Stop and resume
When there are no requests, the worker stops running and starts again automatically on the next request. Your data and settings are kept.
runlot shuts down the worker process of a project that has received no requests for a while, to reduce memory usage. The internal name for this state is park, and no data is deleted.
When a project stops automatically
The default idle time is 5 minutes. The worker process is shut down when all of the following are true.
- Five minutes have passed since the last HTTP request and the last database access.
- There are no open database connections.
- No backup, restore, or migration is in progress.
What is kept
Only the worker process is shut down. The data directory, the deploy bundle, and the database files are kept. A stopped project holds no memory — about 125 MB per project is released.
The project status and placement details in the dashboard do not change, and the project is still shown as "active". Stopping is handled inside the node.
When a new request arrives
When the first request arrives, the worker process is started and the request is forwarded once it is ready. Typical figures for that first request:
| Item | Typical |
|---|---|
| First request after a stop (p50) | 0.36 s |
| First request after a stop (upper end) | 0.40 s |
These are typical figures rather than a guarantee. Before the request is forwarded, the new process is checked for the ability to actually accept connections, so a request is never handed to a worker that is not ready.
Backups for stopped projects
When a backup is due, the project is started briefly, the backup is taken, and it is stopped again. Projects you are not using do not skip their scheduled backups.
Billing
No compute usage accrues while a project is stopped. A project you are not using costs nothing to run — the only thing that remains is the data you stored.
This is different from suspend, where an admin suspends a project. A project that stopped automatically runs again on the next request, so there is nothing for you to restart.
When the node is short on disk space
If the node runs short on disk space, the databases of idle projects can be encrypted and moved to external storage. A project in that situation enters the cold state, and its database has to be restored first on the next request, which takes about 6–7 seconds. For details, see Cold state and resume.