3 ms·

How to Fix The Heroku 30 Second Delay

14 points by mattangriffel 13y ago

gokulk 13y ago
how to do it if we are running at nodejs app?
- mattangriffel 13y ago
  I actually think it shouldn't matter what kind of app you're running on Heroku. It's just pinging the URL every 30 seconds to check availability, which has the nice side effect of not allowing your dyno to idle.
jsnk 13y ago
Even easier way is to use http://www.wekkars.com/ http://www.wekkars.com/ You sign up for free and add whichever websites you need that needs to stay awake.
- mattangriffel 13y ago
  That's fair. There are probably easier ways, but I like the added benefit of having access to performance metrics for free if I need them.
- jonjohn84 13y ago
  "We offer a free, monthly renewable plan! This plan lets you wake up 5 URLs every 30 minutes. At the end of the month, we send you a mail with a link to renew your free plan. As easy as could be!" now all I need is a free service to check my email and click the renew link once a month :)
1123581321 13y ago
I do this with Pingdom.
Vitaly 13y ago
the fix is simple. pay them. I'm pretty sure keeping development instance up is agains the tos.
- tehwebguy 13y ago
  Yeah, it's a neat hack I suppose but in reality it's abusing it, whether it's against the TOS or not in my opinion.
jtokoph 13y ago
The free single dyno per app is really for development purposes. If you're not actively developing/testing, then the dyno sleeps after an hour of inactivity. The free dyno isn't meant for running a production site 24/7. The proper way to "fix" the 30 second delay is to run a second dyno. The 'ping' solution just seems like cheating Heroku out of payment for a service.
fomb 13y ago
The best way to avoid paying for fruit is to steal it from your local store.
dhaivatpandya 13y ago
I don't like this at all; you're basically screwing Heroku out of what they should be paid for providing a good service. Secondly, you could set up a DigitalOcean server ($5/month) in about 10 minutes with Rails and this wouldn't be a problem.
FMJustice 13y ago
You could also create another app that only has the dyno curl the website every hour.
scottmagdalein 13y ago
This is a good solution for me when I'm staging a site for a client before moving to a full-on production setup. A common complaint I get, that has to be explained anew each time, is that the site "takes forever to load". New Relic (or Pingdom) helps me keep it up (sorry) so my clients don't think I built them a POS.
- scottmagdalein 13y ago
  Further, you shouldn't do this if you plan to leave it like that in the long term. That's robbing Heroku.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
joshguthrie 13y ago
"Fix". Oh yeah, because there's something to "fix" about a free product. Is this seriously what we're coming to? Being so cheap that we can't accept that our quick hack/technology showcase/dev site/small personal website takes more about 30 seconds to spin up when it's there for FREE? Well, thanks anyway for this nice article: now that I know this, I'm gonna remove NewRelic from my free dev app and I'll put it back when I'm ready to go into production and pay for it. DotCloud used to be "free" too but I they reduced the free possibilities offered by their app, because of costs I guess. I hope Heroku doesn't follow because of users who think of nice "fixes".

14 points by mattangriffel 13y ago

gokulk 13y ago

how to do it if we are running at nodejs app?

mattangriffel 13y ago
I actually think it shouldn't matter what kind of app you're running on Heroku. It's just pinging the URL every 30 seconds to check availability, which has the nice side effect of not allowing your dyno to idle.

jsnk 13y ago

Even easier way is to use http://www.wekkars.com/ http://www.wekkars.com/ You sign up for free and add whichever websites you need that needs to stay awake.

mattangriffel 13y ago
That's fair. There are probably easier ways, but I like the added benefit of having access to performance metrics for free if I need them.
jonjohn84 13y ago
"We offer a free, monthly renewable plan! This plan lets you wake up 5 URLs every 30 minutes. At the end of the month, we send you a mail with a link to renew your free plan. As easy as could be!" now all I need is a free service to check my email and click the renew link once a month :)

1123581321 13y ago

I do this with Pingdom.

Vitaly 13y ago

the fix is simple. pay them. I'm pretty sure keeping development instance up is agains the tos.

tehwebguy 13y ago
Yeah, it's a neat hack I suppose but in reality it's abusing it, whether it's against the TOS or not in my opinion.

jtokoph 13y ago

The free single dyno per app is really for development purposes. If you're not actively developing/testing, then the dyno sleeps after an hour of inactivity. The free dyno isn't meant for running a production site 24/7. The proper way to "fix" the 30 second delay is to run a second dyno. The 'ping' solution just seems like cheating Heroku out of payment for a service.

fomb 13y ago

The best way to avoid paying for fruit is to steal it from your local store.

dhaivatpandya 13y ago

I don't like this at all; you're basically screwing Heroku out of what they should be paid for providing a good service. Secondly, you could set up a DigitalOcean server ($5/month) in about 10 minutes with Rails and this wouldn't be a problem.

FMJustice 13y ago

You could also create another app that only has the dyno curl the website every hour.

scottmagdalein 13y ago

This is a good solution for me when I'm staging a site for a client before moving to a full-on production setup. A common complaint I get, that has to be explained anew each time, is that the site "takes forever to load". New Relic (or Pingdom) helps me keep it up (sorry) so my clients don't think I built them a POS.

scottmagdalein 13y ago
Further, you shouldn't do this if you plan to leave it like that in the long term. That's robbing Heroku.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

joshguthrie 13y ago

"Fix". Oh yeah, because there's something to "fix" about a free product. Is this seriously what we're coming to? Being so cheap that we can't accept that our quick hack/technology showcase/dev site/small personal website takes more about 30 seconds to spin up when it's there for FREE? Well, thanks anyway for this nice article: now that I know this, I'm gonna remove NewRelic from my free dev app and I'll put it back when I'm ready to go into production and pay for it. DotCloud used to be "free" too but I they reduced the free possibilities offered by their app, because of costs I guess. I hope Heroku doesn't follow because of users who think of nice "fixes".