ssh -L example

openssh-rdm.md

$ ssh yourhost.com -L 7000:localhost:6379

 -----                         ----------------                          -----------------                         --------------
| RDM | -- localhost:7000 --> | OpenSSH, `ssh` | -- yourhost.com:22 --> | OpenSSH, `sshd` | -- localhost:6379 --> | redis-server |
 -----                         ----------------                          -----------------                         --------------
                (1)                                       (2)                                        (3)

1. RDM connects and sends data locally on port 7000 to the OpenSSH process - unencrypted
2. OpenSSH encrypts the data and sends it to your destination host on port 22.

(-- internet --)

3. OpenSSH receives the data on the remote host and decrypts the stream. Then sends the clear text data locally to the redis-server instance on port 6379.

You can shorten the command to something like ssh redis-tunnel, if you create a Host redis-tunnel entry in your ~/.ssh/config:

Host redis-tunnel
    HostName yourhost.com
    # http://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config#IdentitiesOnly
    IdentitesOnly yes
    User remote-redis
    IdentityFile ~/path/to/your/private/[email protected]
    # The tunneling
    # http://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config#LocalForward
    LocalForward 7000 localhost:6379

Use this config with ssh redis-tunnel and then connect to localhost:7000 with your client.