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| title | category | subcategory | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instance Details | usage | instances | Learn how to manage your PocketHost instance with our comprehensive guide, covering on-demand execution, usage metering, versioning, secrets, and admin access. Master the nuances of using PocketHost and get your PocketBase projects up and running in no time. Essential reading for web & node.js developers. |
Overview
Dive straight into managing your individual PocketHost instances via an easy-to-use dashboard. Each PocketBase deployment functions on an on-demand basis, launching only upon receiving a web request. Following a period of 5 seconds idle time, instances hibernate for optimal hardware use, with a negligible latency during the "first hit".
Track usage through PocketHost’s integrated metering system, offering a generous 100 active minutes each month in the free tier. When over this limit, you have the option to purchase extended usage, or to shift your instance to the pool of stand-by instances.
Control the your PocketBase version deployed with each instance. Default selections utilize the latest major+minor release, locked at instance creation. Upgrades to successive versions can be facilitated by reaching out to support.
Administer your instance efficiently with the use of instance-specific access, available at the URL https://.pockethost.io/_. This can also be accessed via the PocketHost dashboard.
Secure your instance with environment variables unveiled at pocketbase executable launch. Secrets are accessible as environment variables, available to the pocketbase process. Monitor developments through the realtime log – a feature to be launched soon.
PocketHost provides a simple dashboard where you can manage your instance.
On-demand Execution
PocketHost runs your PocketBase instance on-demand. That means PocketHost waits for a web request to hit PocketBase before it actually launches PocketBase and responds. This means that your instance can run on huge, beefy hardware that would be prohibitively expensive to run on your own. We can afford to do this for you because the hardware is shared with other on-demand instances.
Instances are placed in hibernation after 5 seconds of idle time.
Note: There is a slight "first hit" penalty if PocketHost needs to spin up your idle instance before responding to a request. In practice, this is not noticeable to most users for most applications. It's nearly indistinguishable from normal network delays.
Usage Metering
Note: Usage Metering is not active until PocketHost reaches v1.0. There is no planned timeline for when or if PocketHost will reach v1.0
The free tier of PocketHost provides 100 active minutes per month.
Because an instance stays active for a minimum of only 5 seconds per activation, 100 minutes of real, active usage is actually quite a bit. After you use your 100 minutes, you can either pay for more usage minutes, or PocketHost will move your instance to the pool of stand-by instances that get served after everyone else. Again, in practice, you will likely not even notice the difference. But if you do, there is always a paid option.
Instance Versioning
By default, your instance will use the latest major+minor release of PocketBase. The PocketBase version is locked when your instance is created. We use semver (npm package) to determine the version range that should be allowed for your instance. When your instance is launched, it will use the latest matching version.
For example, if the latest version of PocketBase is 0.10.4, your instance will automatically run with ~0.10.4, meaning that major=0 and minor=10 are locked, but patch=4 or higher will be applied.
To move between major or minor versions, please contact support. We are working on automatic migrations, but it's not easy or clear how best to implement it.
Admin access
You can access your instance admin by browsing to:
https://<instance-name>.pockethost.io/_
The PocketHost dashboard also provides a handy link to do this.
Secrets
Instance secrets are exposed as environment variables when your pocketbase executable launches. Every secret you specify here will be made available as an environment variable to the pocketbase process.
// pb_hooks
$app.getEnv('FOO')
Realtime log
Coming Soon