Systemd Services

Manage system services with systemd.

Service Unit File

# /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service
[Unit]
Description=My Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=myapp
WorkingDirectory=/opt/myapp
ExecStart=/opt/myapp/bin/start
ExecStop=/opt/myapp/bin/stop
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Service Management

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start myapp
systemctl stop myapp
systemctl restart myapp
systemctl enable myapp
systemctl status myapp
journalctl -u myapp -f

Timer (Cron Replacement)

# /etc/systemd/system/backup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Daily backup

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Resource Limits

[Service]
MemoryLimit=512M
CPUQuota=50%

Best Practices

• Use Type=notify for better tracking
• Implement proper restart policies
• Use timers instead of cron
• Set resource limits