of 0, and the default replication backlog grew from 1 MB to 10 MB. Valkey 8 is otherwise compatible with Redis 7.2 and Valkey 7.2.
Since 9.0: Valkey 9 saves snapshots in RDB format 80, which no Valkey 8 or Redis reads. It loads your existing data, but there's no way back with what it writes. To stay on 8.1 with the same data format, use the v8 component: 8.1's patch releases only.

Going back to 7.2.13

Delete /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freshdeb-valkey.sources, run sudo apt update, then sudo apt install valkey-server=7.2.13+dfsg1-0ubuntu0.1: apt asks before it downgrades. Name the other valkey packages you installed with their Ubuntu 24.04 version too. From v9, not with the snapshots Valkey 9 wrote: keep a copy of /var/lib/valkey from before the upgrade. From v8, the data stays in RDB format 11, the one the distribution's version writes too.

Why a package

The official container image is the usual alternative. As a package, valkey-server runs under Debian's systemd unit as the valkey user with /etc/valkey/valkey.conf, and apt upgrade brings each patch release of the line you chose.

Valkey elsewhere

valkey: every release line, its contents and origin