software (e.g. Apache, MySQL, ssh, OpenSSL) updates to fix security vulnerabilities. //// The server’s disk filling up with logfiles. //// One or more of the app’s processes crashing or getting stuck, requiring someone to log in and restart them. //// Failure of the underlying hardware causing one or more entire servers to go down, taking the application with it.
unit of composition on Heroku, is a lightweight container running a single user-specified command. You can think of it as a virtualized unix container—it can run any command that makes sense given the default environment in that container (what we supply in the Cedar stack), and in yourslug (which will be based on your code and language run times).
dyno is allocated 512MB of memory to operate within. Dynos whose processes exceed 512MB of memory usage are identified by anR14 error in the logs. Though this does not terminate the process it is a warning of deteriorating application conditions as memory used above 512MB will go into swap, which can substantially degrade dyno performance. If the memory size keeps growing until it reaches three times (512MB x 3 = 1.5GB) its quota, the dyno manifold will restart your dyno with an R15 error.
redundancy: Dynos are distributed across an elastic execution environment known as the dyno manifold. An app configured with two web dynos hosts two web processes, as you’d expect, but each process is running in a separate physical location. If underlying infrastructure fails your site stays up - even with only two dynos.