Running a Discord Bot 24/7 on a VDS (pm2 and systemd)

Running a Discord Bot 24/7 on a VDS

Everything looks fine while your bot runs on your own machine, right up until you shut that machine down. This guide covers running the bot as a service on a VDS, restarting it automatically after a crash, and keeping the logs under control.

Why a VDS?

Problem	Your own machine	VDS
Machine shuts down	Bot goes offline	Keeps running
Power cut	Downtime	Redundant power
IP changes	Connection issues	Static IP
Internet outage	Bot goes offline	Redundant network

1. Preparing the Server

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" bot
sudo su - bot

Do not run the bot as root. A dedicated user is both safer and tidier.

2. Installing Node.js

The Node.js version in your distribution’s repository is usually well behind. Use nvm to install exactly the version you want:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 22
node -v

3. Getting the Bot Onto the Server

git clone https://github.com/username/your-bot.git ~/bot
cd ~/bot
npm ci --omit=dev

Never hardcode the token. Keep it in a .env file and restrict its permissions:

echo "DISCORD_TOKEN=..." > ~/bot/.env
chmod 600 ~/bot/.env

⚠️ If you accidentally pushed a token to a repository, regenerate it immediately from the Discord developer portal. Tokens that land in public repositories get scraped and abused within minutes.

4. Option A: Running With pm2

pm2 is a convenient process manager for Node.js projects:

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start index.js --name discord-bot
pm2 save
pm2 startup

That last command installs the service needed to bring the bot back up after a server reboot. Handy commands:

pm2 logs discord-bot      # live logs
pm2 restart discord-bot   # restart
pm2 monit                 # memory and CPU monitoring

Automatic restart as a defence against memory leaks:

pm2 start index.js --name discord-bot --max-memory-restart 500M

5. Option B: Running With systemd

If you would rather not add another dependency, systemd does the job on its own:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/discord-bot.service

[Unit]
Description=Discord Bot
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=bot
WorkingDirectory=/home/bot/bot
EnvironmentFile=/home/bot/bot/.env
ExecStart=/home/bot/.nvm/versions/node/v22.0.0/bin/node index.js
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now discord-bot
sudo journalctl -u discord-bot -f

💡 Restart=always brings the bot back up after every crash. Do not set RestartSec too low: a bot stuck in a crash loop can restart dozens of times per second and hit Discord’s rate limits.

6. Memory Planning

Bot type	Typical memory	Note
Text commands	150-400 MB	The most common scenario
Music bot	500 MB to 1.5 GB	Audio encoding overhead
Bot with a database	+200-500 MB	If PostgreSQL or Redis runs on the same server
Sharded bot	+150 MB per shard	Once you pass 2,500 servers

7. Log Management

Log files fill the disk over time. If you use pm2, set up log rotation:

pm2 install pm2-logrotate
pm2 set pm2-logrotate:max_size 10M
pm2 set pm2-logrotate:retain 7

With systemd, journald already rotates logs for you, and you can adjust the limits in /etc/systemd/journald.conf.

8. Security

Log into SSH with a key instead of a password, and disable password authentication
Keep only the SSH port open in the firewall (the bot makes outbound connections, so it needs no inbound port)
Apply system updates regularly

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable

Conclusion

Running a Discord bot without interruption does not require complex infrastructure. A properly configured process manager and enough memory will do it. pm2 is the quickest way to get started, while systemd suits anyone who prefers not to add extra dependencies.

👉 For a plan that matches your bot’s scale, see our Discord bot VDS page, or the Telegram bot and automation VDS page if you plan to run a Telegram bot or scheduled scripts on the same server.