diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index eb5a316c..33943596 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
+# ignore compiled byte code
 target
+
+# ignore output files from testing
+output*
diff --git a/redis/README.md b/redis/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..86c8f4d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/redis/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+## Quick Start
+
+This section describes how to run YCSB on MongoDB. 
+
+### 1. Start Redis
+
+### 2. Install Java and Maven
+
+### 3. Set Up YCSB
+
+Git clone YCSB and compile:
+
+    git clone http://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB.git
+    cd YCSB
+    mvn -pl com.yahoo.ycsb:core,com.yahoo.ycsb:redis-binding clean package
+
+### 4. Provide Redis Connection Parameters
+    
+Set the host, port, and password (do not redis auth is not turned on) in the 
+workload you plan to run.
+
+- `redis.url`
+- `redis.port`
+- `redis.password`
+
+Or, you can set configs with the shell command, EG:
+
+    ./bin/ycsb load redis -s -P workloads/workloada -p "redis.host=127.0.0.1" -p "redis.port=6379" > outputLoad.txt
+
+### 5. Load data and run tests
+
+Load the data:
+
+    ./bin/ycsb load redis -s -P workloads/workloada > outputLoad.txt
+
+Run the workload test:
+
+    ./bin/ycsb run redis -s -P workloads/workloada > outputRun.txt
+