I have two web services that utilize a free PostgreSQL database and I have my cron-job sending requests at 5 minute intervals . I use these cron-jobs requests so that the web services do not spin down after a few minutes without a request. The interesting piece is that the cron-job requests will randomly timeout. It could be 2 hours or 6 days until my cron-job shuts off after too many failed requests.
We provide free compute with the spin down after 15 minutes so that we can continue to offer our free instances. If you want to keep them active then consider using paid instances and not abusing the service by falsely keeping the service awake.
As a point of clarification I did not know that keeping a service awake is “abuse”. What is the point of having a hosted application that takes a minute to start up? People don’t wait a minute to have URL load.
Do I need a “Team” subscription to have a couple small web services/PostgreSQL db running to avoid a 1 minute start up time?
The point of having a free application that takes a minute to start up is that it is an infrequently used service, and presumably not a production one where people waiting a minute is an issue.
Upgrade the service to Starter to keep it running.
In regards to free services spinning down to reduce resource consumption is fine and I understand that now. As someone who is open to purchasing a Render plan its strange to have the first comment on my post stating that I am “abusing” the service.
From my perspective I setup the cronjob because an application that takes a minute to start up is basically useless. I can run my application locally to test and develop it. People don’t wait a minute for a URL load and I would need to explicitly tell anyone that views my app it isn’t broken… it just takes a minute to start up.
I would expect Support to explain how the service was meant to be used and the sorts of options available to me.
Free services are not meant for production usage, they are meant to sleep when not in use because they’re not frequently needed, nor demanded. They are not meant to be used in a context where waiting for them to start up is not a problem. Keeping a free service awake arbitrarily is abuse of the Render platform because it is a free service.
If you want a service to be awake without startup time for any user that needs it, upgrade to Starter.
It seems like I am not really getting my point across here so I will lay out the context of this interaction so far. I am relatively new to development and wanted to host my applications on Render. I was noticing a long delay to get my application running so I setup a cronjob to keep the service active so that if someone wanted to see my application they would not need to wait a minute.
Then I post on the forums trying to understand why the service goes down even with a cronjob. Now lets do a little thought experiment, is the person the who is looking to abuse a service going to post on a forum about how they are having trouble abusing the service and how Render employees might be able to inform me on how to better abuse the service. The point I am making about this interaction is that you have no idea how basic customer facing interactions should work. If someone had simply informed me the service wasn’t meant to be used that way and there are different paid options you can use (maybe ask me what I am looking to accomplish and provide options from there). As opposed to saying I am abusing the service and ascribing some sort of negative intent. Obviously wouldn’t be a big customer when getting some variation of a starter subscription but that’s not really the point.
tldr very weird interaction on a support forum and this isn’t the way you should ever educate anyone about your platform.