Run Apps as systemd Services on Your Opus Host VPS

When you close your SSH session, anything you started in that shell dies with it. systemd fixes this: it runs your app as a background service, restarts it if it crashes, and starts it automatically when the server boots. If you want a bot, web app, or game server to just stay up, this is how you do it.

Anatomy of a service file

Systemd service files live in /etc/systemd/system/ and end in .service. Here is a template you can adapt for any long-running app:

[Unit]
Description=My App
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=alice
WorkingDirectory=/home/alice/myapp
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /home/alice/myapp/index.js
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Key fields:

User — which user the process runs as. Avoid root when possible.
WorkingDirectory — the app’s working directory, as if you had cd’d there.
ExecStart — the command to run. Use absolute paths.
Restart=on-failure — restart if the process exits with an error.

Create and enable a service

Write the service file

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service

Paste the template above and adjust the fields for your app.

Reload systemd so it picks up the new file

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start the service

sudo systemctl start myapp

Enable it on boot

sudo systemctl enable myapp

Manage a service

sudo systemctl status myapp     # show current state
sudo systemctl stop myapp       # stop
sudo systemctl restart myapp    # restart
sudo systemctl disable myapp    # stop starting on boot

View logs

systemd captures your app’s stdout and stderr automatically — no log file setup required.

# Follow logs in real time
sudo journalctl -u myapp -f

# Show the last 100 lines
sudo journalctl -u myapp -n 100

# Only logs since the last boot
sudo journalctl -u myapp -b

If your service fails to start, sudo systemctl status myapp usually tells you why in the last few lines of output. When it does not, journalctl -u myapp -n 50 will.

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Run Apps as systemd Services on Your Opus Host VPS

Anatomy of a service file

Create and enable a service

Manage a service

View logs

​Anatomy of a service file

​Create and enable a service

​Manage a service

​View logs

Anatomy of a service file

Create and enable a service

Manage a service

View logs