Ruby/Redis Connection - redis-rb doesn't throw an exception until you try to do something...

ruby_redis_connect.rb

#
# Check: http://redis-rb.keyvalue.org/v2.2.0/
#
if Redis_connect
  case Rails.env
  when "production"
    opts = {:host => "YOUR HOST NAME OR IP", :port => "6379", :thread_safe => true }
  when "staging"
    opts = {:host => "YOUR HOST NAME OR IP", :port => "6379", :thread_safe => true } 
  else
    opts = {:host => "localhost", :port => "6379", :thread_safe => true }
  end

  begin
    $redis ||= Redis.new(opts)
    puts ("Redis connected to: #{$redis.inspect}")
    $redis.set("foo","test")
    f = $redis.get("foo")
    raise if f != "test"
  rescue Redis::CannotConnectError
    puts("Redis connect error: #{$!.inspect}")
    $redis = Redis.new(opts)
    raise( $redis )
  end
end