Urgent - Dyno Upgrade Workaround

[Katy Tabero]

Hi all, 

I am due to run two sessions today, and all going well in last weeks session I did not anticipate any new issues. However, when I have tried to upgrade my web dyno to performance M, Heroku blocks me saying I cannot do so without a verified payment history. I ran with a performance M dyno last week without an issue.

I have a card linked to Heroku and it definitely has more than enough for the current charges from the last session, so I am not sure what to do. I am worried that the Standard Dyno I can use won't be enough, and if it takes a month for them to bill my account so that I have a history then I will need to delay all of the planned sessions which is a problem as term will be over and participation rates will likely plummet. 

Has anyone else had this or have any ideas about what I can do? For example, am I able to run with more Web dynos to compensate? I will open a ticket with Heroku but they take a long time to respond from experience. 

Best wishes, 

Katy 

[Chris @ oTree]

I haven’t seen that issue before, but have you had problems with the standard dyno? Standard should be enough for most experiments. 

Sent from my phone

On May 21, 2021, at 3:25 AM, Katy Tabero <k.ta...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, 

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[Katy Tabero]

Hi Chris, 

Unfortunately, when I run with a standard dyno I can expect at least 1 timeout error at a specific point, often more. Upgrading to the performance ones seemed to stop this happening so I don't mind doing so if it gives me peace of mind. The first session I ran today with a standard dyno as it was too late to cancel the session, luckily this time I did only lose a bit of one subjects data (Javascript data that doesn't get sent back to python if the timeout error occurs). In the afternoon I refreshed the Heroku web page at one point and it said the performance dyno was back up again - this was odd as I hadn't changed anything to try to reinstate it at that point. I then ran the afternoon session and got 5 timeout errors and lost 4 subjects data. When I looked at the metrics page it seems that despite saying I was using performance dynos, they weren't upgraded (there was no blue dot on the timeline). I am not sure really what to make of it and whether it is worth contacting Heroku.

Best wishes, 

Katy

[Huanren Zhang]

Hi Katy,

I experienced the same issue. I guess Heroku just changed their service policy a couple of days ago. Standard 2x is definitely not enough for the experiment I am running (it takes a long time to create sessions and errors occur from time to time), and I will need to wait till Monday to get in touch with Heroku in order to continue with the data collection.

Best,

Huanren

[Katy Tabero]

Hi Huanren, 

Glad to hear that it wasn't just me missing something. As I mentioned in my post above, it seemed to revert back to Performance-M dynos midday but I still experienced poor performance. I have never had a timeout while running Performance-M dynos so to have 5 makes me think that the dashboard didn't match up with what was running. I will be testing again before my next sessions to make sure I can have a straight run-through without any errors, I would suggest that you look out for the same issue if yours appears to go back to normal too. 

Best wishes, 

Katy

[Huanren Zhang]

Hi Katy,

You can get in touch with Heroku customer service -- they have just removed the restriction for me.

Best,

Huanren