Hi all,

I'm ready to launch a large-scale experiment. I have deployed my experiment to Heroku and due to the size of the experiment, I expect it will take a few days to get all the data I want. However, I noticed that there is a daily restart feature on Heroku's dynos, which closes all current sessions and previous data. This is causing me some inconvenience as it means I need to check my data and open a new session every day.

Is there any way to stop the restart of Heroku Dyno? Or is there any way on the oTree side that I can keep a session alive despite a dyno restart?

Thanks for any help!

Best,
Jiayi

Hey all, 

I am also encountering the same issue and am looking for an answer. :)

Thanks,
Bests,

Manon

Hi Manon,

I think you just need to switch from the eco dyno to a standard one. I think only eco dyno has the sleep feature.

Best,
Jiayi

Hey Jiayi,

Thank you for your help. I actually have the Basic dyno and it does not go to sleep at all. However, my room is closed and my database erased at each dyno restart... I asked Heroku Support if this can change if upgrading to Standard 1x or 2x. I'll keep you posted.

Bests,
Manon

Hey,

Just had the Heroku support, they're telling me the dyno restart should not close the room (but still erase data). I do not know how to keep the room alive... Did you find a solution on your hand? 

Bests,
Manon

Dyno restarts probably erase the sqlite database. Try a persistent database like postgres.
On heroku, make sure to add Heroku Postgres as an add-on on the resources tab. Verify that it shows "attached as DATABASE". Then run otree resetdb on the run console. Verify that it mentiones "postgres" at the top of the output.

Hey ChristianK,

Thank you, I did that but have two issues. First, when running otree resetdb, I still am on sqlite (the rest is ok). 

Also, I'd tested my app with several rooms and sessions. Unfortunately, when downloading my data to csv, I miss the variables I created at the participant level (others than the usual). Do you have an idea why? 

Thank you,
Bests,
Manon