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Hosting: VPS

A virtual private server, mostly known as VPS, is a virtual machine running in the cloud with its users having the full control of its system.

In this guide, you’ll learn about various methods of running your bot in a VPS, keeping it online 24/7, making it run automatically when your VPS boots and restart on crashes.

systemd

systemd is a powerful service manager which is pre-installed on many Linux distributions, mainly Debian-based ones.

Getting the Start Command

  1. Get the full path of your runtime:
# If using Deno
which deno

# If using Node.js
which node

  1. You should have the full path of your entry file, too.

  2. Your start command should look like the following:

<full_runtime_path> <options> <full_entry_file_path>

# Deno example:
# /home/user/.deno/bin/deno --allow-all /home/user/bot1/mod.ts

# Node.js example:
# /home/user/.nvm/versions/node/v16.9.1/bin/node /home/user/bot1/index.js

Creating the Service

  1. Go to the services directory:
cd /etc/systemd/system
  1. Open your new service file with an editor:
nano bot1.service
  1. Add the following content:
[Service]
ExecStart=<start_command>
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Replace <start_command> with the command you got above.

  1. Reload systemd whenever you edit the service:
systemctl daemon-reload

Managing the Service

Start

systemctl start <service_name>

Replace <service_name> with the file name of the service. Example: systemctl start bot1

Run on Boot

systemctl enable <service_name>

Check Logs

systemctl status <service_name>

Restart

systemctl restart <service_name>

Stop

systemctl stop <service_name>

Don’t Run on Boot

systemctl disable <service_name>

PM2 (Node.js only)

PM2 is a daemon process manager for Node.js that will help you manage and keep your app online 24/7.

Installing

npm install pm2@latest -g

# If using Yarn
yarn global add pm2

Managing Apps

Start

pm2 start --name <app_name> <entry_point>

The <app_name> can be any identifier to your app, for example: bot1. The <entry_point> should be the path to your index file (which runs your bot).

Restart

By restarting, you stop the app, and start it again.

pm2 restart <app_name>

Reload

By reloading, you replace the current process of your app with a new one, resulting in a 0-second downtime. This is recommended for stateless applications.

pm2 reload <app_name>

Stop

# A single app
pm2 stop <app_name>

# All apps
pm2 stop all

Delete

By deleting, you stop your app and remove its logs and metrics.

pm2 del <app_name>

Advanced Information

For more, please refer to https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docsopen in new window.