rootr.net : faq background process

User Background Processes

:: RootR ::

Secure Inter-Network Operations

Can I run a background process in my account ?

Yes. However you may need an email approval, see table below. In that case, shot us an email request to: support-bgproc@rootr.net, with the following:

________________________________________________________________________

Account Name ...... Same as your login name
Contact Person .... Person responsible for it, email@somewhere.tld.
Path to binary .... The command running the server or daemon process.
                    It can be either server-wide or somewhere in your
                    directories.
Source Path ....... Not required if running something installed server-
                    wide such as stunnel. Note that if you compile your
                    own version or download some well-known source, you
                    still need to give its local source path in your
                    account.
________________________________________________________________________

About 95% of requests are accepted. The most common cause of non-acceptance is running IRCd, or lack of resource for the account plan. Each account can run more than one process. Even if pre-aproval is not needed, you may need to ask support to allocate a port for your account.

Background processes Pre-Approval required ? Minimum Plan

Wiki services. No Border

PersistenPerl, aka SpeedyCGI. No Rider

Python Zope instances. No. Trooper

Python mod_webkit AppServer. No Trooper

A mysqld server. Yes Victoria

Apache 1.x or 2.x httpd process group. a.k.a. IHPG. Yes Victoria

Thttpd and other non-apache web servers. Yes Victoria

PostGreSQL server. No Rider

OpenLDAP server. Yes Maven

SMTP proxies such as TMDA, ASSP, smtp.proxy, smtpprox, and other mail sub-systems. Yes Sedan

Stunnel SSL in daemon mode, wrapping one of the above. Yes Sedan

SSH tunnels and Rsync tunnels. No Boarder

Remote X-Window. No Sedan

Crontab. not really a background process. No Boarder

mod_perl, HTML::Mason and similar. You may need to ask support for your setup. No Sedan

mod_python.
You probably need to ask support to setup IHPG for you. No Victoria

mod_ruby, mod_php, mod_rewrite, mod_access, fetchmail. These are not really independant processes. No Boarder

Monitoring systems. They typically sleep for a specific period and wake up every so often to check external running services such as http, ftp, mail, mysql etc. Yes Rider

IRCd and related. See below Yes SDS-M or SRL-M

Game server. require dedicated server, see below. Yes SDS-M or SRL-M

Experimental server. see below Yes Rider or more, according resources, ask

Any other server no listed here Yes ask

Using Background processes

Where necessary, we allocate a port for each background process group in the account. local unix socket are either in your home directory or in /tmp/... Background processes are run under your user name. Alternately you can use one of your secondary user login, since they all are system users and are not pseudo-users.

Daemon servers can be restarted automatically when a physical server restarts, with an @reboot crontab line. Type "man crontab" for how to use crontab, and "man 5 crontab" for cron's format details.

You are expected to know how to handle your own processes, by using commands such as kill, ps, top or pstree.

The terms of service apply http://www.rootr.net/terms.html.

How are System resource counted and billed ?

The resources we count are the average CPU time and the Memory footprint of all your processes. The number of processes is a minor factor. You may have a dozen of small process for example, and it is ok. Victoria plan accounts can have both an Apache IHPG and a mysqld server with no extra charges.

Most background processes do not require extra charges. The few cases it does the fee is low. We will always notify you of any extra charges before they are applied, so you know in advance what to expect. Those listed in the above table don't have any fee.

A Rootroute system administrator may stop your process if it is runnaway or present some stability issues. Running an un-approved process can be ground for account termination, especially if it present security or stability risks; or has an unhealthy purpose, according to our biased standards :)

How about Ircd ?

Ircd servers on a per-account basis are not possible. A dedicated server or colocated server is required. Even there, we recommend some preventive measure protecting your ircd port, from irc wars shooting at your irc port, which can happen even where there is no provocation and all your members have good standing.

SDS is a secure dedicated server and SRL is secure remote co-location. They start at USD 195.00 per month. Ask sales@rootr.net

Other accounts may not use Ircd, neither any irc bots, as mentioned in the terms of services.

HTTP servers have more than one background process running

This is fine. What we call IHPG "Independant HTTP Process Group" allows this, and also to have your http server see port 80 instead of the dedicated port. This is for Victoria plans and higher. A Typical use of this is to run Apache-2.x with mod_python-3.x. This is relatively easy to do with us, you have full control over apachectl, httpd.conf, and can compile your own modules. Ask support for technical details if you are interested. Most of the time we can setup the IHPG for you, ready-to-run.

Game and simulation servers

Gaming system servers, roleplay servers, and simulation servers are always placed on dedicated servers. If you already have a host plan, You will keep its account to use it as a monitor point to your dedicated or colocated server. This will ensure the stability of your online system.

Experiments

Experimental background servers are usually ok too. Either developping your own apache mod_* you want to test live, or something entirely different of your own brew. To turn your account into an experimental software lab was in our mind when we designed the IHPG feature.
We assume you have a minimal knowledge of IPC programming such as how to use fork(), execve(), rlimit(), ulimit, pipe(), to make sure the daemon is not run-away. If you have uncertainties during development, we can create a login class with more limitations, just ask support. Like the rest, you must keep a source directory in your account. If it is private/closed source tree, you may chmod 0700.